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 ■ — William Robertson Smith. 
 

^•t^e ^o^anio Cardan, 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 CHARLES THE TWELFTH, 
 
 KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 PROM THE FRENCH OF VOLTAIRE, ^^-«. 
 
 BY SMOLLETT. 
 
 '' CK.\i>-ii^ 
 
 NEW- YORK: 
 
 LEAVITT & COMPANY, 
 
 181 BROADWAY. 
 
 1851. 
 

 lUv 
 
CHARLES XII. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 An abridgment of the History of Sweden, to the reign of 
 Charles XII. The education of that prince, and au ac- 
 count of his enemies. Character of the Czar Peter 
 Alexiowitz. Curions anecdotes relative to that prince 
 and the Russian nation. Muscovy, Poland, and Den- 
 mark, unite against Charles XII. 
 
 CWEDEN and Finland made up a kingdom 
 two hundred leagues broad, and three hun- 
 dred long. This country reaches from the fifty- 
 fifth degree of latitude, or thereabouts, to the 
 seventieth. It lies under a very severe climate, 
 which is hardly ever softened either by the re- 
 turn of spring or of autumn. The winter prevails 
 there nine months in the year. The scorching 
 heats of the summer succeed immediately to the 
 excessive cold of the winter. The frost begins 
 in the month of October, without any of those 
 imperceptible gradations, which in other coun- 
 tries usher in the seasons, and render the altera- 
 tion more agreeable. Nature, in return, hath 
 given to this cold climate a clear sky, and a pure 
 air. The almost constant heat of the summer 
 produces flowers and fruits in a very short time. 
 The long nights of the winter are tempered by 
 the evening and morning twilights, which last 
 for a greater or a less time, in proportion as the 
 sun is nearer to, or farther removed from Swg. 
 den; and the light of the moon, unobscured by 
 clouds, and increased by the reflection of the 
 snow that covers the ground, and frequently by 
 the Aurora Borealis, makes it as convenient to 
 
4 HISTORY OF 
 
 travel in Sweden by night as by day. For want 
 of pasture, the cattle there are smaller than in 
 the more southern parts of Europe ; but the meu 
 are of a large stature, healthful fron;i the purity 
 of the air, and strong from the severity of the 
 climate ; they live to a great age, unless en- 
 feebled by the immoderate use of wines and 
 strong liquors, of which the northern nations 
 seem to be the more fond, the less nature hath 
 indulged them with these commodities. 
 
 The Swedes are well made, strong, and ac- 
 tive, and capable of enduring the greatest fa- 
 tigue, want, and hunger. Born with a military 
 genius, and high spirit, they are more brave than 
 industrious, having long neglected, and even at 
 present but little cultivating the arts of com- 
 merce, which alone can supply them with those 
 productions in which their country is deficient. 
 It was chiefly from Sweden,* they say (one part 
 of which is still called Gothland), that those 
 swarms of Goths issued forth, who like a de- 
 luge over-ran Europe, and wrested it from tlie 
 Romans, who had usurped the dominion of that 
 vast country, which they continued for the space 
 of five hundred years to harass by their tyranny, 
 and to civilize by their laws. 
 
 The northern countries were much more po- 
 pulous at that time than they are at present. 
 Religion, by allowing the men a plurality of 
 
 * If our author had reflected with his usual precision, 
 he would have perceived that a cold barren country of the 
 extent of Sweden, could not possibly furnish one hun- 
 dredth part of those multitudes that deluged all Europe; 
 and a little inquiry would have given him to understand, 
 that the Goths themselves came from Scytbia or Tar(ary, 
 which was called the Officina Gentium. It is now gene- 
 rally allowed, that ibe Celtae, the Goths, the Heruli, Van- 
 dals, and Huns, were all originally Tartars. 
 
CHARLES XIL 5 
 
 wives, gave them an opportunity of furnishing the 
 state with more subjects. The women themselves 
 knew no reproach but that of sterility or idleness; 
 and being as strong and as laborious as the men, 
 they bore children faster and for a longer time. 
 Sweden, however, with that part of Finland which 
 it still retains, does not con tain aoove four millions 
 of inhabitants. The soil is poor and barren ; Scho- 
 nen is the only province that bears wheat. The 
 current coin of the kingdom does not exceed nine 
 millions of livres. The public bank, which is the 
 oldest in Europe, was at first established from 
 mere necessity ; the copper and iron, in which 
 their payments were formerly made, being too 
 heavy to be transported. 
 
 Sweden preserved its freedom without inter- 
 ruption to the middle of the fourteenth century. 
 During that long period, the form of government 
 was more than once altered ; but all these altera- 
 tions were in favourof liberty. The first magis- 
 trate was invested with the name of king, a title 
 which in different countries is attended with very 
 different degrees of power. In France and Spain 
 it signifies an absolute monarch : in Poland, 
 Sweden, and England, it means the first man of 
 the republic. This king could do nothing with- 
 out the senate ; and the senate depended upon 
 the states-general, which were frequently assem- 
 bled. The representatives of the nation, in these 
 grand assemblies, were the gentry, the bishops, 
 and the deputies of the towns ; and in process of 
 time, the very peasants, a class of people unjustly 
 despised in other places, and subject to slavery 
 in almost all the northern countries, were ad- 
 mitted to a share in the administration. 
 
 About the year 1492, this nation so jealous of 
 its liberty, and which still piques itself on hav- 
 ing conquered Rome about thirteen hundred years 
 
6 HISTORY OF 
 
 ago, was subjected to the yoke by a woman, and 
 by a people less powerful than the Swedes. 
 
 Margaret of Valdemar, the Semirainis of the 
 North, and queen of Denmark and Norway, sub- 
 dued Sweden by force and stratagem, and united 
 these three extensive kingdoms into one mighty 
 monarchy. After her death, Sweden was rent 
 by civil wars ; it alternately threw off and sub- 
 mitted to the Danish yoke ; was sometimes go- 
 verned by kings, and sometimes by administra- 
 tors. About the year 1520, this unhappy kingdom 
 was horribly harassed by two tyrants : the one 
 was Christian II. king of Denmark, a monster 
 whose character was entirely composed of vices 
 without the least ingredient of virtue : the other 
 an archbishop of Upsal, and primate of the king- 
 dom, as barbarous as the former. These two, 
 by mutual agreement, caused the consuls and the 
 magistrates of Stockholm, together with ninety- 
 four senators, to be seized in one day, and to be 
 executed by the hand of the common hangman, 
 under the frivolous pretence that they were ex- 
 communicated by the pope, for having dared to 
 defend the rights of the state against the encroach- 
 ments of the archbishop. 
 
 While these two men, unanimous in their op- 
 pressive measures, and disagreeing only about 
 the division of the spoil, domineered over Sweden 
 with all the tyranny of the most absolute despo- 
 tism, and all the cruelty of the most implacable 
 revenge, a new and unexpected event gave a 
 sudden turn to the state of affairs in the North. 
 
 Gustavus Vasa, a young man, sprung from the 
 ancient kings of Sweden, arose from the forests 
 of Dalecarlia, where he had long lain concealed, 
 and came to deliver his country from bondage. 
 He was one of those great souls whom nature so 
 seldom produces, and who are bora with all the 
 
CHARLES XII. 7 
 
 qualifications necessary to form the accomplished 
 monarch. His handsome and stately person, and 
 his noble and majestic air, gained him follcyers 
 at first sight. His eloquence, recommended by 
 an engaging manner, was the more persuasive, 
 the less it was artful. His enterprising genius 
 formed for those projects which, though to the 
 vulgar they may appear rash, are considered only 
 as bold in the eyes of great men, and which his 
 courage and perseverance enabled him to accom- 
 plish. Brave with circumspection, and mild and 
 gentle in a fierce and cruel age, he was as vir- 
 tuous as it is possible for the leader of a party 
 to be. 
 
 Gusta^us Vasahad been the hostage of Chris- 
 tian, and had been detained a prisoner contrary 
 to the law of nations. Having found means to 
 escape from prison, he had dressed himself in 
 the habit of a peasant, and in that disguise had 
 wandered about in the mountains and woods of 
 Dalecarlia, where he was reduced to the neces- 
 sity of working in the copper mines, at once to 
 procure a livelihood, and to conceal himself from 
 his enemies. Buried as he was in these subter- 
 raneous caverns, he had the boldness to form the 
 design of dethroning the tyrant. With tliis view 
 he discovered himself to the peasants, who re- 
 garded him as one of those superior beings, to 
 whom the common herd of mankind are natu- 
 rally inclined to submit. These savage boors he 
 soon improved into hardy and warlike soldiers. 
 He attacked Christian and the archbishop, beat 
 them in several encounters, banislied them both 
 from Sweden, and at last was justly chosen by 
 the states king of that country, of which he had 
 been the deliverer. '- 
 
 Hardly v/as he established on the throne, when 
 he undertook an enterprize still more diiticult 
 
8 HISTORY OF 
 
 than his conquests. The real tyrants of the state 
 were the bishops, who having engrossed into 
 their own hands almost all the riches of Sweden, 
 employed their ill- got wealth in oppressing the 
 subjects, and in making war upon the king. This 
 power was the more formidable as, in the opinion 
 of the ignorant populace, it was held to be sa- 
 cred. Gustavus punished the catholic religion 
 for the crimes of its ministers ; and, in less than 
 two years, introduced Lutheranism into Sweden, 
 rather by the arts of policy, than by the influence 
 of authority. Having thus conquered the king- 
 dom, as himself was wont to say, from the Danes 
 and the clergy, he reigned a happy and absolute 
 monarch to the age of seventy, and then died full 
 of glory, leaving his family and religion in quiet 
 possession of the throne. 
 
 One of his descendants was that Gustavus 
 Adolphus who is commonly called the great Gus- 
 trivus. He conquered Ingria, Livonia, Bremen, 
 Verden, VVismar, and Pomerania, not to men- 
 tion above an hundred places in Germany, which, 
 after his death, were yielded up by the Swedes. 
 He shook the throne of Ferdinand II. and pro- 
 tected the Lutherans in Germany, an attempt in 
 which he was secretly assisted by the pope him- 
 self, who dreaded the power of the emperor 
 much more than the prevalence of heresy. He 
 it was that by his victories effectually contributed 
 to humble the house of Austria ; though the glory 
 of that enterprise is usually ascribed to cardinal 
 de Richelieu, who well knew how to procure 
 himself the repu-tation of those great actions, 
 which Gustavus was contented with simply per- 
 forming. He was just upon the point of ex- 
 tending 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 
 
CHARLES XII. 9 
 
 the battle of Lutzen, -which lie gained over Wal- 
 Stein, carrying along with him to his grave the 
 name of Great, the lamentations of the North, 
 and the esteem of his enemies. 
 
 His daughter, Christina, a lady of an extraor- 
 dinary genius, was much fonder of conversing 
 with men of learning, than of reigning over a 
 people, whose knowledge was entirely confined 
 to the art of war. She became as famous for 
 quitting the throne as her ancestors had been for 
 obtaining or securing it. The protesiants have 
 loaded her memory with many injurious asper- 
 sions, as if it were impossible for a person to be 
 possessed of great virtues without adhering to 
 Luther, and the papists have piqued themselves 
 too much on the conversion of a woman, who 
 had nothing to recommend her but her taste for 
 philopo])hy. She retired to Kome, where she 
 passed the rest of her days in the midst of those 
 arts of which she was so passionately fond, and 
 for the sake cf which she had renounced a crown 
 at twenty-seven 3'ears of age. 
 
 Before her abdication, she prevailed upon the 
 states of Sweden to elect her cousin, Charles 
 Gustavus X. son to the count Palatine, and duke 
 of Deux- Fonts, as her successor. This prince 
 added new conquests to those of Gustavus Adol- 
 phus. He presently carried his arms into Ice- 
 land, where he gained the famous battle of War- 
 saw, which lasted for three days. He waged a 
 long and a successful war with the Danes ; be- 
 sieged them in their capital ; re-united Schonen 
 to Sweden ; and confirmed the Duke of Holstein 
 in the possession of Sleswick, at least for a time. 
 At last, having met with a reverse of fortune, 
 and concluded a peace with his enemies, he 
 turned his ambition against his subjects, and 
 formed the design of establishing a despotic go- 
 A2 
 
10 HISTORY OF 
 
 vernment in Sweden. But, like the great Gus- 
 tavus, he died in the thirty-seventh year of his 
 age, without being able to finish his project, the 
 full accomplishmtnt of which was reserved for 
 his son, Charles XI. 
 
 Charles XI. was a warrior, like all his ances- 
 tors, and more despotic than any of them. He 
 abolished the authority of the senate, which was 
 declared to be the senate of the king, and not of 
 the kingdom. He was prudent, vigilant, inde- 
 fatigable ; qualities that must certainly have se- 
 cured him the love of his subjects, had not his 
 despotic measures been more apt to excite their 
 fear than to gain their aifections. 
 
 In 1680 he married Ulrica Eleonora, daughter 
 to Frederic III. king of Denmark, a princess emi- 
 nent for her virtue, and worthy of greater con- 
 fidence than her husband was pleased to repose 
 in her. Of this marriage, on the ^7th of June, 
 IGS'i, was born king Charles XII. the most ex- 
 traordinary man perhaps that ever appeared ia 
 the world. In him were united all the great 
 qualities of his ancestors ; nor had he any other 
 fault or failing, but that he possessed all these 
 virtues in too high a degree. This is the prince 
 whose history we now purpose to write, and con- 
 cerning whose person and actions we shall relate 
 nothing but what is vouched by the best autho- 
 
 The first book which was put into his hands 
 was PufFendorflTs introduction to the history of 
 Europe, that from thence he might acquire an 
 early knowledge of his own dominions, and those 
 of his neighbours. He next learned the German 
 language, which he continued to speak for the 
 future with the same fluency as his mother tongue. 
 At seven years of age he could manage a horse; 
 and the violent exercises in which he delighted, 
 
CHARLES XII. II 
 
 and wHch discovered his martial disposition. 
 Boon procured him a vigorous constitution, ca- 
 pable to support the incredible fatigues which 
 hia natural inclination always prompted him to 
 undergo. 
 
 Though gentle in his infancy, he betrayed an 
 inflexible obstinacy. The only way to influence 
 him was to awaken his sense of honour ; by men- 
 tioning the word glory, you might have obtained 
 any thing from him. He had a great aversion 
 to the Latin tongue : but as soon as he heard 
 that the kings of Poland and Denmark under- 
 stood it, he learned it with great expedition, and 
 retained so much of it, as to be able to speak it all 
 the rest of his life. The same means were em- 
 ployed to engage him to learn the French ; but 
 he could never be persuaded to make use of that 
 tongue, not even with the French ambassadors 
 themselves, who understood no other. 
 
 As soon as he had acquired a tolerable know- 
 ledge of the Latin, his teacher made him trans- 
 late Quintiis Curtius ; a book for which he con- 
 ceived a great liking, rather on account of the 
 subject than the style. The person who ex- 
 plained this author to him having asked him what 
 he thought of Alexander : ' I think,' said the 
 prince, • I could wish to be like him.' — ' But,* 
 resumed the preceptor, * he only lived two and 
 thirty years.' — ' Ah !' replied he, • and is not 
 that enough, when one has conquered kingdoms?' 
 The courtiers did not fail to carry these answers 
 to the king his father, who would often cry out, 
 • This child will excel me, ana will even go be- 
 yond the great Gustavus.' One day he happened 
 to be diverting himself in the royal apartment, 
 in viewing two plans ; the one of a town in Hun- 
 gary, which the Turks had taken from the empe- 
 ror J the other of Riga, the capital of Livonia, a 
 
12 HISTORY OF 
 
 province conquered by tbe Swedes about a cen- 
 tury before. Under the plan of the town in 
 Hungary were written these words, taken from 
 the book of Job : ' The Lord hath given it to 
 me, and the Lord hath taken it fr; m me ; blessed 
 be the name of the Lord.' The young prince 
 having read this inscription, immediately took a 
 pencil, and wrote under the plan of Higa ; ' 'Ihe 
 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 spi- 
 rit would frequently discover some traces of those 
 heroic qualities which characterize great souls, 
 and which plainly indicated what sort of a man 
 he would one day prove. 
 
 He was but eleven years of age when he lost 
 his mother, who expired on the fifth of August, 
 1693. 3"he disease of which she died was sup- 
 posed to be owing to the bad usage she had re- 
 ceived from her husband, and to lier own endea- 
 vours to conceal her vexation. Charles XI. had, 
 by means of a certain court of justice, which was 
 called the Chamber of Liquidations, and erected 
 by his sole authority, deprived a great number 
 of his subjects of their wealth. Crowds of citi- 
 zens ruined by this chamber, nobility, merchants, 
 farmers widows, and orphans, filled the streets 
 of Stockholm, and dailj' repaired to the gate of 
 the palace to pour forth their unavailing com- 
 plaints. The queen succoured 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, with tears in her eyes she threw her- 
 self at her husband's feet, beseeching him to 
 have pity on his wretched subjects. The king 
 • This anecdote I give from the information of two 
 French ambassadors, who resided at the court of Sweden. 
 
CHARLES XII. 13 
 
 gravely answered her, ' Madam, we took you to 
 bring us children, not to give us advice.' And 
 from that time he treated her with a severity 
 that is said to have 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 the one 
 side, and France on the other, had referred the 
 decision of their quarrels to his arbitration, and 
 when he had already concerted the terms of ac- 
 commodation between these different powers. 
 
 He left to his son, who was then fifteen years 
 of age, a throne well established and respected 
 abroad ; subjects poor, but valiant, and loyal ; 
 together with a treasury in good order, and ma- 
 naged by able ministers. 
 
 Charles XII. at his accession to the throne 
 found himself the absolute and undisturbed mas- 
 ter, not only of Sweden and Finland, but also of 
 Livonia, Carelia, Ingria, Wismar, Vibourg, tho 
 islands of Hugen, and Oesel, and the finest part 
 of Pomerania, together with the duchy of Bremen 
 and Verden, all of them the conquests of his an- 
 cestors, secured to the crown by long j^ossession^ 
 and by the solemn treaties of Munster and Oliva, 
 and supported by the terror of the Swedish arms. 
 The peace of Ryswick, which was begun under 
 the auspices of the father, being fully concluded 
 under those of the son, he found himself the me- 
 diator of Europe, from the first moment of hia 
 reign. 
 
 The laws of Sweden fix the majority of their 
 kings at the age of fifteen ; but Charles XI. who 
 was entirely absolute, put off, by his last will, 
 the majority of his son to the age of eighteen. In 
 this he favoured the ambitious views of his mo- 
 ther Eduiga Eleonora of Holsteiuj dowager of 
 
14 HISTORY OF 
 
 Charles X. who was appointed by the king har 
 son, guardian to the young king her grandson, 
 and regent of the kingdom, in conjunction with a 
 council of five persons. 
 
 The regent had had a share in the manage- 
 ment of public affairs during the reign of her son. 
 She was now advanced in years ; but her am- 
 bition, which was greater than her abilities, 
 prompted her to entertain the pleasing hopes of 
 possessing authority for a long time, under the 
 king her grandson. She kept him at as great a 
 distance as possible from all concern with the 
 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 only to be the natural 
 effect of his youthful vivacity. He never betrayed 
 any dissatisfaction sufficient to alarm the regent, 
 who flattered herself that the dissipation of mind 
 occasioned by these diversions would render him 
 incapable of application, and leave her in posses- 
 sion of the supreme power for a considerable time. 
 
 One day in the month of November, and in the 
 same year in which his father died, when l.e had 
 been taking a review of several regiments, and 
 Piper the counsellor was standing by him, he 
 seemed to be absorbed in a profound reverie. 
 * May I take the liberty,' said Piper to him, ' of 
 asking your majesty what you are thinking of so 
 seriously Y — * I am thinking,' replied the prince, 
 ^ that I am capable of commanding those brave 
 fellows ; and I don't choose that either they or I 
 should receive orders from a woman.' Piper 
 immediately seized this opportunity of making 
 his fortune ; but conscious that his own interest 
 was not fcufficientfor the execution of such a dan- 
 gerous enterprise, as the removal of the queen from 
 •the regency, and the hastening of the king's ma- 
 
CHARLES XII. 15 
 
 jority, he proposed the affair to count Axel Sparre, 
 a man of a daring- spirit, and fond of popularity. 
 Him he cajoled with the hopes of being the king's 
 confidant. The count readily swallowed the bait, 
 and undertook the management of the whole 
 matter, while all his labours only tended to pro- 
 mote the interest of Piper. The counsellors of 
 the regency were soon drawn into the scheme, 
 and forthwith proceeded to the execution of it, 
 in order to recommend themselves the more ef- 
 fectually to the king. 
 
 1 hey went in a body to propose it to the queen, 
 who little expected such a declaration. The 
 counsellors of the fegency laid the matter before 
 the states-general, who were then assembled, 
 and who were all unanimous in approving the 
 proposal. The point was carried with a rapidity 
 that nothing could withstand ; so that Charies 
 XII. had only to signify his desire of reigning, 
 and, in three days, the states bestowed the go- 
 vernment upon him. The queen's power and 
 credit fell in an instant. She afterwards led a 
 private life, which was more suitable to her age, 
 though less agreeable to her humour. The king 
 was crowned on the twenty-fourth of December 
 following. He made his entry into Stockholm 
 on a sorrel horse shod with silver, having a scep- 
 tre in his hand and a crown upon his head, 
 amidst the acclamations of a whole people, pas- 
 sionately fond of every novelty, and always con- 
 ceiving great hopes from the reign of a young 
 prince. I'he ceremony of the consecration and 
 coronation belongs to the archbishop of Upsal. 
 This is almost the only privilege that remains 
 to him of the great number that were claimed by 
 his predecessors. After having anointed the 
 prince, according to custom, he held the crowii 
 in his hand, in order to put it upon his head : 
 
16 HISTORY OF 
 
 Charles snatched it from him and crowned him- 
 self, regarding the poor prelate all the while with 
 a stern look. The people, who are always daz- 
 zled by every thing that has an air of grandeur 
 and magnificence, applauded this action of the 
 king. Even those who had groaned most se- 
 verely under the tyranny of the father, v/ere 
 foolish enough to commend the son for this in- 
 stance of arrogance, which was a sure pledge of 
 their future slavery. 
 
 As soon as Charles was master of the kingdom, 
 he made Piper his chief confidant, entrusting him 
 at the same time with the management of public 
 affairs, and giving him all th8^ power of a prime 
 minister, without the odium of the name. A few 
 days after he created him a count, which is a 
 dignity of great eminence in Sweden, and not an 
 empty title that may be assumed without any 
 manner of importance, as with us in France. 
 
 The beginning of the king's reign gave no very 
 favourable idea of his character. It was ima- 
 gined that he had been more ambitious of obtain- 
 ing the supreme power, than worthy of possessing 
 it. True it is, he had no dangerous passion ; but 
 his conduct discovered nothing but the sallies of 
 youth, and the freaks of obstinacy. He seemed 
 to be equally proud and lazy. The ambassadors, 
 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 great taljsnts, which had hitherto lain con- 
 cealed. 
 
 Three powerful princes, taking the advantage 
 * This is confirmed by original letters. 
 
CHyVRLES Xir. 17 
 
 of his youth, conspired his niin almost at the 
 same time. The first was his own cousin, Fre- 
 derick IV. king of Denmark : the second Au- 
 gustus, Elector of Saxony and king of Poland: 
 Peter the Great, czar of Muscovy, was the third, 
 and the most dangerous. It will be necessary 
 to unfold the origin of these wars, which pro- 
 duced such great events : and to begin with 
 Denmark. 
 
 Of the two sisters of Charles Xfl. 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. This he hoped 
 to obtain, as Charles was not only his brother- 
 in-law, but was likewise the sovereign of a peo- 
 ple who bore an irreconcilable hatred to the 
 Danes. 
 
 The ancient house of Holsteiu, sunk into that 
 of Oldenhurgh, had been advanced by election to 
 the throne of Denmark in 1449. All the kingdoms 
 of the North were at that time elective ; but the 
 kingdom of Denmark soon after became heredi- 
 tary. One of its kings, called Christiern III. had 
 such a tender affection for his brother Adolphus, 
 or, ai least, such a regard for his interest, as is sel- 
 dom to be met with among princes, lie was de- 
 sirous of investing him with sovereign power, 
 and yet he could not dismember his own domi- 
 nions. He therefore divided with him the 
 duchies of Holstein- Gottor)) and Sleswick, bv an 
 odd kind of agreement, the substance of which 
 was, that the descendants of Adolphus should 
 ever after govern Holstein in conjunctici with 
 the kings of Denmark ; that those two duchies 
 should belong to both in common : and that the 
 
18 HISTORY OF 
 
 king- of Denmark sliould be able to do notlnngin 
 Holsteiu without tlie duke, nor the dnke without, 
 the king. So strange an union, of v/hich, how- 
 ever, we have had within these few years a simi- 
 lar instance of the same family, was, for near the 
 space of eighty years, the source of perpstual 
 disputes between the crown of Denmark and the 
 house of flolstein-Gottorp ; the kings always en- 
 deavouring to oppress the dukes, and the dukes 
 to render themselves independent. A struggle 
 of this nature had cost the last duke his liberty 
 and sovereignty, both which, however, he reco- 
 vered at the conferences of Altena in 1689, by 
 the interposition of Sweden, England, and Hol- 
 land, who became guarantees for the executiot 
 of the treaty. But as a treaty between princes 
 is frequently no more than a giving way to ne- 
 cessity", till such time as the stronger shall be 
 able to crash the weaker, the contest was revived 
 with greater virulence than ever between the new 
 king of Denmark and the young duke. And 
 while the duke was at Stockholm, the Danes had 
 already committed some acts of hostility in the 
 country of Holstein, and had entered into a se- 
 cret agreement with the king of Poland, to at- 
 tack the king of Sweden himself. 
 
 Frederick Augustus, elector of Saxony, whom 
 neither the elocjuence nor negotiations* of the 
 abbe de Polignac, nor ttie great qualities of the 
 prince of Conti, his competitor for the throne, 
 had been able to prevent from being chosen king 
 of Poland about two years before, was a prince 
 still less remarkable for his incredible strength of 
 body than for his bravery and gallantry of soul. 
 His court, next to that of Lewis XIV. was the 
 most splendid of any in Europe. Never was 
 prince more generous or munificent, or bestowed 
 his favours with a better grace. He had pur- 
 
CHARLES XII. 19 
 
 chased the votes of one half of the Polish no- 
 bility, and overawed the other by the approach 
 of a Saxon army. As he thought he should have 
 need of his troops in order to establish himself 
 the more firmly on the throne, he wanted a pre- 
 text for retaining them in Poland ; and he there- 
 fore resolved to employ them in attacking the 
 king of Sweden, which he did on the following 
 occasion. 
 
 Livonia, the most beautiful and the most fruit- 
 ful province of the North, belonged formerly to 
 the knights of the Teutonic order. The Russians, 
 the Poles, and the Swedes, had severally dis- 
 puted the possession of it. The Swedes had 
 carried it from all the rest about a hundred years 
 ago ; and it had been formally ceded to them by 
 the peace of Oliva. 
 
 The late king Charles XI. amidst his severities 
 to his subjects in general, had not spared the Li- 
 vonians. He had stripped them of their privi- 
 leges, and of part of their estates. Patkul, who 
 unhappily hath since become famous for his tra- 
 gical death, was deputed by the nobiliiy of Livo- 
 nia to carry to the throne the complaints of the 
 province. He addressed his master in a speech, 
 respectful indeed, but bold, and full of that manly 
 eloquence, which calamity, when joined to cou- 
 rage, never fail to inspire. But kings too fre- 
 quently consider these public addresses as no 
 more than vain ceremonies, which it is custo- 
 mary to suffer, without paying them any regard. 
 ■ Charles XI. however, who could play r.he hypo- 
 crite extremely well, when he was not hurried 
 away by the violence of his passion, gently struck 
 Patkul on the shoulder : • 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 
 
20 HISTORY OF 
 
 guilty of high treason, and as such to be con- 
 demned to death. Patkul, who had hid himself, 
 made his escape, and carried his resentment with 
 him to Poland, where he was afterwards admit- 
 ted 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 his Polish majesty the facility 
 of conquering Livonia, the people of which were 
 mad with despair, and ready to throw off the 
 Swedish yoke ; while the king was a child, and 
 unable to make any resistance. 'J'hese represen- 
 tations were well received by a prince, who al- 
 ready flattered himself with the agreeable hopes 
 of this important conquest. Augustus had en- 
 gaged at his coronation to exert his most vigo- 
 rous efforts, in order 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 pro- 
 mising of success, he at last found himself fa- 
 tally disappointed. Every thing was soon got 
 ready for a sudden invasion, which he resolved to 
 make without having recourse to the vain for- 
 malities of declarations of war and manifestoes. 
 The storm thickened at the same time on the 
 side of Muscovy. The monarch who governed 
 that kingdom merits the attention of posterity. 
 
 Peter Aiexiowitz, czar of Russia, had already 
 made himself formidable by the battle he had 
 gained over the Turks in 1697, and by the reduc- 
 tion of Asoph, which opened to him the domi- 
 nion of the Black Sea. But it was by actions 
 still more glorious than even his victories, that 
 he aspired to the name of Great. Muscovy, or 
 Russia, comprehends the northern parts of Asia 
 and of Europe, and from the frontiers of China 
 
CHARLES XII. 21 
 
 extends, for the space of fifteen hundred leagues, 
 to the borders of Poland and Sweden. I his im- 
 mense country, however, was hardly known to 
 Europe, before the time of the czar Peter. The 
 Muscovites were less civilized than the Mexi- 
 cans, when discovered by Cortez : born the slaves 
 of masters as barbarous as themselves, they were 
 sunk into a state of the most profound ignorance, 
 into a total want of all the arts and sciences, and 
 into such an insensibility of that want, as effec- 
 tually suppressed every exertion of industry. An 
 ancient law, which they held to be sacred, forbade 
 them, under pain of death, to leave iheir native 
 country without permission of their patriarch. 
 This law, made with a view to preclude them 
 from all opportunities of becoming sensible of 
 their slavery, was very acceptable to a people, 
 who, in the depth of their misery and ignorance, 
 disdained all commerce with foreign nations. 
 
 The era of the Muscovites began at the crea- 
 tion of the world : they reckoned up 7'5i07 years to 
 the beginning of the last century, without being 
 able to assign any reason for this computation. 
 The first d.ay of their year answered to the thir- 
 teenth of our month of November. The reason 
 they allege for this regulation is, that it is pro- 
 bable that God created the world in autumn, the 
 season when the fruits of the earth are in their 
 full maturity. Thus, the only appearances of 
 knowledge which they had were founded upon 
 gross errors ; not one of them ever dreamed that 
 the autumn of Muscovy might possibly be the 
 spring of another country, situated in an oppo- 
 site climate. Nor is it 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 
 
22 HISTORY OF 
 
 use of little beads strung upon brass wires. They 
 had no other manner of reckoning in their compt- 
 ing-houses, not even in the treasury of the czar. 
 
 Their religion was, and still is, that of the 
 Greek church, intermixed with many supersti- 
 tious rites, to which they are the more strongly 
 attached, in proportion as they are the more ri- 
 diculous, and their burden the more intolerable. 
 Few Muscovites would venture to eat a pigeon, 
 because the Holy Ghost is painted in the form 
 of a dove. They regularly observed four lents iu 
 the year ; and during those times of abstinence, 
 they never presumed to eat either eggs or milk. 
 God and St. Nicholas were the objects of their 
 worship, and next to them the czar and the pa- 
 triarch. 
 
 The authority of the last was as unbounded as 
 the people's ignorance. He pronounced sen- 
 tences of death, and inflicted the most cruel 
 punishments without any possibility of an appeal 
 from his tribunal. Twice a year he made a so- 
 lemn procession on horseback, attended by all his 
 clergy in order. The czar on foot held the bri- 
 dle of his horsp and the people prostrated them- 
 selves before mm in the streets, as the Tartars 
 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. '1 hey thought 
 themselves pure in the sight of God, as soon 
 as they received the benediction of their pa- 
 pas. Thus they passed, without remorse, from 
 confession to theft and murder; and what among 
 other Christians is a restraint from vice, with 
 them was an encouragement to wickedness. Oa 
 a fast day, thej would not even venture to drink 
 milk ; but on a festival, masters of families, 
 priests, married women and maids, viould make 
 
CHARLES Xir. 23 
 
 no scruple to intoxicate themselves with brandy. 
 However, there were religious disputes araong 
 them as well as in other countries ; but their 
 greatest controversy was, whether lay-men 
 should make the sign of the cross with two fin- 
 gers or with three. One Jacob NursofF, in the 
 preceding reign, had raised a sedition in Astra- 
 can about this very quarrel. There were even 
 some fanatics among them, as there are in those 
 civilized nations where every one is a theologian ; 
 and Peter, who always carried justice to the ex- 
 treme of cruelty, caused some of these wretched 
 creatures, who were called Vosko-jesuits to be 
 committed to the flames. 
 
 The czar, in his vast dominions, had many 
 other subjects who were not Christians. The 
 Tartars, inhabiting the western coasts of the 
 Caspian Sea and the Palus Masotis, were Maho- 
 metans ; the Siberians, the Ostiacks, and the Sa- 
 moides, who lie towards the Frozen Sea, were sa- 
 vages, some of whom were idolaters, and others 
 had not the least knowledge of a God ; and yet 
 the Swedes who were sent prisoners 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 barbarity 
 of this part of the world. His natural disposi- 
 tion led him to caress strangers, before he know 
 what advantages he might derive from their ac- 
 quaintance. Le Fort, as Lath been already ob- 
 served, was the first instrument he employed to 
 change the face of affairs in Muscovy. His 
 iitiigbty genius, which a barbarous education had 
 hitherto checked, but not destroyed, broke forth 
 all of a sudden. He resolved to be a man, to com- 
 mand men, and to create a new nation. Many 
 princes before him had renounced crowns, wearied 
 
24 HISTORY OF 
 
 out with the intolerable load of public affairs ; 
 but no man had ever divested himself of the royal 
 character, in order to learn the art of governing 
 better: this was a stretch of heroism which was 
 reserved for Peter the Great alone. 
 
 He left Muscovy ia 1698, having reigned as 
 yet but two years, and went to Holland, disguised 
 under a common name, as if he had been a me- 
 nial servant of that same Mr. le Fort, whom he 
 sent in quality of ambassador extraordinary to the 
 states-general. As soon as he arrived at Am- 
 sterdam, he enrolled his name among the ship- 
 w^rights of the admiralty of the Indies, and 
 wrouglit in tlie yard like the other mechanics. 
 At his leisure hours he learned such parts of the 
 mathematics as are useful to a prince, fortifica- 
 tion, navigation, and the art of drawing plans. 
 He went into the workmen's shops, and examined 
 all their manufactures : nothing could escape his 
 observaii(;n. From thence he passed over into 
 England, where having perfected himself in the 
 art of shipbuilding, he returned to Holland, care- 
 fully observing every thing that might turn to the 
 advantage of his country. At last, after two 
 j'ears of travel and labour, to which no man but 
 himself would have willingly submitted, he agaia 
 made his appearance in Muscovy, with all the 
 arts of Europe in his train. Artists of every 
 kind followed him in abundance. Then were 
 seen, for the first time, large Russian ships ia 
 the Baltic, 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 libra- 
 ries. The cities were brought under a regular 
 police. The clothes and customs of the people 
 were gradua'lly changed, though not without some 
 difficulty J and the Muscovites learned by degrees 
 
CHARLES XII. 25 
 
 the true nature of a social state. Even their su- 
 perstitious rites were abolished ; the dignity of 
 the patriarch was suppressed ; and the czar de- 
 clared himself the head of the church. This last 
 enterprize, 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 all his other innovations. 
 
 After having humbled an ignorant and a bar- 
 barous clergy, he ventured to make a trial of in- 
 structing them, though by that means he ran a 
 risk of rendering them formidable; but he was 
 too conscious of Lis own power to entertain any 
 apprehension from that quarter. He caused phi- 
 losophy and theology to be taught in the few mo- 
 nasteries that still remained. True it is, this 
 theology still savours of that barbarous period in 
 which Peter civilized his people. A gentleman 
 of undoubted veracity assured me, that he was 
 present at a public disputation, where the point 
 of controversy was, whether the practice of smok- 
 ing tobacco was a sinl The respondent alleged, 
 that it was lawful to get drunk with brandy, but 
 not to smoke, because the holy Scripture saith, 
 ' That that which proceedeth out of the mouth 
 defileth a man, and that which entereth into it 
 doth not defile him.' 
 
 The monks were not satisfied with this refor- 
 mation. Hardly had the czar erected his print- 
 ing-houses, when these pious drones made use of 
 them to publish declamations against their sove- 
 reign. One of them affirmed in print that Peter 
 was Antichrist; and his arguments were, that 
 he deprived the living of their beards, and al- 
 lowed the dead to be dissected in his academy. 
 But ano-ther monk, who had a mind to make his 
 fortune, refuted this book, and proved that Peter 
 could not be Antichrist, because the number 666 
 B 
 
f6 HISTORY OF 
 
 was not to be found in his name. The libeller 
 was broke upon the wheel, and the author of the 
 refutation was made bishop of Rezan. 
 
 The reformer of Muscovy enacted a very 
 wholesome law, the want of which reflects dis- 
 grace upon many civilized nations. By this law, 
 no man engaged in the service of the state, no 
 citizen established in trade, and especially no 
 minor, was allowed to reiire into a convent. 
 
 Peter knew of what inlinite consequence it was 
 to prevent useful .subjects from consecrating them- 
 selves to idleness, and to hinder young people 
 from disposing of their liberty, at an age when 
 they are incapable of disjiosin'g of the least part 
 of their patrimony. This law, however, so 
 plainly calculated for the general interest of man- 
 kind, is daily eluded by the industry of the 
 monks; as if they forsooth, were gainers by 
 peopling their convents at the expense of their 
 countRj. 
 
 The czar not only subjected the church to the 
 state, after the example of the Turkish emperors, 
 but, what was a more masterly stroke of policy, 
 he dissolved a militia of much the same nature 
 with that of the janissaries : and what the sul- 
 lans had attempted in vain, he accomplished in 
 a short time : he disbanded the Russian janis- 
 saries, who were called Strelitz, and who kept 
 the czars in subjection. These troops, more for- 
 midable to their masters thanto 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 privi- 
 leges and extortions. .Peter at first formed a 
 company of foreigners, among which he enrolled 
 his own name, and did not think it below him. 
 
CHARLES XIL 27 
 
 to begin the service in the character of a drum- 
 mer, and to perform the duties of that mean 
 oflBce ; so much did the nation stand in need of 
 examples ! By degrees he became an officer. 
 He gradually raised new regirrierts ; and at last, 
 finding himself master of a well-disciplined army, 
 he broke the strelitz, who durst not disobey. 
 
 The cavalry were nearly the same with that of 
 Poland, or France, when this last kingdom was 
 no more than an assemblage of fiefs. The Rus- 
 sizm gentlemen mounted horse at their own ex- 
 pense, and fought without discipline, and some- 
 times without any other arms than a sabre or a 
 bow, incapable of obeying, and consequently of 
 conquering. 
 
 Peter the Great taught them to obey, both by 
 the example he set them, and by the punishments 
 he inflicted ; for he served in the quality of a sol- 
 dier 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 but bj their own consent. He 
 established a regular body to serve the artillery, 
 and took five hundred bells from the churches to 
 found cannon. In the year 1714 he had thirteen 
 thousand brass cannon. He likewise formed some 
 troops of dragoons, a kind of militia very suitable 
 to the genius of the Muscovites, and to the size 
 of their horses, which are small. In 1738 the 
 Russians had thirty regiments of dragoons, con- 
 sisting of a thousand men each, and well accou- 
 tred. 
 
 He likewise established the Russian hussars : 
 and had even a school of engineers, in a country 
 where, before his time, no one understood the ele- 
 ments of geometry. 
 
 He was himself a good engineer ; buthi? chief 
 excellence lay in his knowledge of naval aifairs ; 
 
28 HISTORY OF 
 
 be was an able sea-captain, a skilful pilot, a good 
 sailor, an 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 bet- 
 ter by his courage and resolution. * 
 
 He caused a beautiful harbour to be built at 
 the mouth of the Tanais, near Azoph, 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 Baltic, he had upwards of three hundred of 
 them built at his favourite city of Petersburg. 
 He shewed his subjects the method of building 
 ships with fir only, and taught them the art of na- 
 vigation. He had even learned surgery, and, iu 
 a case of necessity, has been known to tap a drop- 
 sical person. He was well versed in mechanics, 
 and instructed the artists. 
 
 Indeed the revenue of the czar, when compared 
 to the immense extent of his dominions, was very 
 inconsiderable. It never amounted to four and 
 twenty millions of our money, reckoning the mark 
 at about fifty livres, as we do to-day, though per- 
 haps we may do otherwise to-morrow. But a 
 man may always be accounted rich, who has it in 
 his power to accomplish great undertakings. It 
 is not the scarcity of money that weakens a state : 
 it is the want of hands, and of men of abilities. 
 
 Russia, notwithstanding the women are fruit- 
 ful and the men are robust, is far from being po- 
 pulous. Peterhimself, in civilizing his dominions, 
 unh;^pf i'y contributed to their depopulation. Fre- 
 ffU''*T>t levies in his wars, which were long \in- 
 vvcds^ial ; nations transported from the coasts ot 
 
CHARLES XII. 29 
 
 the Caspian Sea to those of the Baltic, destroyed 
 by fatigue, or cut off by diseases ; three-fourths of 
 the Muscovite children dying of the sraali-pox, 
 which is more dangerous in those climates than 
 in any other ; in a word, the melancholy effects 
 of a government savage for a long time, and even 
 barbarous in its policy : to all these causes it is 
 owing, that in this country, comprehending so 
 great a part of the continent, there are still vast 
 deserts. Russia, at present, is supposed to con- 
 tain five hundred thousand families of gentlemen; 
 two hundred thousand lawyers ; something more 
 than five millions of citizens and peasants, who 
 pay a sort of tax ; six hundred thousand men who 
 live in the provinces conquered from the Swedes; 
 the Cossacks in the Ukraine, and the Tartars that 
 are subject to Muscovy, do not exceed two mil- 
 lions ; in fine, it appears, that in this immense 
 country, there are not above fourteen millions of 
 men, that is, a little more than two-thirds of the 
 inhabitants of France. 
 
 While Peter was 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 particular state, 
 and contributes to the interest of the world in ge- 
 neral. He resolved 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 plans ; and thus to 
 open anew passage from the Baltic to the Euxine 
 and Caspian Seas, and from these seas to the 
 Northern Ocean. 
 
 jf"*' The port of Archangel, frozen up for nine 
 *months in the year, and which could not be en- 
 tered without making a long and dangerous cir- 
 cuit, he did not think sufficiently commodious. 
 
80 HISTORY OF 
 
 From the year 1700, he had formed a design of 
 building a port upon the Baltic Sea, that should 
 become the magazine of the North, and of raising 
 a city that should prove the capital of his empire. 
 
 He was already attempting to find out a north- 
 east passage to China ; and the manufactures of 
 Pekin and Paris were designed to embellish his 
 new city. 
 
 A road, 754 versts long, running through 
 marshes that were to be drained, led from Moscow 
 to his new city. Most of these projects were ex- 
 ecuted by his own hands ; and the two empresses, 
 who have successively followed him, have even 
 improved upon his schemes, when they were 
 practicable, and abandoned none but such as it 
 was impossible to accomplish. 
 
 He was always travelling up and down his do- 
 minions, as much as his wars would allow him ; 
 but he travelled like a legislator and natural phi- 
 losopher, examining nature every where, endea- 
 vouring to correct and perfect her ; sounding with 
 his own hands the depth of seas and rivers ; re- 
 pairing sluices, visiting docks, causing mines to 
 be searched for, assaying metals, ordering accu- 
 rate plans to be drawn, in the execution of which 
 he himself assisted. 
 
 He built, upon a very wild and uncultivated 
 spot, the imperial city of Petersburg, which now 
 contains sixty thousand houses, and is the resi- 
 dence of a splendid court, where ail the refined 
 pleasures are known and enjoyed. He built the 
 harbour of Cronstad, on the Neva, and St. Croix, 
 on the frontiers of Persia ; erected forts on the 
 Ukraine, and in Siberia ; established offices of 
 admiralty at Archangel, Petersburg, Astracan, 
 and Azoph ; founded arsenals, and built and en- 
 dowed hospitals. All his own houses were mean, 
 and executed in a bad taste ; but he spared no 
 
CHARLES XII. 31 
 
 expenses in rendering the public buildings grand 
 and miigTiificent. 
 
 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 
 fall perfection. He established an academy on 
 the plan of the famous societies of Paris and Lon- 
 don. The Delisles, the Bulfingers, the Herman- 
 nuses the Beruouilles, and the celebrated Wolf, a 
 man who excelled in every branch of philosophy, 
 were all invited and brought to Petersburg at a 
 great expense. This academy still subsists ; and 
 the Muscovites, at length, have philosophers of 
 their own nation. • ~~ 
 
 He obliged the young nobility to travel forim- 
 pjovement, and to bring back, into Russia the 
 politeness of foreign countries ; and I have seen 
 some young Russians who were men of genius 
 and of knowledge. Thus it was that a single 
 man changed the face of the greatest empire in 
 ihe universe. It is however a shocking reflec- 
 tion, that this reformer of mankind should have 
 been deficient in that first of all virtues, — the vir- 
 tue of humanity. Brutality in his pleasures, fero- 
 city in his manners, and cruelty in his punish- 
 ments, sullied the lustre of so many virtues. He 
 civilized his subjects, and yet himse'lf remained 
 a barbarian. He would so/uetimcs, with his own 
 hands, execute sentences of death upon the un- 
 happy criminals ; and, in the midst of a revel, 
 would shew his dexterity in cutting off beads. 
 There are princes in Africa, who with their own 
 hands shed the blood of their subjects ; but these 
 kings are always detested as barbarians. The 
 death of a son, whom he ought to have corrected, 
 or at most disinherited, would render the memory 
 of Peter the object of universal hatred, were it 
 not that the great aad many blessings he bestowed 
 
32 HISTORY OF 
 
 upon his subjects, were almost sufficient to excuee 
 his cruelty to his own offspring 
 
 Such was the czar Peter ; and his great pro- 
 jects 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 
 conqueror; and such he thought he might easilj 
 become by the prosecution of a war, which, being 
 entered into with so much prudence, could not 
 fail, he imagined, of proving advantageous to his 
 subjects : the art of war was a new art, which it 
 was necessary to teach his people. 
 
 Besides, he wanted a port on the east side ot 
 the Baltic, to facilitate the execution of all 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 resolved to take it by force. His predecessors 
 had had claims upon Ingria, Esthonia, and Livo- 
 nia ; and the present seemed a favourable op- 
 portunity for reviving these claims, which had 
 lain buried for an hundred years, and had been 
 cancelled by the sanction of treaties. He there- 
 fore made a league with the king of Poland, to 
 wrest from young Charles XIL all the territories 
 that are bounded by the Gulf of Finland, the 
 Baltic Sea, Poland, and Muscovj. 
 
CHARLES XII. 33 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 A (Budden and surprising change in the character of 
 Charles XII. at eighteen years of age ; he undertakes 
 a war against Denmark, Poland, and Muscovy; finishes 
 the Danish war in six weeks ; with eight thousand 
 Swedes defeats eighty thousand Russians, and then 
 penetrates into Poland. A description of Poland, and 
 its form of government. Charles gains several battles ; 
 becomes master of Poland, where he prepares to nomi- 
 nate a king. 
 TN this manner did three powerful sovereigns 
 menace the infancy of Charles XII. The 
 news of these preparations struck the Swedes with 
 consternation, and alarmed the council. All the 
 great generals were now dead ; and every thing 
 was to be feared under the reign of a young king, 
 who had hitherto given no very favourable im- 
 pressions of his character. He hardly ever as- 
 sisted at the council; and when he did, it was only 
 to sit cross-legged on the table, absent, inatten- 
 tive, and seemingly regardless of every thing that 
 
 The council happened to hold a deliberation 
 in his presence concerning the dangerous situa- 
 tion of affairs ; some of the members proposed to 
 avert the storm by negotiations, when all on a 
 sudden Charles rose with an air of gravity and 
 assurance, like a man of superior consequence 
 who has chosen his side : 'Gentlemen,' said he, 
 ' I am resolved never to begin an unjust war, nor 
 ever to finish a just one but by the destruction of 
 my enemies. My resolution is fixed. I will at- 
 tack the first that shall declare against me ; and, 
 after having conquered him, I hope I shall be 
 able to strike terror into the rest.' All the old 
 counsellors were astonished at this declaration, 
 and looked at one another without daring to reply. 
 Agreeably surprised to find their king possessed 
 B 2 
 
34 HISTORY OF 
 
 of such noble sentiments, and ashamed to be less 
 sanguine in their expectations tiian him, they re- 
 ceived his orders for the war with admiration. 
 
 'i'hey were still more surprised when they saw 
 him at once bid adieu to the most innocent amuse- 
 ments of youth. The moment he began to make 
 preparations for the -war, he entered on a new 
 course of life, from which he never afterwards 
 deviated in one single instance. Full of the idea 
 of Alexander and Ceesar, he proposed to imitate 
 those two conquerors in every thing but their 
 vices. No longer did he indulge himself in mag- 
 nificence, sports, and recreations : he reduced hia 
 table to the most rigid frugality. He had for- 
 merly been fond of gaiety and dress ; but from, 
 that time he was never clad otherwise than a 
 common soldier. He was supposed to have en- 
 tertained a passion for a lady of his court : whe- 
 ther there was any foundation for this supposition 
 does not appear ; certain it is, he ever after re- 
 nounced all commerce with women, not only for 
 fear of being governed by them, but likewise to 
 set an example of continence to his soldiers, 
 whom he resolved to confine within the strictest 
 discipline ; perhaps too from the vanity of being 
 thought the only king that could conquer a pas- 
 sion so difficult to be overcome. He likewise de- 
 termined to abstain from wine during the rest of 
 his life. Some people have told me, that his only 
 reason for taking this resolution was to subdue 
 his vicious inclinations in every thing, and to add 
 one virtue more to his former stock ; but the 
 greater number have assured me, that it was to 
 punish himself for a riot he had committed, and 
 an affront he had offered to a lady at table, even 
 in presence of the Queen-mother. If that be true, 
 this condemnation of his own conduct, and this 
 abstinence which he imposed upon himself during 
 
CHARLES XII. 35 
 
 tlie remainder of his life, is a species of heroism 
 no less worthy of admiration.* 
 
 He began by assuring the duke of Holstein, his 
 brother-in law, of a speedy assistance. Eight 
 thousand men were immediately sent into Pome- 
 rania, a province bordering upon Holstein, in 
 order to enable the duke to make head against the 
 Danes. The duke indeed had need of them. 
 
 His dominions were already laid waste, the 
 castle of Gottorp taken, and the city of Tonningen 
 pressed by an obstinate siege, to which the king 
 of Denmark was come in person, in order to en- 
 joy a conquest, which he held to be certain. This 
 spark began to throw the empire into a flame. On 
 the one side, the Saxon troops of the king of Po- 
 land, those of Brandenburg, VVolfenbnttle, and 
 Hesse Cassel, advanced to join the Danes, On 
 the other, the king of Sweden's eigh.t thousand 
 men, the troops of Hanover and Zell, and three 
 Dutch regiments, came to the assistance of the 
 duke. While the little country of Holstein was 
 thus the theatre of war, two squadrons, the one 
 from England, and the other from Holland, ap- 
 peared in the Baltic. These two states were gua- 
 rantees of the treaty of Altena, which the Danes 
 had broke, and were eager to assist the duke of 
 Holstein, because it was for the interest of their 
 trade to check the growing power of the king of 
 Denmark. They knew, that should he once be- 
 come master of the Sound, he would impose the 
 most rigorous laws upon the commercial nations, 
 as soon as he should be able to do it with impu- 
 nity. This consideration has long induced the 
 English and the Dutch to maintain, as much as 
 they can, a balance of power between the princes 
 
 • If we may judge from the whole tenor of his life 
 and character, he had ia fact uo tenderness in his nature. 
 
36 HISTORY OF 
 
 of the North. They joined the young king ol 
 Sweden, who seemed to be in danger of being 
 crushed by such a powerful combination of ene- 
 mies, and assisted him for the very same reason 
 that the others attacked him ; namely, because 
 they thought him incapable of defending himself. 
 
 He was taking the diversion of boar-hunting 
 when he received the news of the Saxons having in- 
 vaded Livonia. ITiis pastime he enjoyed in a man- 
 ner equally new and dangerous. N o other weapons 
 were used but sharp-pointed sticks, with which 
 tlie hunters defended themselves behind a cord 
 stretched between two trees. A boar of a huge 
 size came straight against the king, who, after a 
 Jong struggle, by the help of the cord and stick, 
 levelled him with the ground. Itmust be acknow- 
 ledged, that in reading of such adventures as 
 these, in considering the surprising strength of 
 king Augustus, and reviewing the travels of the 
 czar, we are almost tempted to think that we live 
 in the times of Hercules and Theseus. 
 
 Charles set out for his first campaign on tlie 
 eighth day of May, new style, in the year 1700, 
 and left Stockholm, whither he never returned. 
 An innumerable company of people attended him 
 to the port of Carlscroon, offering up their 
 prayers for his safety, bedewing the ground with 
 their tears, and e^spressing their admiration of his 
 virtue. Before he left Sweden, he established 
 at Stockholm a council of defence, composed of 
 several senators who were to take care of what- 
 ever concerned the navy, the army, and the for- 
 tifications of the country. The body of the senate 
 were provisionally to regulate every thing be- 
 sides, in the interior government of the kingdom. 
 Having thus settled the administration of public 
 affairs, and freed his mind from every other care, 
 ho devoted himself entirely to war. His fleet 
 
CHARLES XII. 37 
 
 •consisted of three and forty vessels : that in which 
 be Bailed, named the King Charles, and the largest 
 that had ever been seen, was a ship of a hundred 
 and twenty guns. Count Piper, his first minister, 
 general Kenschild, and the count de Guiscard, 
 the French ambassador in Sweden, embarked 
 along with him. He joined the squadrons of the 
 allies. The Danish fleet declined the combat, 
 and gave the three combined fleets an opportunity 
 of approaching so near to Copenhagen, as to throw 
 some bombs into it. 
 
 Certain it is, it was the king himself thac first 
 proposed to general Renschild to make adescent, 
 and to besiege Copenhagen by land, while it 
 should be blocked up by sea. Renschild was sur- 
 prised to receive a proposal that discovered as 
 much prudence as courage, from such a young and 
 unexperienced prince. Every thing was soon got 
 ready for the descent. Orders were given for the 
 embarkation of five thousand men who lay upon 
 the coast of Sweden, and who were joined to the 
 troops they had on board. The king quitted big 
 large ship and went into a frigate, and they then 
 began to dispatch towar-ds the shore three hundred 
 grenadiers in small shallops. Among the shal- 
 lops were some llat-bolto;ned boats that carried 
 the fascines, the chevaux defrise, and the instru- 
 ments of the pioneers. Five hundred chosen men 
 followed in other shallops. Last of all came the 
 king's men of war, with two English and two- 
 Dutch frigates, which were to favour the landing 
 of the troops under cover of their cannon. 
 
 Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, is si- 
 tuated in the Isle of Zealand, in the midst of a 
 beautiful plain, having the Sound on the north- 
 east, and on the east the Baltic, where the king, 
 of Sweden then lay. At the unexpected movement 
 of the vessels, which threatened a descent, the in- 
 
S8 HISTORY OF 
 
 habitants were struck with consternation. Alarm- 
 ed at the inactivity of their own fleet, and the mo- 
 tion of the Swedish ships, they looked romid with 
 terror, to obsierve where the storm would fall. 
 Charles's fleet stopped over against Humblebeck, 
 within seven miles of Copenhagen. In that place 
 the Danes immediataly drew up their cavalry. 
 Their foot were posted behind thick entrench- 
 ments; and what artillery they could bring thi- 
 ther, was pointed against the Swedes. 
 
 The king then quitted his frigate, to throw him- 
 self into the first shallop, at the head of his guards. 
 The French ambassador being always at his side, 
 
 * Sir,' said the king to him, in Latin (for he would 
 never speak French), ' you have no quarrel with 
 the Danes, you need go no farther, if you please.' 
 — 'Sir,' answered the count de Guiscard, in 
 French, • the king my master hath ordered me to 
 attend your majesty. I hope you will not this 
 day banish me from your court, which never before 
 appeared so splendid.' So saying, he gave his 
 hand to the king, who leaped into the shallop, 
 whither he was followed by count Piper and the 
 ambassador. They advanced under shelter of 
 the cannon of the ships that favoured the landing. 
 The small boats were still about three hundred 
 paces from the shore. Charles, impatient to land, 
 jumped into the sea, sword in hand, the water 
 reaching above his waist. His ministers, the 
 French ambas-sador. the oflScers, and soldiers, im- 
 mediately followed his example, and marched up 
 to the shore, amidst a shower of musket-shot 
 from the enemy. The king, who had never in his 
 life before heard a discharge of muskets loaded 
 with ball, asked major Stuart, who stood next 
 him, what meant that whistling which he heard. 
 
 * It is the noise of the musket balls, which they 
 fire upon you/ replied the major. ' Very well,* 
 
CHARLES XII. 39 
 
 aays the king, * henceforward that shall be my mu- 
 sic/ At that instant the major leceived a shot 
 in his shoulder, and a lieutenant on the other side 
 of him fell dead at his feet. 
 
 It is usual for troops that are attacked in their 
 trenches to be beat ; because the assailants have 
 always an impetuosity of courage, which the de- 
 fenders cannot have ; and besides, to wait for the 
 enemy in our lines is frequently a confession of 
 our own weakness, and of their superiority. The 
 Danish horse and foot took to their heels, after a 
 feeble resistance. The king having become mas- 
 ter of their intrenchmeuts, ff 11 upon his knees, to 
 return thanks to God for the first success of his 
 arms. He forthwith caused redoubts to be made 
 towards the town, and himself marked out the 
 place for the encampment. Mean while he sent 
 back his vessels to Schonen, a port of Sweden 
 bordering upon Copenhagen, for a reinforcement 
 of nine thousand men. Every thing conspired to 
 favour the ardour of Charles's courage. The nine 
 thousand men wefe upon the shore ready to em- 
 bark, and next day a favourable wind brought 
 them safe to the place of their destination. 
 
 All this passed within sight of the Danish fleet, 
 who durst not venture to advance. Copenhagen, 
 struck with terror, immediately sent deimties to 
 the king, beseeching him not to bombard the city. 
 He received them on horseback, at the head of hif 
 regiment of guards ; and the deputies fell upon 
 their knees before him. He exacted from the citi- 
 zensfour hundred thousand rix-dollars, command- 
 ing them, at the same time, to supply his camp 
 with all kinds of provisions, for which he assured 
 them they should be honestly paid. They brought 
 tlie provisions, because they durst not disobey ; 
 but they little expected that conquerors would 
 condescend to pay for them; and those who brought 
 
40 , HISTORY OF 
 
 them were surprised to find that tbeywere gene- 
 rously and instantly paid, even by the meanest 
 soldier in the army. There had long prevailed 
 among the Swedish troops a strict discipline, 
 which had greatly contributed to the success of 
 their arms : and the king rendered it still more 
 rigid. No soldier durst refuse to pay for what he 
 had bought, still less to go a plundering, nor even 
 80 much as to go out of the camp. What is more, 
 he would not allow his troops, after a victory, to 
 strip the bodies of the dead, until they had ob- 
 tained his permission ; and he easily brought them 
 to the observance of this injunction. Prayers were 
 regularly said in his camp twice a day ; at seven 
 in the morning and four in the afternoon ; and he 
 never failed to attend them himself, in order to 
 give his soldiers an example of piety as well as 
 of valour, i^lis camp, which was better regulated 
 than Copenhagen, had every thing in abundance; 
 the peasants chusing much rather to sell their pro- 
 visions to their enemies, the Swedes, than to the 
 Danes, who did not pay them so well. Even the 
 citizens were more than once obliged to come to 
 the Swedish camp, to purchase those provisions 
 which they could not find in their own markets. 
 
 The king of Denmark was then in Holstein, 
 whither he seemed to have gone for no other pur- 
 pose than to raise the siege of Tonningen. He 
 saw the Baltic covered with the enemy's ships, 
 and a young conqueror already master of Zealand, 
 and just upon the point of taking possession of his 
 capital. He caused an edict to be published 
 throughout all his dominions, promising liberty 
 to every one that should take up arms against the 
 Swedes. 'J'his declaration was of great weight in 
 a country which was formerly free, but where all 
 the peasants, and even many of the citizens, are 
 now-a-days slaves. Charles sent word to the king 
 
CHARLES Xir. 41 
 
 of Denmark , that bis only intention in making war 
 was to oblige him to come to a peace ; and that 
 he must either resolve to do justice to the duke 
 of Holstein, or see Copenhagen levelled with the 
 ground, and his dominions laid waste with fire and 
 Bword. The Dane was loo happy in having to do 
 with a conqueror who valued himself on his re- 
 gard to justice. A congress was held in the town 
 of Travendai, which lies on the frontiers of Hol- 
 stein. The king of Sweden would not allow the 
 negotiations to be protracted by the arts of mi- 
 nisters ; but determined to have the treaty finished 
 with the same rapidity with which he bad made 
 his descent upon Zealand. In effect a peace was 
 concluded, on the fitih of August, to the advan- 
 tage of the duke of Holstein, who was indemnified 
 for all the expenses of the war, and delivered from 
 oppression. The king of Sweden, fully satisfied 
 with having succoured his ally, and humbled his 
 enemy, would accept of nothing for himself. Thus 
 Charles X 1 1, at eighteen years of age, began and 
 finished this war in less than six weeks. 
 
 Exactly at the same time, the king of Poland 
 invested Rijia, the capital of Livonia ; and the 
 czar was advancing on the east, at the head of 
 near an hundred thousand men. Riga was defend- 
 ed by the old count d'Alberg, a Swedish general, 
 who, at the age of eighty, joined all the fire of 
 youth to the experience of sixty campaigns. Count 
 Flemming, afterwards minister of Poland, a man 
 of distinguished abilities as well in the field as the 
 cabinet, and Patkul the Livonian, pushed the 
 siege with great vigour under the direction of the 
 king ; but notwithstanding several advantages 
 which the besiegers had j^ained, the experience of 
 old count d'Aiberg b;ifiied all their efforts, and the 
 king of Poland began to despair of being able to 
 take the town. At last he laid hold of an honour- 
 
42 HISTORY OF 
 
 able pretext for raising the siege. Riga was full 
 of merchants' goods belonging to the Dutch. The 
 states- general ordered their ambassador at the 
 court of Augustus, to represent the matter to his 
 majesty. The king of Poland did not long resist 
 their importunities, and agreed to raise the siege, 
 rather than occasion the least damage to his allies, 
 who were not greatly surprised at this stretch of 
 complaisance, to tbe real cause of which they 
 were no strangers. 
 
 The only thing that Charles had now to do, to- 
 wards the finishing of his first campaign, was to 
 march against his rival in glory, Peter Alexiowitz. 
 He was the more exasperated against him, as 
 there were still at Stockholm three I\iuscovite am- 
 bassadors, who had lately sworn to the renewal 
 of an inviolable peace. Possessed as he was him- 
 self of tbe m.ost incorruptible integrity, he could 
 not conceive how a legislator, like tbe czar, should 
 make a jest of what ought to be held so sacred. The 
 young prince, whose sense of honour was ex- 
 tremely refined, never imagined that there could 
 be one system of morality for kings, and another 
 for private persons. The emperor of Muscovy 
 had just published a manifesto, which he had 
 much better have suppressed. He there alleged, 
 as the reason of the war, the little respect that had 
 been shewn him when he went incognito to Higa, 
 and the extravagant prices his ambassadors had 
 been obliged to pay for provisions. Such were 
 tbe mighty injuries for which he ravaged Ingria, 
 with eighty thousand men ! 
 
 At the head of this great army he appeared be- 
 fore Narva, on the first of October, a season more 
 severe in that climate than the month of January 
 is at Paris. The czar, who in such weather would 
 sometimes ride post for four hundred leagues, 
 to see a mine or a canal, was not more sparing of 
 
CHARLES XII. 43 
 
 bis troops than of himself. He knew, moreover, 
 that the Swedes, ever since the time of Gustavus 
 Adolphus, could make war in the depth of winter 
 as well as in summer; and he wanted to ac- 
 custom the Russians likewise to forget all distinc- 
 tion of seasons, and to render them, one day, equal 
 to the Swedes. 'J'hus, in a time when frost and 
 snow compel other nations in more temperate cli- 
 mates to agree to a suspension of arms, the czar 
 Peter besieged Nai-va, within thirty degrees of 
 the pole, and Charles XII. advanced to its relief. 
 The czar was no sooner arrived before the place, 
 than he immediately' put in practice what he had 
 learned in his travels. He marked out his camp, 
 fortified it on ail sides, raised redoubts at certain 
 distances, and opened the trenches himself. He 
 had given the command of his troops to the duke 
 de Croi, a German, and an able general, but who 
 at that time was little assisted by the Russian of- 
 ficers. As for himself, he had no other rank in 
 the army than that of a private lieutenant. He 
 thereby gave an example of military obedience to 
 hisnobility.hithertounacquainted with discipline, 
 and accustomed to march at the head of ill- 
 armed slaves, without experience and without 
 order. There was nothing strange in seeing him 
 who had turned carpenter at Amsterdam, in order 
 to procure himself fleets, serve as lieutenant at 
 Narva, to teach his subjects the art of war. 
 
 The Muscovites are strong and indefatigable, 
 and perhaps as courageous as the Swedes ; but it 
 requires time and discipline to render troops war- 
 like and invincible. The onlyregiments that could 
 be depended upon were commanded b) some Ger- 
 man officers ; but their number was very incon- 
 siderable. The rest were barbarians forced from 
 tlieir forests, and covered with the skins of wild 
 beasts ; some armed with arrows, and others with 
 
44 HISTORY OF 
 
 clubs. Few of them had fusees ; none of them 
 had ever seen a regular .siege ; and there was not 
 one good cannoneer in the whole army. A hun- 
 dred and fifty cannon, which one would have 
 thought must have soon reduced the little town of 
 Narva to ashes, were hardly able to make a 
 breach, while the artillery of the city mowed dowa 
 at every discharge whole ranks of the enemj in 
 their trenches. Narva was almost without forti- 
 fications : the baron de Hoorn, who commanded 
 there, had not a thousand regular . troops ; and 
 yet this immense army could not reduce it in ten 
 weeks. 
 
 It was now the fifth of November, when the 
 czar learned that the king of Sweden had crossed 
 the sea with two hundred transports, and was ad- 
 vancing to the relief of Narva. The Swedes were 
 not above twenty thousand strong. The czar had 
 no advantage but that of nanabers. Far, there- 
 fore, from despising his enen:y,he employed every 
 art in order to crush him. Not coiitentwith eighty 
 thousand men, he resolved to oppose to him an- 
 other army still, and to check his progress at every 
 step. He had already given orders for the march 
 of about thirty thousand nifn, who were advanc- 
 ing from Plesliow with ereat expedition. He then 
 took a step that wouM have rendered him con- 
 temptible, could a legislator who had performed 
 such great and glorious actions incur that impu- 
 tation. He left his camp, where his presence was 
 necessary, to go in quest of this new army, which 
 might have arrived well enough without him, 
 and seemed by this conduc to betray his fear of 
 engaging in his intrenchi.ients a young and in- 
 experienced prince who might come to attack 
 him. 
 
 Be that as it will, he resolved to shut up Charles 
 XII. between two armies. Nor was this all : a 
 
CHARLES XII. 45 
 
 detachment of thirty thousand men from the camp 
 before Narva were posted at a league's distance 
 from the city, directly in the king of Sweden's 
 road : twenty thousand strelirz were placed far- 
 ther off, upon the same road ; and five thousand 
 others composed an advanced guard ; and he must 
 necessarily force his way through all these troops 
 before he could reach the camp, which was for- 
 tified with a rampart and double foss6. The king 
 of Sweden had landed at Pernau, in the Gulf of 
 Riga, with about sjxteen thousand foot, and little 
 more than four thousand horse. From Pernau 
 he made a flying march to Revel, followed by all 
 his cavalry, and only by four thousand foot. He 
 always marched in the van of his army, without 
 waiting for the rear. He soon found himself, with 
 bis eight thousand men only, before the first posts 
 of the enemy. He immediately resolved, without 
 the least hesitation, to attack them, one after an- 
 other, before they could possibly learn with what 
 a small number they had to engage. The Mus- 
 covites seeing the Swedes come upon them, ima- 
 gined they had a whole army to encounter. The 
 advanced guard of five thousand men, posted 
 among rocks, a station where one hundred reso- 
 lute men might have stopped the march of a large 
 army, fled at their first approach. 1'he twenty 
 thousand men that lay behind them, perceiving 
 the flight of their feliow-soldievs, took the alarm, 
 and carried their terror and confusion with them 
 into the camp. All the posts were carried in two 
 days ; and what upon other occasions would have 
 been reckoned three distinct victories, did not re- 
 tard the king's march for the space of one hour. 
 He appeared then at last with his eight thousand 
 men, exhausted with the fatigues of so long a 
 march, before a camp of eighty thousand Musco- 
 vites, defended by a hundred and fiftjr pieces of 
 
46 HISTORY OF 
 
 cannon ; and, scarce allowing bis troops any time 
 for rest, he instantly gave orders for the attack. 
 
 The signal was two fusees, and the word in 
 German, * With the aid of God.' A general of- 
 ficer having represented to him the greatness of 
 the danger, ' What,' says he. ' do not you think, 
 that with ray eight thousand brave Swedes, I 
 may easily beat eighty thousand Russians V But, 
 soon after, fearing that wbit he had said might 
 savour too much of gasconade, he ran after the 
 officer, * And are not you.' says he, ' of the same 
 opinion 1 have not I a double advantage over 
 the enemy? one, that their cavalry can be of no 
 service to them ; the other, that the place being 
 narrow their number will only incommode themi; 
 and thus in reality I shall be stronger than they.' 
 The officer did not care to differ from him ; and 
 thus they marched against the ^.Juscovites about 
 mid-day, on the 30th of November, 1700. 
 
 As soon as their cannoM had made a breach in 
 their intrenchments, the Swedes advanced with 
 screwed bayonets, bavin" a furious shower of 
 snow on their backs, whicit d^ove full in the face 
 of the enemy. The Russians stood the shock for 
 half an hour without flinciiing. The king made 
 his attack upon the right of the camp, where the 
 czar's quarters lay, hoping to come to a ren- 
 counter with him, as be did not know that 
 he had gone in quest of the forty thousand men, 
 who were dailv expected to arrive. At the first 
 discharge of the enemy's muskets, he received 
 a shot in his neck; but as it was a spent ball, 
 it lodged in the folds of his black neckcloth, 
 and did him no harm, f I is liorse was killed under 
 him. Mr. de Spar told nie, that the king mounted 
 another horse with great rl^ility, saying, ' These 
 fellows make me go thr(.i;-jh my exercise ;* and 
 continued to fight and gi'e orders with the same 
 
CHARLES XIT. 47 
 
 presence of mind. After an engagement of three 
 hours, the intrenchments were forced on all sides. 
 The king pursued the right of the enemy as far 
 as the river Narva, with his left wing ; if we may 
 be allowed to call by that name about four thou- 
 sand men, who were in pursuit of near forty 
 thousand. The bridge broke under the fugitives, 
 and the river was immediately filled with dead 
 carcases. The rest returned to their camp, with- 
 out knowing whither tliej went ; and finding 
 some barracks, they took post behind them. 
 There they defended themselves for a while, as 
 they were not able to make their escape ; but at 
 last their generals Dolgozouky, Gollofkin, and 
 Federowitz, surrendered themselves to the king, 
 and laid their arms at his feet ; and, while they 
 were presenting them to him, the duke de Croi 
 came up and surrendered himself with thirty 
 officers. 
 
 Charles received all these prisoners of distinc- 
 tion with as much civility and politeness as if he 
 had been paying them the honours of an enter- 
 tainment in his own court. He detained none 
 but the general oificers. All the subalterns and 
 common soldiers were disarmed and conducted 
 to the river Narva, where they were supplied 
 with boats for passing over, and allowed to re- 
 turn to their own country. In the mean time 
 night came on, and the right wing of the Musco- 
 vites still continued the fight. The Swedes had 
 not lost above six hundred men. Eight thousand 
 Muscovites had been killed in their intrench- 
 ments ; many were drowned ; many had crossed 
 the river ; and yet there still remained in the 
 camp a sufficient number to cut off the Swedes to 
 the last man. But the loss of battles is not so 
 much owing to the number of the killed, as to the 
 tiroidity of those who burvive. The king em- 
 
48 HISTORY OF 
 
 ployed the small remains of the aay in seizing 
 upon the enemy's artillery. He took possession 
 of an advantageous post between the camp and 
 the city, where he slept a few hours upon the 
 ground, Wrapt up in his cloak, intending at day- 
 break to fall upon the left wing of the enemy, 
 which was not yet entirely routed. But at two 
 o'clock in the morning, general Wade, who 
 commanded that wing, having heard of the gra- 
 cious reception the king had given to the other 
 generals, and of his having dismissed all the 
 subaltern officers and soldiers, sent a messenger 
 to him, begging he would grant him the same 
 favour ; the conqueror replied, that he should 
 have it, provided he would come at the head of 
 his troops, and make them lay their arms and 
 colours at his feet. Soon after the general ap- 
 peared with his Muscovites, to the number of 
 about thirty thousand. They marched, both sol- 
 diers and officers, with their heads uncovered, 
 through less than seven thousand Swedes. The 
 soldiers, as they passed the king, threw their 
 guns and swords upon the ground, and the offi- 
 cers presented him with their ensigns and colours. 
 He caused the whole of this multitude to be con- 
 ducted over the river, without detaining a single 
 soldier. Had he kept them, the number of pri- 
 soners would at least have been five times greater 
 than that of the conquerors. 
 
 After this, he entered victorious into Narva, 
 accompanied by the duke deCroi, and other ge- 
 neral officers of the Muscovites. He ordered 
 their swords to be restored to them all ; 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 five hundred to every Muscovite officer, who 
 could not sufficiently admire the civility of this 
 
CHARLES XTI. 49 
 
 treatment, of which they were incapable of fonn- 
 ing the least conception. An account of the vic- 
 tory was inuutdiately drawn up at Narva, ia 
 order. to be sent to Stockholm, and to the allies 
 of Sweden : but the king expunged with his own 
 hand every circumstance in the relation that 
 tended too much to his honour, or i^eemed to re- 
 flect upon the czar. His modesty however could 
 not hinder them from striking at Stockholm se- 
 veral medals to perpetuate the memory of these 
 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 Polander ; and on the reverse a 
 Hercules, holding his club, and treading upon a 
 Cerberus, with this inscription : 3Ve$ uno con- 
 Uidit iclu. 
 
 Among the prisoners taken at the battle of 
 Narva, there was one whose fate exhibited a re- 
 markable instance of the great incoystancy of 
 fortune. He was the eldest son and heir of the 
 king of Georgia ; his name the czarafisArtschelou. 
 This title of czarafis, among the Tartars, as well 
 as in Muscovy, signifies prince, or son of the czar; 
 for the word czar, or tzar, signified king among 
 the ancient Scythians, from whom all these peo- 
 ple are descended, and is not derived from the 
 Caesars of i-tome, so long unknown to these bar- 
 barians. His father Mittelleski, czar, and master 
 of the most beautiful part of the ctmntry, lying 
 between the mountains of Ararat and the eastern 
 coasts of the Black Sea, having been expelled 
 from his kingdom by his own subjects, in 1688, 
 had rather chosen to throw himself into the arms 
 of the emperor of Muscovy, than to apply to the 
 Turks for assistance. His son, a youth of nine- 
 teen years of age, followed Peter the Great in his 
 expedition against the Swedes, and was taken 
 C 
 
50 HISTORY OF 
 
 fighting by some Finland soldiers, who had al- 
 ready stripped him, and were upon the point of 
 killing him. Count llenschild rescued him from 
 their bands, supplied bini with clothes, and pre- 
 sented him to his mrster, Charles sent him to 
 Stockholm, where the unfortunate prince died in 
 a few years after. The king, upon seeing him 
 depart, could not help making, iu the hearing of 
 bis officers, a very natural reflection on the strange 
 fate of an Asiatic prince born at the foot of Mount 
 Caucasus, and going to live a prisoner among the 
 snows of Sweden. ' It is just,' says he, * as if I 
 were one day to be a prisoner among the Crim 
 Tartars.' These words made no impression at 
 that time ; but, in the sequel, there was but too 
 much occasion to remember them, when the event 
 had proved them to be a prediction. 
 
 The czar was advancing by long marches with 
 a body of forty thousand Russians, in full hopes 
 of surrounding his enemy on all sides ; but be- 
 fore he had proceeded half way, he received in- 
 telligence of the battle of Narva, and of the dis- 
 persion of his whole army. He was not so foolish 
 as to think of attacking with his forty thousand 
 raw and undisciplined troops, a conqueror, who 
 had lately defeated eighty thousand men in their 
 intrenchments. He returned home, with a de- 
 termined resolution of disciplininghis troops, at 
 the same time that he civilized his subjects. ' I 
 know,' says he, ' that the Swedes will beat us for 
 a long time ; but, at last, they will teach us to 
 beat them.' Moscow, his capital, was in the 
 utmost terror and consternation at the news of 
 this defeat. Such was the pride and ignorance 
 of the people, that they actually imagined they 
 had been conquered by a power more thanhuman, 
 and that the Swedes were so many magicians. 
 This opinion was so general, that public prayers 
 
CHARLES XIL 51 
 
 were onlered to be put vp to St. Nicholas, the 
 patron of Muscovy, on the occasion. The form 
 of these prayers is too singular to be omitted. It 
 runs thus : 
 
 • O thou who art our perpetual comforter in all 
 our adversities, great St. Nicholas, infinitely 
 povt^erful, by what siu have we offended thee, ia 
 our sacrifices, kneelings, bowings, and thanks- 
 givings, that thou hast thus abandoned us? We 
 implored thy assistance against these terrible, 
 insolent, enraged, dreadful, unconquerable de- 
 stroyers, when, like lions and bears robbed of 
 their young, they fell upon, terrified, wounded, 
 and slew by thousands, us who are thy people. 
 As it is impossible that this should have hap- 
 pened without sorcery and witchcraft, we beseech 
 thee, O great St. Nicbolas, to be our champion, 
 and standard-bearer, to deliver us from this 
 troop of sorcerers, and to drive them far from 
 our frontiers, witli the recompense they deserve.* 
 
 While the M uscovites were thus complaining of 
 their defeat to St. Nicholas, Charles XII. re- 
 turned thanks to God, and prepared himself for 
 new victories. 
 
 The king of Poland had reason to fear, that his 
 enemy, already victorious over the Danes and the 
 Muscovites, would soon turn his arms against 
 him. He entered into a closer alliance with the 
 czar than ever he bad done before. These two 
 princes agreed upou an interview, in order to 
 concert their measures. They met at Birsen, a 
 small town in Lithuania, without any of those 
 fornaalities which serve only to retard business, 
 and neither suited their situation nor their hu- 
 mour. The princes of the North visit one an- 
 other with a familiarity that has not yet taken 
 place in the more southern parts of Europe, 
 Peter and Augustus spent fifteen days together. 
 
52 HISTORY OF 
 
 in the cnjoynient of pleasures, which were even 
 somewhat extravagant ; for the czar, amidst his 
 cares for the reformation of his subjects, could 
 never correct his dangerous propension to de- 
 bauchery. 
 
 The king of Poland engaged to furnish the czar 
 with fifty thousand German troops, which were 
 to be hired from several princes, and for which 
 the czar was to pay. Peter, on the other hand, 
 was to send fifty tliousand Russians into Poland, 
 to learn the art of war, and promised to pay to 
 Augustus three millions of rix-dollars in two 
 years. This treaty, had it been carried into exe- 
 cution, might have proved fatal to the king of 
 Sweden : it was a sure and ready method of ren- 
 dering the Mu;-covites good soldiers : perhaps 
 it was forging chains for a part of I'^urope. 
 
 CharK"S Xll. exerted his utmost endeavours to 
 prevent the king of Poland from reaping any be- 
 nefit from this league. After having passed the 
 winter at Narva, he appeared in Livonia in the 
 neighbourhood of Higa, the very town which 
 Augustus had in vain besieged. The Saxon 
 troops were posted along the river Diina, which 
 is very broad in that place ; and Cliarles, who 
 lay on the other side of the river, was obliged to 
 dispute the passage. The Saxons were not com- 
 manded by their own prince, who was then sick, 
 but were headed by marshal Stenau, who acted as 
 general, under whom commanded prince Ferdi- 
 nand, duke of Courland, and that same Palkul 
 who had formerly, at the hazard of his life, vin- 
 dicated the privileges of his country against 
 Charles XI. by his pen, and now defended the 
 same cause against Cliarles XII. by his arms. 
 The king of Sweden had caused some large boats 
 to be built of a new construction, whose sides 
 were much higher than ordinary, and could be 
 
CHARLES XII. 53 
 
 raised or let down, like a draw-bridge. When 
 raised they covered the troops on board, and 
 when Jet down they served as a bridge to land 
 them. He likewise made use of another artifice. 
 Having observed tliat the wind blew from the 
 north, where he lay, to the south, where the 
 enem.y were encamjjed, he set fire to a large 
 heap of wet straw, which diffusing a thick smoke 
 over the river, prevented the Saxons from seeing 
 his troops, or observing what he was going to do. 
 Under cover of this cloud, he dispatched some 
 barks filled with more of the same smoking straw; 
 so that the cloud always increasing, and being 
 driven by the wind directly to the face of the 
 enemy, rendered it impossible for them to 
 know whether the king was passing or not. 
 Mean while, he alone conducted the execution of 
 his stratagem ; and when he had reached the 
 middle of the river, ' Well,' says he to general 
 Renschild, ' the Uuna will be as favourable to us 
 as the sea of Copenhagen ; take my word for it, 
 general, we shall beat them.' He arrived at the 
 other side in a quarter of an hour, and was sorry 
 to find that he was only the fourth person that 
 leapt on shore. He forthwith landed his cannon, 
 and drew up his troops in order of battle, while 
 the enemy, blinded with smoke, could make no 
 opposition except by a few random shot. At 
 last the mist being dispersed by the wind, the 
 Saxons saw the king of Sweden already advanc- 
 ing against them. 
 
 Marshal Stenau lost not a moment. As soon 
 as he observed the Swedes, he rushed upon them 
 with the flower of his cavalry. The violent shock 
 of this body falling upon the Swedes just as they 
 were forming, threw them into confusion. They 
 gave way, were broken, and pursued even into 
 the river. The kins of Sweden rallied them in a 
 
54 HISTORY OF 
 
 moment, iii the midst of the water, with as much 
 composure as if he had been making a review ; 
 th^n the Swedes, marching more compact than 
 before, repu'sed marshal Stenau, and advanced 
 into the plain. Stenau finding his troops begin 
 to stagger, acted hke an able general. He made 
 them retire into a dry place, flanked with a mo- 
 rass and a wood, where his artillery lay. The 
 advantage of the ground, and the time which the 
 Saxons had iLus obtained, of recovering from 
 their first surprise, restored to them their former 
 courage. Charles immediately began the attack. 
 He had fifteen thousand men : Stenau and the 
 duke>of Courland about twelve thousand, with 
 no other artillery than one dismounted cannon. 
 The battle was obstinate and bloody. The duke 
 had two horses killed under him : he penetrated 
 thrice into the heart of the king's guards ; but at 
 length being unhorsed by a blow with the butt- 
 end of a musket, his army was thrown into con- 
 fusion, and no longer disputed the victory. His 
 cuirassiers carried him off with great difficulty, 
 all bruised and half dead, from the thickest of the 
 fight, and from under the horses heels, which 
 trampled on him. 
 
 Immediately after this victory, the king of 
 Sweden advanced to Mittau, the capital of Cour- 
 land. All the towns of tiie duchy surrendered to 
 him at discretion ; it was rather a journey than a 
 conquest. From thence he passed without delay 
 into Lithuania, conquering wherever became: cind 
 he felt a pleasing satisfaction, as he himself owned, 
 when he entered triumphant into the town of 
 Birsen, where the king of Poland and the czar had 
 plotted his destruction but a few months before. 
 
 It was in this place that he formed the de.sign. 
 of dethro-ning the king of Poland, by the hands 
 of the Poles themselves. One day when he was 
 
CHARLES XII. 55 
 
 at *iblei, full of this enterprise, aud ooserving a» 
 Mi^A the strictest temperance, wrapped up in a 
 pr>..'ound silence, aud seeming, as it were, ab- 
 sosbed in the greatness of his conceptions, a Ger- 
 man colonel, who waited upon him, said with an 
 audible voice, that the meals which the czar and 
 the king of Poland had made in the same place 
 were somewhat different from those of his ma- 
 jesty. ' Yes,' says the king, rising,. ' and I shall 
 the more easily spoil their digestion.' la shorty 
 by intermixing a little policy with the force of his 
 arms, he resolved to hasten the execution of this 
 mighty project. 
 
 Poland, a part of the ancient Sarmatia, is some- 
 what larger than France, but less populous, though 
 it is more so than Sweden. The inhabitants were 
 converted to Christianity only about seven hun- 
 dred and fifty years ago. It is somewhat sur- 
 prising, that the Roman language, which never 
 penetrated into that country, isnow-a-days spoken 
 in common no where but in Poland ; there every 
 one speaks Latin, even the very servants. This 
 extensive country is very fertile ; but the natives 
 are only, on that account, so much the less indus- 
 trious. The artists and tradesmen in Poland are 
 Scotch, French, and especially Jews. The last have, 
 in this country, near three hundred synagogues; 
 and multiplying too fast, and to too greatnumbers, 
 they will, in time be banished from it, as they 
 have already been from Spain. J hey buy the 
 corn, the cattle, and the commodities of the coun- 
 try at a low rate, dispose of them at Dantzic, and 
 in Germany, and sell to the nobles at a high 
 price wherewithal to gratify the onlj species of 
 luxury which they know and love. Thus Poland, 
 v/atered with the finest rivers in the worUi, rich 
 in pastures, and in mines of salt, and covered 
 with luxuriant crops, reatains poor, in spite of 
 
56 HISTORY OF 
 
 its plenty ; because the people are slaves, and the 
 nobles are proud and indolent. 
 
 The constitution of Poland is the most perfect 
 model of the ancient government of the Goths 
 and Celta«, which hath been corrected or al- 
 tered every where else. It is the only state that 
 has preserved the name of republic together with 
 the royal dignity. 
 
 Every gentleman has a right to give his vote 
 in the election of a king, and may even be elected 
 himself. Ihis inestimable privilege is attended 
 with inconveniences proportionably great. The 
 throne is almost always exposed to sale ; and as 
 a Polanderis seldom able to make the purchase, 
 it has frequently been sold to strangers. The no- 
 bility and clergy defend their liberties against the 
 king, and deprive the rest of the nation of theirs. 
 The body of the people are slaves. Such is the 
 unhappy fate of mankind, that in every country 
 the greater number are, oneway or other, enslaved 
 by the lesser. There the peasant sows not for 
 himself but for his lord, to whom his person, his 
 lands, and even the labour of his hands belong; 
 and who can sell him, or cut his throat with the 
 same impunity as he kills the beasts in the field. 
 Every gentleman is independent. He cannot be 
 tried in a criminal cause but by an assembly of 
 the whole nation : he cannot be arrested till once 
 he is condemned : so that he is hardly ever pu- 
 nished. There are great numbers of poor among 
 them. These engage in the service of the more 
 wealthy, receive wages from them, and perform 
 the meanest offices. They rather choose to serve 
 their equals than to enrich themselves by com- 
 merce ; and while they are dressing their masters' 
 horses, they give themselves the title of electors 
 of kings and destroyers of tyrants. 
 
 To see a king of Poland in the pomp of roya* 
 
CHARLES XII. 57 
 
 majesty, one would take him to be the most ab- 
 solute prince in Europe ; and yet he is the least 
 so. The Poles really make with him thatcontract, 
 which in other nations is only supposed to be 
 made between the king and his subjects. The 
 king of Poland, even at his consecration, and in 
 swearing to the Pacta conveuta, absolves his sub- 
 jects from the oath of allegiance, should he ever 
 violate the laws of the republic. 
 
 He nominates to all offices, and confers all 
 honours. Nothing is hereditary in Poland, but 
 the lands and rank of the nobility. The son of a 
 palatine, or of a king, has no claim to the dignity 
 of his father. But there is this great difference 
 betwixt the king and the republic, that tho former 
 cannot stiip any person of an office after he has 
 bestowed it upon him ; whereas the latter may 
 deprive him of the crown, if he trangress the laws 
 of the state. 
 
 The nobility, jealous of their liberty, fre- 
 quently sell their votes, but seldom their affec- 
 tions. They have no sooner elected a king, than 
 they begin to fear his ambition, and to oppose 
 him by their cabals. The grandees whom he 
 has made, and whom he cannot unmake, often 
 become his enemies, instead of remaining his 
 creatures. Those who are attached to the court 
 are hated by the rest of the nobility, which al- 
 ways forms two parties ; a division unavoid- 
 able, and even necessary in those countries, that 
 must needs have kings, and yet preserve their 
 liberties. 
 
 Whatever concerns the nation is regulated in 
 the assemblies of the states -general, which are 
 called diets. These states are composed of the 
 body of the senate, and of several gentlemen. 
 The senators are the palatines and the bishops ; 
 the gentlemen the deputies of the particular diets 
 C2 
 
58 HISTORY OF 
 
 in each palatinate. In these great assemblies 
 presides the archbishop of Gnesna, primate of 
 Poland, viceroy of the kingdom during an inter- 
 regnum, and next to the king, the first person in 
 the state. Besides him there is seldom any other 
 cardinal in Poland : because the Roman purple 
 giving no precedence in the senate to a bishop 
 who should be made a cardinal, would be obliged 
 either to take his rank as senator, or to renounce 
 the substantial rights of the dignity be enjoys in 
 his own country, to support the vain pretensions 
 of a foreign honour. 
 
 These dists, by the laws of the kingdom, must 
 be held alternately in Poland and Lithuania. 
 The deputies frequently transact their business 
 sabre in hand, like the ancient Sarmatians, from 
 whom they are sprung, and sometimes too in- 
 toxicated with liquor, a vice to which the Sarma- 
 tians were utter strangers. Every gentleman de- 
 puted to the states-general enjoys the same right 
 which the tribunes of the people had at Rome, 
 of opposing themselves to the laws of the senate. 
 Any one gentleman, who says, ' I protest,^ stops 
 by that single word the unanimous resolution of 
 all the rest ; and if be quits the place where the 
 diet is held, the assembly is ot course dissolved. 
 
 To the disorders arising from this law, they ap- 
 ply a remedy still more dangerous. Poland is 
 seldom without two factions. Unanimity in their 
 diets being thus rendered impossible, each party 
 forms confederacies, in which they decide by a 
 plurality of voices, without any regard to the 
 protestation of the lesser number. These assem- 
 blies, condemned by the laws, but authorized by 
 custom, are held in the king's name, though fre- 
 quently without his consent, and even against his 
 interest ; in much the same manner as the league 
 in France made use of the name of Kenrj III. 
 
CHARLES XII. 59 
 
 to ruin him ; and as the parliament in England, 
 that brought Charles I. to the block, began by- 
 prefixing his majt^sty's name to all the resolutions 
 they took to (Jestroy him. When the public com- 
 motions are ended, it belongs to the general diets 
 either to confirm or repeal the acts of these con- 
 federacies. A diet can even cancel the acts of 
 a former diet ; for the same reason that in ab- 
 solute monarchies, a king can abolish the laws 
 of his predecessor, or even those which have been 
 made by himself. 
 
 The nobility, who make the laws of the re- 
 public, likewise constitute its strength. They ap- 
 pear on horseback completely armed, upon great 
 emergencies, and are able to make up a body of 
 a hundred thousand men. This great army, 
 ■which is called pos])oIite, moves slowly, and is ill 
 governed. It cannot continue assembled for any 
 length of time, for want of provisions and forage : 
 it has neither discij)line, subordination, nor ex- 
 perience ; but that love of liberty by which it is 
 animated will always make it formidable. 
 
 These nobles may be conquered or dispersed, 
 or even held in subjection for a time ; but they 
 800U shake off the yoke. They compare them- 
 selves to the reeds, which the storm may bend 
 to the ground, but which rise again the moment 
 the storm is over. It is for this reason that they 
 have no places of strength ; they will have them- 
 selves to be the only bulwarks of the republic ; 
 nor do they ever suffer their king to build any 
 forts, lest he should employ them less for their 
 defence than their oppression. Their country is 
 entirely open, excepting two or three frontier 
 places : so that if in a war, whether civil or 
 foreign, they resolve to sustain a siege, they are 
 obliged to raise fortifications of earth in a hurry, 
 to repair the old walls that are half ruined, and 
 
60 HISTORY OF 
 
 to enlarge the ditches that are almost filled up; 
 and the town is commonly taken before the in- 
 trenchments are finished. 
 
 The pospolite are not always on horseback to 
 defend the country : they never mount but by 
 order of the diets, or sometimes in imminent dan- 
 gers, by the simple order of the king. 
 
 The usual guard of Poland is an army, which 
 ought to be maintained at the expense of the re- 
 public. It is composed of two bodies, under two 
 grand generals. The first body is that of Poland, 
 and should consist of thirty-six thousand men ; the 
 second, to the number of twelve thoutand.is that 
 of Lithuania. The two grand generals are inde- 
 pendent of each other ; though nominated by the 
 king, they are accountable for their conduct to the 
 republic alone, and have an unlimited power over 
 their troops. The colonels are absolute masters 
 of their regiments ; and it is their business to 
 maintain and pay them as well as they can. But 
 as they are seldom paid themselves, they ravage 
 the country, ruin the peasants, to satisfy their 
 own avidity, and that of their soldiers. The Po- 
 lish lords appear in these armies with more mag- 
 nificence than they do in the towns ; and their 
 tents are more elegant than their houses. The 
 cavalry, which makes up two-thirds of the army, 
 is composed almost entirely of gentlemen ; and 
 is remarkable for the beauty of their horses, and 
 the richness of the accoutrements and harness. 
 
 The gendarmes especially, whom they distin- 
 guish into hussars and pancernes, never march 
 without several valets in their retinue, who lead 
 their horses ; those are furnished with bridles 
 that are ornamented with plates and nails of sil- 
 ver, embroidered saddles, saddle bows, and gilt 
 stirrups, or stirrups made of massy silver, with 
 large housings trailing on the ground, after tho 
 
CHARLES Xir. 61 
 
 manner of the Turks, whose magnificence the 
 Poles endeavour to imitate as much as they can. 
 
 But if the cavalry are fine and gorgeous, the in- 
 fantry were at that timeproportionably wretched, 
 ill clothed, and ill armed, without regimentals, 
 or any thing uniform. Such at least was theii 
 condition, till towards the year 1710 : and yet 
 these infantry, who resemble the wandering Tar- 
 tars, support hunger, cold, fatigue, and all the 
 hardships of war, with surprising resolution. 
 
 One may still discern in the Polish soldiers the 
 character of their ancestors, the ancient Sarma- 
 tians, the same want of discipline, the same fury 
 in the! assault, the same readiness to fly and to 
 return to the charge, and the same cruel disposi- 
 tion to slaughter when they conquer. 
 
 The king of Poland flattered himself at first, 
 that in this pressing necessity, these two bodies 
 would support his cause ; that the Polish pospo- 
 lite would take up arms at his orders ; and that 
 these forces, joined to the Saxon subjects, and to 
 his Russian allies, would compose an army, before 
 which the small number of the Swedes would not 
 dare to appear. But he found himself, almost in 
 an instant, deprived of these succours by means 
 of that very eagerness he discovered to have them 
 all at once. 
 
 Accustomed, in his hereditary dominions, to the 
 exercise of absolute power, he too fondly imagined 
 that he might govern in Poland as he did iu Saxo- 
 ny. The beginning of his reign raised malcon- 
 tents. His first proceedings provoked the party 
 that had opposed his election, and alienated al- 
 most all the rest of the nation. The Poles mur- 
 mured to see the towns filled with Saxon garrisons, 
 and their frontiers lined with Saxon troops. This 
 nation, more anxious to preserve its liberty than 
 to attack its neighbours, considered the war with 
 
«f HISTORY OF 
 
 Sweden, and tlie irruption into Livonia, as entei* 
 prises by no means advantageous to the republic. 
 It is very difficult to hinder a free people from see- 
 ing their true interest. The Poles were sensible, 
 that if this war, undertaken without their consent, 
 should prove unsuccessful, their country, open on 
 all sides, would become a prey to the king of 
 Sweden ; and that should it be crowned with suc- 
 cess, they would be enslaved by their own king, 
 who being master of Livonia, as well as of Saxo- 
 ny, would shut up Poland between these two 
 states. In this alternative, either of becoming 
 slaves to the king, whom they had elected, or of 
 being pillaged by Charles XI L who was justly in- 
 censed, they raised a clamour against the war, 
 which they believed to be declared rather against 
 themselves than against Sweden. They consider- 
 ed the Saxons and the Muscovites as the forgers 
 of their chains ; and observing soon after that the 
 king of Sweden had overcome every thing that 
 opposed his progress, and was advancing with a 
 victorious army into the heart of Lithuania, they 
 loudly exclaimed against their sovereign, and with 
 80 much the greater freedom as he was unfortu- 
 nate. 
 
 Lithuania was at that time divided into two 
 parties, that of the princes of Sapieha, and that of 
 Oginsky. The animosity between these two fac- 
 tions, occasioned at first by private quarrels, had 
 at last been inflamed into a civil war. The king 
 of Sweden engaged the princes of Sapieha in his 
 interest ; and Oginsky, being poorly supported 
 by the Saxons, found his party almost annihilated. 
 The Lithuanian army, reduced by these troubles 
 and the want of money, to an inconsiderable num- 
 ber, was partly dispersed by the conquerors. 
 The few that still held out for the king of Poland 
 were separated into small bodies of fugitive 
 
CHARLES XII. 63 
 
 troops, who wandered up and down the country 
 and subsisted by spoil. Augustus beheld no- 
 thing in Lithuania but the weakness of his own 
 party, the hatred of his subjects, and a hostile 
 army, conducted by a young king, incensed, vic- 
 torious, and implacable. 
 
 'i'here was indeed an army in Poland ; but in- 
 stead of six and thirty thousand men, the number 
 prescribed by the law, it did not amount to eigh- 
 teen thousand ; and it was not only ill-paid and 
 Hl-armed, but the generals were as yet undeter- 
 mined what course to take. 
 
 The only resource of the king was, to order the 
 nobility to follow him ; but he durst not expose 
 himself to the mortification of a refusal, which, 
 by discovering his weakness too plainly, would of 
 consequence have increased it. 
 
 In this state of trouble and uncertainty, all the 
 palatinates of the kingdom desired the king to 
 call a diet ; in the same manner as in England, 
 during times of danger, all the bodies of the state 
 present addresses to the sovereign, entreating 
 him to convoke a parliament. Augustus had 
 more need of an army than a diet, in which the 
 actions of kings are severely canvassed. How- 
 ever, that he might not incense the nation beyond 
 a possibility of reconciliation, he found it neces- 
 sary to assemble a diet ; which was accordingly 
 appointed to be held at Warsaw, on the second 
 of December, 1701. He soon perceived that 
 Charles XII. had at least as much power in this 
 assembly as himself. Those who favoured the 
 Sapieha, the Lubomirsky and their friends, the 
 palatine Leczinsky, treasurer of the crown, and 
 especially the partizans of the princes Sobieski, 
 were all cf them secretly attached to the king of 
 Sweden. 
 
 The most considerable of these partizans, and 
 
64 HISTORY OF 
 
 the most dangerous to the king of Poland, was 
 cardinal Hadjousky, archbishop of Gnesna, pri- 
 mate of the kingdom, and president of the diet. 
 He was a man full of artifice and cunning, and 
 entirely under the influence of an ambitious wo- 
 man, who was called by the Swedes madam Car- 
 dinaless, and who was egging him on to intrigue 
 and faction. King John Sobieski, the predeces- 
 sor of Augustus, had first made him bishop of 
 Warmia and vice-chancellor of the kingdom. 
 Radjousky, when no more than a bishop, had ob- 
 tained the cardinal's hat by the favour of the same 
 prince. 'I'his dignity soon opened his way to the 
 primacy ; and thus by uniting in his own person 
 whatever can impose upon mankind, he was able 
 to undertake the most arduous enterprises, with- 
 out incurring the least danger. 
 
 After the death of John, he employed all his 
 interest to raise prince James Sobieski to the 
 throne ; but the torrent of public hatred ran so 
 strong against the father, notwithstanding the 
 eminent qualities of which he was possessed, that 
 it entirely excluded the son from that dignity. 
 After vhis, the cardinal-primate joined his endea- 
 vours with those of the abb6 de Polignac, the 
 French ambassador, to procure the crown to the 
 prince of Conti, who was actually elected. But the 
 money and troops of Saxony defeated all his ne- 
 gotiations. AtlasthesuflFeredliimself tobe drawn 
 over to the party that crowned the elector of Saxo- 
 ny, and paiiently waited for an opportunity of sow- 
 ing dissension between the new king and the na- 
 tion. 
 
 The victories of Charles XII. the protector of 
 prince James Sobieski, the civil war in Lithuania, 
 the general alienation of men's minds from king 
 Augustus ; all these circumstances made the car- 
 dinal-primate believe, that the time was now como 
 
CHARLES XII. 65 
 
 when he might safely send back Augustus into 
 Saxony, and open for king John's son the way to 
 the throne. This prince, foni.erly the innocent 
 object of the hatred of the Poles, was now become 
 their darling, e^er since the time that Augustus 
 hdd lost the public favour ; but he durst not as yet 
 entertain the most distant hopes of so great a re- 
 volution, of which, however, the cardinal was al- 
 ready laying the foundation. 
 
 At first, he seemed desirous of effecting a recon- 
 ciliation between the king and the republic; and 
 dispatched circular letters, dictated in appearance 
 by the spirit of charity and concord ; a common 
 and well known snare, in which, however, the 
 people are alw^ays caught. He wrote an affecting 
 etter to the king of Sweden, conjuring him, in the 
 name of that Saviour, whom all Christians adore, 
 to give peace to Poland and her king. Charles 
 XII. answered the^ntentions of the cardinal rather 
 than his words. Meanwhile he remained with 
 his victorious army in the great duchy of Lithu- 
 ania, declaring, that he would not disturb the 
 diet ; that he made war against Augustus and the 
 Saxons, and not against the Poles ; and that, far 
 from attacking, became only to deliver them from 
 oppression. These letters and these answers were 
 calculated for the public. The emissaries that 
 were continually going and coming between the 
 cardinal and the count Piper, and the secret meet- 
 ings held at the prelate's house, were the springs 
 that regulated the motions of the diet. They pro- 
 posed to dispatch an embassy to Charles XII. and 
 unanimously required of the king, that he should 
 bring no more Muscovites upon their frontiers, 
 and that he should send back his Saxon troops. 
 
 The bad fortune of Augustus had already done 
 what the diet demanded of him. The league, se- 
 cretly concluded with the Muscovites at Birsen, 
 
6b HISTORY OF 
 
 was nov/ become as useless as it had once ap- 
 peared formidable. He was far from being able 
 to send the czar the fifty thousand Germans, 
 ■whom he had promised to raise in the empire. 
 The czar himself, a dangerous neighbour to Po- 
 land, was in no haste to assist a divided kingdom, 
 from whose misfortunes he hoped to derive some 
 advantage. He contented himself with sending 
 twenty thousand Muscovites into Lithuania, who 
 did 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 generals, and finding no more to pil- 
 lage, they returned in shoals to their own country. 
 With regard to the shattered remains of the Saxon 
 army that was beat at Riga, Augustus sent them 
 to winter and recruit in Saxony ; hoping by this 
 sacrifice, involuntary as it was, to regain the af- 
 fection of the Poles, who were so highly icceused 
 against him. 
 
 The war now was turned into intrigues. The 
 diet was split into almost as many factions as 
 there were palatines. One day the interests of 
 king Augustus prevailed ; the next they were dis- 
 regarded. Every one called out for liberty and 
 justice ; and yet no one knew what was liberty 
 and justice. The time was spent in private ca- 
 bals and harangues. The diet neither knew what 
 they would be at, nor what they ought to do. 
 Great companies seldom steer the right course in 
 times of public commotions ; because the factious 
 are bold, and the virtuous are commonly diffident. 
 The diet broke up in a tumultuous manner on the 
 17th of February, 1702, after having spent tliree 
 months in cabals, without coming to any fixed 
 resolution. The senators, consisting of the p<ala- 
 tines and bishops, remained at Warsaw. The 
 senate cf Poland has a right of making laws pro- 
 
CHARLES XII. 67 
 
 vifiionally, which the diets seldom disannul. This 
 body being less numerous, and accustomed to 
 business, was far less tumultuous, and decided 
 witli greater dispatch 
 
 They decreed that the embassy, which was 
 proposed in the diet, should be sent lo the king 
 of Sweden ; and that the pospolite should take to 
 arms, and hold themselves in readiness at all 
 events. They made several regulations for 
 quelling the commotions in Lithuania, and for 
 diminishing the authority of the king, though less 
 to be dreaded than that of Charles XIL 
 
 Augustus rather chose to receive hard laws 
 from his conqueror than from his subjects. He 
 resolved to sue for a peace to the king of Sweden, 
 and to conclude a secret treaty with that monarch. 
 This was a step which he was obliged to conceal 
 from the senate, whom he considered as an 
 enemy still more untractable than Charles. As 
 the affair was of a very delicate nature, he en- 
 trusted it to the countess of Konigsmark, a 
 Swedish lady of high birth, to whom he was at 
 that time attached. This is the lady whose 
 brother became so famous by his unfortunate 
 death, and whose son commanded the French 
 armies with so much glory and success. Cele- 
 brated as she was for her wit and beauty, she 
 was more capable than any minister of bringing 
 a negotiation to a happy period. Moreover, as 
 she had an estate in the dominions of Charles 
 XII. and had resided a long time at his court, 
 she had a very plausible pretext for waiting upon 
 bim. Accordingly she repaired to the Swedish 
 camp in Lithuania, and immediately applied to 
 count Piper, who too rashly promised her an au- 
 dience of his master. The countess, among 
 those perfections which rendered her the most 
 amiable woman in Europe, possessed the happy 
 
68 HISTORY OF 
 
 talent of speaking the language of several cotm» 
 tries she had never seen, with as much ease and 
 propriety as if she had been a native. She even 
 amused herself sometimes in writing French 
 verses, which one might have easily mistaken for 
 the production of a person born at Versailles. 
 Those which she composed on Charles XII. 
 are not beneath the dignity of history to men- 
 tion. She introduced the heathen gods praising 
 him for his different virtues. The piece con* 
 eluded thus ; 
 
 Evfin, chacnn des Dieux diseourant d sa gloire, 
 Le plagait par avnnce au Temple de Memoire ; 
 Mais Vnus ni Bacchus n'en dirent pas un mot. 
 
 The hero's acts while other gods proclaim. 
 And praise, and promise him immortal fame ; 
 Silent sit Bacchus and the qaeen of lore. 
 
 All her wit and charms were lost upon such a man 
 as 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. In this attempt she at last 
 succeeded. She met him one day in a very nar- 
 row path ; and the moment she observed him, 
 came down from her coach. The king made hep 
 a low bow, without speaking a word to her, 
 turned about his horse, and rode back in an in- 
 stant. And thus the only advantage which the 
 countess of Konigsmark gained from her journey 
 was the pleasure of seeing that the king of 
 Sweden feared nobody but her. 
 
 The king of Poland was therefore obliged to 
 throw himself into the arms of the senate. He 
 made them two proposals, which were laid before 
 them by the palatine of Marienburg ; the one, 
 that they shcnild leave to him the disposal of the 
 republic, in which case he would engage to pay 
 
CHARLES XII. 69 
 
 the soldiers two quarters advance out of his own 
 revenue ; the other, that they should allow him to 
 bring back twelve thousand Saxons into Poland. 
 The cardinal-piimate returned him an answer as 
 severe as the king of Sweden's refusal. He told 
 the palatine of Marienburg, 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.' 
 
 In this extremity the king was desirous of pre- 
 serving at least the appearance of the royal au- 
 thority. He sent one of his chamberlains to wait 
 tipon Charles, and to learn from him where, and 
 in what manner, his Swedish majesty would be 
 pleased to receive the embassy of the king his 
 master, and of the republic. Unhappily they 
 had forgot to ask from the Swedes a passport for 
 the chamberlain. The king of Sweden, instead 
 of giving him an audience, caused him to be 
 thrown into prison, saying, ' That he expected 
 to receive an embassy from the republic, and not 
 from Augustus.' 
 
 After this, Charles having left garrisons in some 
 towns in Lithuania, advanced beyond Grodno, a 
 city well known in Europe for the diets that are 
 held there, but ill built and worse fortified, 
 
 A few miles on the other side of Grodno, he 
 met the embassy of the republic, which consisted 
 of five senators. They desired, in the first place, 
 to have the ceremony of their introduction pro- 
 perly regulated, a thing with which the king was 
 utterly unacquainted. They demanded, that the 
 senate should be complimented with the title of 
 Most Serene, and that the coaches of the king 
 and senators should be sent to meet them. They 
 were told in answer, ' That the republic should 
 be styled Illustrious, and not Most Serene ; that 
 the king never used any coaches ; that he had 
 
70 HISTORY OF 
 
 plenty of officers in his retinue, but no senators ; 
 that a lieutenant-general should be sent to meet 
 them ; and that they might come on their own 
 horses.' 
 
 Charles XII. received them in his tewt with 
 some appearance of military grandeur. Their 
 -conversation was full of caution and reserve. 
 They said they were afraid of Charles XII. and 
 did not love Augustus ; but that it would be a 
 shame for them to take the crown, in obedience 
 to the orders of a stranger, from the head of that 
 prmce whom they had elected. Nothing wa« 
 finally concluded ; and Charles XII. gave them 
 to understand, that he would settle all disputes at 
 Warsaw. 
 
 His march was preceded bj a manifesto> 
 which the cardinal and his party spread over 
 Poland in the space o eight days. By this writ- 
 ing, Charles invited all the Poles to join him in 
 revenging their own quarrel, and endeavoured to 
 persuade them that his interest and theirs were 
 the same. They were, however, very different j; 
 but the manifesto, supported by a powerful army» 
 by the disorder of the senate, and by the ap- 
 proach of the conqueror ; made a deep impres- 
 sion on the minds of the people. They were 
 obliged to own Charles for their protector, be- 
 cause he was resolved to be so ; and happy was 
 it for them, that he contented himself with thi» 
 title. 
 
 The senators, who opposed Augustus, pub- 
 lished this manifesto aloud, even in the royal 
 presence. 
 
 The few who adhered to him observed a pro- 
 found silence. At length, intelligence being 
 brought that Charles was advancing by long 
 marches, every one prepared to depart in a hurry» 
 The cardinal left V^arsaw among tho Bjsstu. 
 
CHARLES XIT. 71 
 
 The greatest part fled with precipitation ; some 
 retired to their country-seats, there to wait the 
 nnravelling of this perplexed and intricate affair ; 
 others went to arm their friends. Nobody re- 
 mained with the king but the ambassadors of the 
 «mperor and the czar, the pope's nuncio, and a 
 few bishops and palatines who were attached to 
 his fortunes. He was forced to fly, though no- 
 thing as yet decided in his favour. Before his 
 departure, he hastened to hold a council with the 
 small body of senators who still represented the 
 senate. Zealous as these were for his interest, 
 they were nevertheless Poles ; they had all con- 
 ceived such an utter aversion to the Saxon troops, 
 that they durst not grant him a liberty of recall- 
 ing more than six thousand of them for his de- 
 fence ; and they even voted that these six thou- 
 sand should be commanded by the grand general 
 of Poland, and be immediately sent back upon 
 the conclusion of a peace. The armies of the 
 republic they left entirely to his disposal. 
 
 After this decree of the senate, the king left 
 Warsaw, too weak to resist his enemies, and 
 but little satisfied even with the conduct of his 
 friends. He immediately published orders for 
 assembling the pospolite and the two armies, 
 which were little more than empty names. He 
 had nothing to hope for in Lithuania, of which 
 the Swedes were in possession. The army of 
 Poland, reduced to a handful of men, was in 
 want of arms and provisions, and had no great 
 inclination to the war. Most of the nobility, in- 
 timidated, irresolute, and disafiFected, remained 
 at their country-seats. In vain did the king, au- 
 thorised by the laws of the land, command every 
 gentleman, under pain of death to take up arms 
 and follow him. It was even become a proble- 
 matical point, whether or not they ought to obey 
 
72 HISTORY OF 
 
 him. His cKief dependence was upon tbe troops 
 of the electorate, where the form of government 
 being wholly despotic, he was under no appre- 
 hensions of being disobeyed. He had already 
 given secret orders for the march of twelve thou- 
 sand Saxons, who were advancing with great 
 expedition. He likewise recalled the eight thou- 
 sand men whom he had promised to the empe- 
 ror in his war against France, and whom the ne- 
 cessity of his affairs nov/ obliged him to withdraw. 
 To introduce so many Saxons into Poland, was, 
 in effect, to alienate the affections of all his sub- 
 jects, and to violate the law made by his own 
 party, which allowed only of six thousand. But 
 he well knew, that, if he proved victorious, they 
 would not dare to complain, and if he should be 
 conquered, they would never forgive him for hav- 
 ing introduced even the six thousand. While the 
 soldiers were arriving in troops, and while he 
 was flying from one palatinate to another, and 
 assembling the nobility who adhered to him, the 
 king of Sweden reached Warsaw, on the 5th of 
 May, 170ii. The gates were opened to him at the 
 first summons. He dismissed the Polish gar- 
 rison, disbanded the city-guard, posted guards 
 of his own in ^11 the convenient places, and 
 ordered the inhabitants to deliver up their arms. 
 Satisfied with having disarmed them, and un- 
 willing to provoke them by any unnecessary 
 severities, he demanded a contribution of no 
 more than one hundred thousand livres. Augustus 
 was then assembling his forces at Cracow, and 
 was greatly surprised to seethe cardinal -primate 
 arrive among the rest. This man affected to 
 maintain the decorum of his character to the last, 
 and to dethrone his king with all the appearance 
 of the most respectful behaviour. He gave him 
 to understand that the king of Sweden seemed 
 
CHARLES XII. 73 
 
 ▼ery well inclined to come to a reasonable ac- 
 commodation, and humbly begged leave to wait 
 upon that monarch. Augustus granted him what 
 he could not refuse, that is, the liberty of hurting 
 himself. 
 
 'J'he cardinal-primate immediately repaired to 
 the king of Sweden, before whom he had not as 
 yet ventured to appear. He saw him at Praag, 
 not far from Warsaw, but without any of those ce- 
 remonies which had been observed in introducing 
 the ambassadors of the republic. He found the 
 conqueror clad in a coal of coarse blue cloth, with 
 gilt brass buttons, jack boots, and buff skin glovea 
 that reached up to his elbows. He was in a room 
 without hangings, attended by the duke of Hol- 
 stein, count Piper, his first minister, and several 
 general officers. The king advanced a few steps 
 to meet the cardinal ; they talked together stand- 
 ing for about a quarter of an hour ; Charles put 
 an end to the conference, by saj'ing aloud, ' I 
 will never give the Poles peace, till they have 
 elected a new king.' The cardinal, who expected 
 Buch a declaration, caused it to be immediately 
 notified to all the palatinates, assuring them, that 
 he was extremely sorry for it, but represented to 
 them, at the same time, the absolute necessity 
 they were under of complying with the conqueror's 
 request. 
 
 Upon receiving this intelligence, the king of 
 Poland plainly perceived, that he must either lose 
 his crown, or preserve it by a battle; and he ex- 
 erted his utmost efforts in order to succeed in the 
 decision of this important quarrel. All his Saxon 
 troops were arrived from the frontiers of Saxony, 
 The nobility of the palatinate of Cracow, where 
 he still remained, came in a body to offer him their 
 service. He exhorted them to remember the oathe. 
 they had taken j and they promised to shed the 
 
74 HISTORY OF 
 
 last drop of their blood in support of his cause. 
 Strengthened by these succours, and by the troops 
 which bore the name of the army of the crown, 
 he went, for the first time, in quest of the king of 
 Sweden ; nor was he long in finding him ; for that 
 prince was already advancing towards Cracow. 
 
 The two kings met on the 13th of July, 1702, in 
 a spacious plain near Clissau, between Warsaw 
 and Cracow. Augustus had near four-and-twenty 
 thousand men ; Charles XII. had not above 
 twelve thousand. The battle began by a general 
 discharge of the artillery. At the first valley of 
 the Saxons, the duke of Holstein, who command- 
 ed the Swedish cavalry, a young prince of great 
 courage and virtue, received a cannon-bal} in his 
 reins. The king asked if he was killed, and was 
 answered in the affirmative. He made no reply : 
 a few tears fell from his eyes : he covered his face 
 with his hands for a moment ; and then of a 
 sudden, spurring on his horse with all his might, 
 he rushed into the thickest of the enemy at the 
 head of the guards. 
 
 The king of Poland did everything that could 
 be expected from a prince who fought for his 
 crown. Thrice in person did he rally his troops, 
 and lead them up to the charge ; but the Saxons 
 only could be said to fight for him : the Poles, 
 who formed his right wing, fled to a man, at the 
 very beginning of the battle ; some through fear, 
 and others through disaffection. The good for- 
 tune of Charles XII. carried all before it ; he 
 gained a complete victory. He took possession 
 of the enemy's camp, their colours and artillery ; 
 and Augustus's military-chest fell into his hands. 
 He halted not a moment on the field of battle, 
 but marched directly to Cracow, pursuing the 
 king of Poland, who fled before him. 
 
 The citizens of Cracow were bold enough to 
 
CHARLES XII. 75 
 
 shut the gates \ipon the conqueror. He caused 
 them to be burst open. The gairison did not 
 Tenture to fire a single gun ; but were driven with 
 whips and canes into the castle, into which the 
 king entered pell-mell with them. Charles, ob- 
 serving an officer of the artillery going to fire a 
 cannon, ran up to him, and snatched the match 
 out of his hand. The commander fell on his 
 knees before him. Three Swedish regiments 
 were lodged at free quarters among the citizens, 
 and the town was taxed with a contribution of 
 a hundred thousand rix-dollars. The count de 
 Steinbock, who was appointed governor of the 
 city, being informed that some treasures were 
 hid in the tombs of the Polish kings, in St. Ni- 
 cholas' church at Cracow, caused them to be 
 opened. Nothing was found there but some or- 
 naments of gold and silver, belonging to the 
 churches. Of these he took a part ; and Charles 
 XII. even sent a golden cup to one of the Swedish 
 churches ; an action that might have raised the 
 Polish Catholics against him, had any thing 
 been able to withstand the terror of his arms. 
 
 He left Cracow with a determined resolution 
 to pursue Augustus without intermission. At the 
 distance of a few miles from the city, his horse 
 fell and broke his thighbone. They were obliged 
 to carry him back to Cracow, where he remained 
 confined to his bed for six weeks, in the hands of 
 the surgeons. This accident gave Augustus a 
 little respite. He forthwith caused it to be 
 spread abroad through Poland and Germany, 
 that Charles XII. was killed by the fall. This 
 report, which gained credit for some time, filled 
 the minds of all men with doubt and apprehen- 
 sion. During this interval, he assembled at Ma- 
 rienburg, and then at Lublin, all the orders of the 
 kingdom, which had been already convoked at 
 
76 HISTORY OF 
 
 Sendomir. The assembly was very full, as ^ew 
 palatinates refused to send their deputies thither. 
 He regained the affections of most of them by 
 presents and promises, and by that affability, 
 without which absolute kings caJinot be beloved, 
 nor elective kings maintain themselves on the 
 throne. The diet were soon undeceived con- 
 cerning the false report of the king of Sweden's 
 death ; but that large body was already put ia 
 motion, and suffered itself to be c?irried along 
 by the impulse it had received ; all the members 
 swore to continue faithful to their sovereign : so 
 subject to change are all great companies ! Even 
 the cardinal-primate himself, who still pretended 
 a regard for Augustus, repaired to the diet of 
 Lublin ; where he kissed the king's hand, and 
 readily took the oath as well as the other members. 
 The substance of the oath was, that they had 
 never attempted, nor ever would attempt any 
 thing prejudicial to the interest of Augustus. 
 The king excused the cardinal from the first part 
 of the oath, and the prelate blushed while he 
 swore to the last. The result of all the delibe- 
 rations of thisdiet was, that the republic of Poland 
 should maintain an army of fifty thousand men 
 at their own expense, for the service of their so- 
 vereign ; that they should allow the Swedes six 
 weeks' time to declare, whether they were for 
 peace or war ; and the same time to the princes 
 of Sapieha, the original authors of the troubles in 
 Lithuania, to come and ask pardon from the king 
 of Poland. 
 
 In the mean time Charles XII. being cured of 
 his wound, overturned all their deliberations. Un- 
 alterably fixed in his resolution of forcing the 
 Poles to dethrone their king with their own hands, 
 he caused a new assembly to be convoked at 
 Warsaw, by the intrigues of the cardinal, in op- 
 
CHARLES XII. 77 
 
 position to that of Lublin. His generals repre- 
 scTited to him, that this negotiation might pos- 
 sibly be iuvolved in endless delays, and by that 
 means be rendered ineffectual ; that, in the mean 
 time, the Muscovites were everyday becoming a 
 more equal match for the troops which he had left 
 in Livonia and Ingria ; that the skirmishes which 
 frequently happened between the Swedes and 
 Russians in these provinces did not always turn 
 out to the advantage of the former ; and, finally, 
 that his own presence might soon be necessary in 
 those quarters. Charles, as steady in the prose- 
 cution of his schemes, as he was brisk and vigo- 
 rous in action, replied : ' Should it oblige me to 
 remain here for fifty years, 1 will not depart till 
 I have dethroned the king of Poland.' 
 
 He left the assembly of Warsaw to combat that 
 of Lublin, by their speeches and writings, and to 
 justify their proceedings by the la""^ of the king- 
 dom; laws always equivocal, which each party 
 interpret according to their pleasure, and which 
 success alone can render incontestable. As for 
 himself, having reinforced his victorious troops 
 with six thousand horse and eight thousand foot, 
 which he had received from Sweden, he marched 
 against the remains of the Saxon army^ which he 
 Lad beat at Clissau, and which hud found time to 
 rally and recruit, while his fall from his horse had 
 confined him to his bed. This army shunned his 
 approach, and retired towards Prussia, to the 
 north-west of Warsaw. The river Bug lay be- 
 tween hira and the enemy. Charles swam across 
 it at the head of his cavalry : the infantry went 
 to look, for a ford somewhat higher. He came up 
 with tlie Saxons on the first of May, 170.5, at a 
 placecalled Fultesk. General Stenaucommanded 
 them to the number of about ten thousand. The 
 king of Sweden, in his precipitate march, had 
 
rS HISTORY OF 
 
 brought no more than the same number alongwitb 
 him, confident tliat a less number would be suf- 
 ficient. So great was the terror of his arms, that 
 one half of the Saxon troops tied at his approach, 
 without waiting for the battle. General btenau, 
 with two regiments, kept iiis ground for a moment; 
 but was soon hurried along in the general flight 
 of his army, which was dispersed before it was 
 vanquished, 'i'he Swedes did not take above a 
 thousand prisoners, nor kill above six hundred 
 men, having more difficulty in pursuing than in 
 defeating the enemy. 
 
 Augustus having now nothing left him but the 
 shattered remains of his Saxons, who were every 
 where defeated, retired in haste to Thorn, an 
 ancient city of Royal Prussia, situa-ted on the 
 Vistula, and under the protection of the Poles. 
 Charles immediately prepared to besiege it. The 
 king of Poland, not thinking himself secure in this 
 place, withdrew from it, and flew into every cornel 
 of Poland, where he could possibly find any 
 soldiers, and into which the Swedes had not as 
 yet penetrated. Bleanwhile 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 to fhorn ; he was therefore obliged to wait 
 till a train of a-itillery should be brought from 
 Sweden by sea. 
 
 While he tarried here, he fixed his quarters at 
 the distance of a few miles from the city, in re- 
 connoitring which he fretjuently approached too 
 near the ramparts. In these dangerous excur- 
 sions, the plain dress which he wore was of greater 
 service to him than he imagined, as it prevented 
 his being distinguished and marked out by the 
 enemy, who would not have failed to fire upon 
 him. One day, having advanced too near the 
 
CHARLES XII. 79 
 
 fortifications, attended by one of his generals call- 
 ed Lieven, who was dressed in a blue coat trim- 
 med with gold, and fearing lest the general should 
 be too easily distinguished, he ordered him to 
 •walk behind him. To this he was prompted by 
 that greatness of soul which was so natural to him, 
 that it even prevented his reflecting on the im- 
 minent danger to which he exposed his own life, 
 in order to preserve that of his subject. Lieven 
 perceiving his error too late, in having puton a re- 
 markable dress, which endangered all those who 
 were near him, and being equally concerned for 
 the king wherever he was, hesitated for a moment 
 whether or nut he should obey him. In the midst 
 of this contest, the king takes him by the arm, 
 puts himself before him, and screens him with his 
 body. At that instant, a cannon-ball taking them 
 in flank, struck the general dead upon the very 
 spotwhich the king bad hardly quitted. The death 
 of this man, killed exactly in his stead, and be- 
 cause he had endeavoured to save him, contri- 
 buted not a little to confirm him in the opinion, 
 ■which he always entertained of absolute predes- 
 tination ; and made him believe that his fate, 
 which had preserved him in such a singular man- 
 ner, reserved him for the execution of greater un- 
 dertakings. 
 
 Every thing succeeded with him : his negoti- 
 ations and his arms weie equally fortunate. He 
 was present, as it were, in every part of Poland. 
 His grand general ilenschild was in the heart of 
 the kingdom with a large body of troops. About 
 thirty tlw)n sand Swedes, under different generals, 
 were posted towards the north and east upon the 
 frontiers of Muscovy, and withstood the united 
 eflforts of the whole Russian empire ; and Charles 
 was in the wet-t, at the other end of Poland, with 
 the flower of his army. 
 
80 HISTORY OF 
 
 The king of Denmark tied up by tbe treaty of 
 Travendal, which his weakness hat! hindered him 
 from breaking, remained quiet. That prudent 
 monarch did not venture to discover the disgust 
 he felt at seeing the king of Sweden so near his 
 dominions. At a greater distance towards the 
 south-west, between the rivers Elbe and VVeser, 
 lay the duchy of Bremen, the most remote of al) 
 the ancient conquests of the Sv/edes. This coun- 
 try was filled with strong garrisons, and opened 
 to the conqueror a free passage into Saxony and 
 the empire. Thus, from the German Ocean almost 
 to the mouth of the Boristhenes, comprehending 
 the whole breadth of Europe, and even to the gates 
 of iMoscow, ail was in consternation ; and every 
 one was daily expecting a general revolution. 
 Charles's ships, which were now masters of the 
 Baltic, were employed in transporting to Sweden 
 the prisoners he had taken in Poland. Sweden, 
 undisturbed in the midst of these mighty commo- 
 tions, enjoyed the sweets of peace, and shared in 
 the glory of its king, without bearing the burden 
 of the war ; inasmuch as its victorious troops were 
 paid and maintained at the expense of the con- 
 quered. 
 
 While all the northern powers were thus kept 
 in awe by the arms of Charles XU. the town of 
 Dantzic ventured to incur his displeasure. Four- 
 teen frigates and forty transports were bringing 
 the king areinforcementofsix thousand men, with 
 cannon and ammunition, to form the siege of 
 Thorn. These succours must necessarily pass up 
 the Weissel. At the mouth of this river stands 
 Dantzic, a free and weahhv town, which, together 
 with Thorn and Elbing, enjoys the same privi« 
 leges in Poland as the imperial towns possess in 
 Germany. Its liberty hath been alternately at- 
 tacked by the Danes, the Swedes, and some Ger- 
 
CHARLES XII. 81 
 
 man princes ; and nothing hath preserved it from 
 bondage but the mutual jealousy of these rival 
 powers. Count Ste iibock, one of the Swedish 
 generals, assembled the magistrates in the king's 
 name, and deraaiuled a passage for the troops and 
 ammunition. The ntagistrates were guilty of a 
 piece of imprudence very common with those who 
 treat with people more powerful than themselves ; 
 they durst neither r^^tuse nor grant his demands. 
 General Steinbock o'diged them to grant more 
 than he had at first demanded. He exacted from 
 the city a contribution of a hundred thousand 
 crowns, as a punishment for their imprudent re- 
 fusal. At last the recruits, the cannon, and am- 
 munition, being arrived before Thorn, the siege 
 was begun on the ^^d of September. 
 
 Robel, governor of the place, defended it for a 
 month with a garrison of five thousand men. At 
 the expiration ot that term he was obliged to sur- 
 render at discretion. 'Jhe garrison were made 
 prisoners of war, and transported to Sweden. 
 Robel v^s presented to the kmg imarmed. That 
 prince, who never lost an opportunity of honour- 
 ing merit in his enemies, gave him a sword with 
 his own hand, made him a handsome present iu 
 money, and dismissed him on his parole. But the 
 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 Weissel, founded 
 by the teutonic knights, and annexed likewise to 
 Poland, did not profit by the misconduct of the 
 Dantzicers, but hesitated too long about granting 
 a passage to the Swedish troops. It was more 
 severely punished tlr.m Dantzic. On the iSth of 
 December, Cltarles entered it at the head of four 
 thousand men, with bayonets fixed to the ends of 
 their muskets. 'Jhe inhabitants, struck with ter- 
 D2 
 
82 HISTORY OF 
 
 ror, fell upon their knees in the streets, and beg- 
 ged for mercy. Ke caused them all to be dis- 
 armed ; quartered his soldiers upon them ; and 
 then having assembled the magistrates, enacted 
 that same 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 likewise 
 seized. A battle gained would not have procured 
 him so many advantages. All these successes 
 paved the way for the dethroning of Augustus. 
 
 Hardly had the cardinal taken an oath that he 
 vrould make no attempts against his sovereign, 
 when he repaired to the assembly of Warsaw, 
 always under the specious pretence of peace. 
 When he arrived there he talked of nothing but 
 obedience and ( oncord, thougli he was accom- 
 panied by a number of soldiers whom he had 
 raised on his own estate. At last he threw off 
 the mask ; and, on the 14th of February, 1704, 
 declared, in the name of the assembly, 'That 
 Augustus, elector of Saxony, was incapable of 
 wearing the crown of Poland.' All the members 
 with one voice pronounced the throne to be va- 
 cant. It was the intention of the king of Sweden, 
 and consequently of the diet, to raise prince James 
 Sobieski to the throne of king John his father. 
 James Sobieski was then at Breslaw in Silesia, 
 waiting with impatience for the crown which his 
 father had worn. While he was one day a hunt- 
 ing a few leagues from Breslaw, in company with 
 prince Constantine, one of his brothers, thirty 
 Saxon horsemen, sent privately by king Augustus, 
 issued suddenly from a neighbouring wood, sur- 
 rounded the two princes, and carried them oflF 
 without resistance. They had prepared fresh 
 horses, upon which they conducted them to Leip- 
 sic, and committed them to close custody. I'his 
 
CHARLES XII. 83 
 
 stroke disconcerted the measures of Charles, Uie 
 cardinal, and the assembly of Warsaw. 
 
 Fortune, which sports herself with crowned 
 heads, exposed A ugustus, almost at the same time, 
 to the danger of being taken himself. He was at 
 table, three leagues from Cracow, relying upon an 
 advanced guard which was posted at some dis- 
 tance, when all of a sudden general Renschild ap- 
 peared, after having carried off the guard. The 
 king of Poland liad but just time to get on horse- 
 back, with ten others. General Renschild pur- 
 sued him for four days, just upon the point of 
 seizing him every moment. The king fled to Sen- 
 domir : the Swedish general pursued him thither ; 
 and it was only by a piece of good fortune that 
 he made his escape. 
 
 Meanwhile the king's party and that of the 
 cardinal treated each other as traitors to their 
 country. The army of the crown was divided 
 between the two factions. Augustus, being at 
 last obliged to accept of assistance from the Rus- 
 sians, was sorry that he had not applied to them 
 sooner. One v/hile he flew into Saxony, where 
 his resources were exhausted ; at another he re- 
 turned to Poland, where no one durst serve him : 
 while in the mean time the king of Sweden, vic- 
 torious and unmolested, ruled in Poland with un- 
 controlled authority. 
 
 Count Piper, who was as great a politician as 
 his master was a hero, advised Charles XII. to 
 take the crown of Poland to himself. He repre- 
 sented how easy it would be to accomplish such 
 a scheme with a victorious army, and a power- 
 ful party in the heart of the kingdom, which was 
 already subdued. He tempted him with the title 
 of ' Defender of the Evangelic Religion ;' a name 
 which flattered the ambition of Charles. It would 
 be easy, he said, to effect in Poland what Gus- 
 
84 HISTORY OF 
 
 tavus Vasa had effected in Sweden ; to establish 
 the Lutheran religion, and to break the chains of 
 the people, who were now held in slavery by the 
 nobility and clergy. Charlt-s vit-liled to the temp- 
 tation for a moment ; but ^loiy was his idol. To 
 it he sacrificed his own inTeie>t, atj<i the pleasure 
 he would have enjoyed m taking Poland from 
 the pope. He told count Piper, that he was 
 much hapjuer in bestowinj^ liiau in gaining king- 
 doms ; andaddedwith a simle, ' Youweremade 
 to be the niinister of an Italian prince.' 
 
 Charles was still near Ihom, in that part of 
 Royal Prussia which belon, s to Poland. From 
 thence he extended his viewb lo whac was pass- 
 ing at Warsaw, and kept all the neighbouring 
 powers in awe. Prince Alexaiider, brother of the 
 two Sobieskies who were carried info Silesia, eame 
 to implore his aid in revenging his wrongs. Charles 
 granted his desire the more readily, as he thought 
 he could easily gratify it. and that, at the same 
 time, he should be avenging himself. But being 
 extremely desirous of giving Poland a king, he 
 advised Prince Alexander to mount the throne, 
 from which fortune seemed deterndned to exclude 
 his brother. Little did he exf)ect a refusah 
 Prince Alexander told him, that nothing should 
 ever induce him to take an advantage of his 
 elder brother's misfortune. 'Ihe king of Sweden, 
 count Piper, all his friends, and especially the 
 young Palatine of Posnania, Stanislaus Lec- 
 zinsky, pressed him to accept of the crown ; but 
 he remained unmoved by all their importunities. 
 The neighbouring princes were astonished to hear 
 of this uncommon refusal ; and knew not which 
 to admire most ; a king of Sweden who at twenty- 
 two years of age, gave away the crown of Po- 
 land, or Prince Alexander, who refused to ac- 
 cept it. 
 
CHARLES XII. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 Stanislaus Leczinsty elected king of Poland. Death of 
 the cardinal-primate. Skilful retn-at of general Scliul- 
 lemburg. Exploits of the czar. I'ountlalion of Peters- 
 burg, Battle of Travenstad. Cliarles enters Saxony. 
 Peace of Altranstad. Augustus abdicates the crown 
 in favour of Stanislaus. General Patkul, the czar's 
 plenipotentiarj', is broke upon the wheel and quar- 
 tered. Charles receives the ambassadors of foreign 
 princes in Saxony : and goes to Dresden to visit Au- 
 gustus before his departure. 
 
 VOUNG Stanislaus Leczinsky was then de- 
 puted by the assembly of VVars;iw to go to 
 the king of Sweden, and give him an account of 
 several differences which iiad arisen among them, 
 since the time that prince .Tames was carried 
 oflF. Stanislaus had a very engaging aspect, full 
 of courage and sweetness, with an air of probity 
 and frankness, which, of all external advantages, 
 is certainly the greatest, and gives more weight 
 to words than even eloquence itself. Charles 
 was surprised to hear him talk with so much judg- 
 ment of Augustus, the assembly, the cardinal- 
 primate, and the different interests that divided 
 Europe. King Stanislaus did me the honour to 
 inform me, that he said to the king of Sweden in 
 Latin, ' How can we elect a king, if the two 
 princes, James and Constat) tine Sobieski, are 
 held in captivity 1' and that Charles replied, 
 'How can we deliver the republic if we don't 
 elect a king V This conversation was the only in- 
 trigue that placed Stanislaus on the throne. 
 Charles prolonged the conversation, on purpose 
 that he might the better sound the genius of the 
 young deputy. After the audience, he said aloud, 
 that he had not seen a man so fit to reconcile 
 all parties. He irojnediateiy made inquiry into 
 
86 HISTORY OF 
 
 the character of the palatine Leczinsky, and 
 found that he was a man of great courage and 
 inured to labour ; that he always lay on a kind of 
 straw mattress, requiring no service from his do- 
 mestics ; that he was temperate to a degree rarely 
 known in that climate \ liberal with economy ; 
 adored by his vassals ; and perhaps the only lord 
 in Poland, who had any friends, at a time when 
 men acknowledged no ties but those of interest 
 and faction. This character, which in many par- 
 ticulars resembled his own, determined him en- 
 tirely. After the conference he said aloud, ' There 
 is the man that shall always be my friend.' The 
 meaning of which words was soon perceived to 
 be, ' There is the man that shall be king.* 
 
 As soon as the primate of Poland understood 
 that Charles XTI. had nominated the palatine 
 Leczinsky in much thf same manner as Alexan- 
 der nominated Abdalonimus, he hastened to the 
 king of Sweden, to try if possible to divert him 
 from his resolution ; being desirous that the 
 crown should devolve on one Lubomirsky. * But 
 what have you to object against Stanislaus Lec- 
 zinsky V said the conqueror. ' Sir,' said the pri- 
 mate, 'he is too young.' — ' He is much about my 
 age,' replied the king drily; and turning his 
 back upon the prelate, immediately dispatched 
 the count de floorn to acquaint the assembly of 
 Warsaw, that they must choose a king in five days, 
 and that Stanislaus Leczinsky must be the man. 
 The count de Hoorn arrived on the 7 th of July, 
 and fixed the l'2th for the day of election, with as 
 much ease and indifference as if he had been or- 
 dering the decampment of a battalion. The car- 
 dinal-primate, disappointed of the fruit of so 
 many intrigues, returned to the assembly, where 
 he left no stone unturned to defeat an election in 
 which he had no share. But the king of Sweden 
 
CHARLES XII. 87 
 
 baring come incognito to Warsaw, he was ob- 
 liged to hold his peace. All that the primate 
 could do was to absent himself from the election : 
 unable to oppose the conqueror, and unwilling to 
 assist him, he confined himself to a useless neu- 
 trality. 
 
 Saturday toe 12th of July, the day fixed for 
 the election, being come, the assembly met at 
 three in the afternoon at Colo, the place appointed 
 for the ceremony ; the bishop of Posnania acting 
 as president, in the room of the cardinal-primate. 
 He came attended by several gentlemen of the 
 party. The count de Hoorn and two other ge- 
 neral officers assisted publicly at the solemnity, 
 as ambassadors extraordinary from Charles to 
 the republic. The session lasted till nine in the 
 evening ; and the bishop of Posnania put an end 
 to it by declaring, in the name of the assembly, 
 that Stanislaus was elected king of Poland. They 
 all threw up their hat? into the air, and the shouts 
 of acclamation stifled the cries of the opposers. 
 It was of no service to the cardinal primate, or to 
 theotherswho had resolvedto continue neuter, that 
 they had absented themselves from the election ; 
 they were all obliged next day to come and do 
 homage to the new king: butthe greatest mortifica- 
 tion to which they were subjected, was their being 
 compelled to follow him to the king of Sweden's 
 quarters. Charles paid the sovereign he had made 
 all the honours due to a king of Poland ; and, to 
 add the greater weight to his new dignity, he 
 furnished him with a considerable sum of money, 
 and a sufficient number of troops. 
 
 Immediately after lids Ciiarles XII. departed 
 from Warsaw, in order to finish the conquest of 
 Poland. He had ordered his army to rendezvous 
 before Leopold, the ca|)ital of the great palatinate 
 of Russia, a place important in itself, and still 
 
88 HISTORY OF 
 
 more so on account of the riches which it con- 
 tained. It was bupj)osed it would hold out for 
 fifteen days, by rne.ins of the fortifications with 
 which Augustus had strengthened it. The con- 
 queror sat down before it on the 5th of Septem- 
 ber, and next day took it by assault. All those 
 who presumed to make resistance Vv'ere put to 
 the sword. The victorious troops, though mas- 
 ters of the city, did not break their ranks to go 
 a-pillaging. notwithstanding the immense trea- 
 sures that were said to be concealed in Leopold. 
 They drew up in order of battle in the great 
 square ; where the leniaining part of the garrison 
 came and surrendered themselves prisoners of 
 war. The king published his orders by sound of 
 trumpet, commanding under pain of death, all 
 the inhabitants, v/ho had any effects belonging to 
 Augustus or his adherents, to produce them be- 
 fore night. The measures he took were so 
 wisely concerted, that few ventured to disobey; 
 and accordingly four hundred chests of gold and 
 silver coin, of plate and other valuable effects, 
 were brought to his majesty. 
 
 I'he beginninsf of Srauislaus' reign was distin- 
 guished by an event of a very different nature. 
 Some business which absolutely required his pre- 
 sence, had obliged him to remain at Warsaw, 
 He had with him his mother, his wife, and his 
 two daughters. The cardinal-primate, the bishop 
 of Posnania, and some grandees of Poland, com- 
 posed his new court. It was guarded by six 
 thousand Poles, of the army of the crown, who 
 had lately entered into his service, but whose 
 fidelity had not yet been p»t to the trial. General 
 Hoorn, governor of the town, had not above fif- 
 teen hundred Swedes. The citizens of Warsaw 
 were in a profound tranquillity ; and Stanislaus 
 proposed setting out in a few days for the con- 
 
CHARLES XII. 89 
 
 quest of Leopold ; when, all on a sudden, he was 
 informed that a numerous army was approaching 
 the city. This was king Augustus, who, by a 
 fresh effort, and by one of the most dexterous 
 inarches that ever general made, had eluded the 
 king of Sweden, and was now coming with twenty 
 thousand men to fall uj)on Warsaw, and carry 
 off his rival. 
 
 Warsaw was unfortified ; the Polish troops 
 who defended it were not to be relied on ; Au- 
 gustus held a correspondence with some of the 
 citizens ; so that, had Stanislaus remained in it, 
 he must certainly have been ruined. He sent 
 back his family into Posnania, under a guard of 
 Polish troops in whom he could most confide. 
 In this confusion he thought he had lost his second 
 daughter, who was about a year old, and who 
 had been carried by her nurse into a neighbouring 
 village, where she w;is soon after found in a 
 manger, as Stanislaus himself hath since informed 
 me. 'I'his is the same child whom fortune, after 
 a variety of the most surprising vicissitudes, at 
 last made queen of France. Several gentlemen 
 took ditJ'erent roads. I he new i<ing immediately 
 set out for the camp of Charles Xll. learning thus 
 betimes to suffer disgrace, and forced to quit his 
 capital six weeks after he had been advanced to 
 the sovereignty, 
 
 Augustus entered tlie capital like a provoked 
 and victorious sovereign. The inhabitants, al- 
 ready fleeced by the king of Sweden, were en- 
 tirely ruined by Augustus 1 he cardinal's palace, 
 and all the houses of the confederate lords, with 
 all their effects, both iu town and country, were 
 given to plunder. What was most extraordinary 
 in this sudden revolution, the pope's nuncio who 
 attended Augustus, demanded, m the name of 
 his master, that the bisho]) of Posnania should be 
 
90 HISTORY OF 
 
 delivered into his hands, as subject to the juris- 
 diction of the court of Rome, both as a bishop 
 and as the favourer of a prince who had been ad- 
 vanced to the throne bv the arms of a Lutheran, 
 
 The court of Rome, which hath always been 
 endeavouring to increase its temporal power by 
 means of the spiritual, had, long before this, esta- 
 blished a kind of jurisdiction in Poland, at the 
 head of which was the pope's nuncio. Its minis- 
 ters never failed to avail themselves of every fa- 
 vourable opportunity to extend their power, which 
 is revered by the multitude, but always contested 
 by men of sense. 1 hey claimed a right of judg- 
 ing in all ecclesiastical causes ; and in times of 
 trouble had usurped several other privileges, in 
 which they maintained themselves till about the 
 year 17!i'8, when these abuses were corrected ; 
 abuses which are never reformed till they are be- 
 come absolutely intolerable. 
 
 Augustus, giad of an opportunity of punishing 
 the bishop of Posnania in a decent manner, and 
 willing to gratify the court of Rome, whose pre- 
 tensions, however, he would have opposed on any 
 other occasion, delivered the Polish prelate into 
 the hands of the nuncio. 'J'he bishop, after having 
 seen his house pillaged, was carried by the sol- 
 diers to the lodgings of the Italian minister, and 
 from thence sent into Saxony, where he ended his 
 days. Count Hoorn bore the continual lire of the 
 enemy in the castle, where he was shut uj), till at 
 last the place being no longer tenable, he surren- 
 dered himself with his fifteen hundred Swedes. 
 This was the first advantage which Augustus 
 gained, amidst the torrent of his bad fortune, over 
 the victorious arms of his enemy. 
 
 'J his last effort was the blaze of a fire that was 
 just going out. His troops, which had been as- 
 sembled in haste, consisted either of Poles, ready 
 
CHARLES XII, 91 
 
 to forsake him on the first disgrace, or of Saxon 
 recruits, who bad never seen a campaign ; or of 
 vagabond Cossacks, more fit to distress the con- 
 quered than to conquer : and all of them trembled 
 at the bare mention of the king of Sweden's name. 
 
 That conqueror, accompanied by Stanislaus, 
 went in quest of his enemy, at the head of his best 
 troops. Tlie Saxon army fled every where before 
 him. The towns for thirty miles round sent him 
 the keys of their gates. Not a day passed that 
 •was not distinguished by some advantage. Suc- 
 cess began to grow too familiar to Charles. He 
 said it was rather like hunting than fighting, and 
 complained that he was not obliged to purchase 
 a victory on harder teims. 
 
 Augustus gave the command of bis army for 
 BOine time to count Schullemburg, a very able ge- 
 neral, and who had need of all his experience at 
 the head of dispirited troops. He was more anx- 
 ious to preserve his master's troops than to con- 
 quer. Me acted by stratagem, and the two kings 
 with vigour. He stole some marches upon them, 
 took possession of some advantageous posts, sa- 
 crificed a few horse in order to give his infantry 
 time to retire ; and thus, by a glorious retreat, 
 saved his troops in the face of an enemy, in con- 
 tending with whom it was impossible, at that 
 time, to acquire any other kind of glory. 
 
 He was scarce arrived in the palatinate of Pos- 
 nania when he learned that the two kings, who he 
 imagined were at the distance of fifty leagues, had 
 marched these fifty leagues in nine hours. He 
 had only eight thousand foot, and a thousand 
 horse ; and yet with this handful of men he was 
 cblig'^d to make head against a superior army, 
 against the name of the king of Sweden, and 
 against that terror with which so many defeats 
 bad naturally inspired the Saxons. He had al- 
 
93 HISTORY OF 
 
 ways affirmed, contrary to the opinion of the Ger- 
 man generals, that infantry were able to resist 
 cavalry in open field, even without the assistance 
 of chevaux de frise, and he this day ventured to 
 put the matter to the test of experience, against 
 a victorious cavalry commanded by two kings, 
 and by the best Swedish generals. He took pos- 
 session of such an advantageous post, that he 
 could not possibly be surrounded. The soldiers 
 of the first rank, armed with pikes and fusees, 
 bent one knee upon the ground, and standing very 
 close together, presented to the enemy's horse a 
 kind of pointed rampart with pikes and bayonets : 
 thesecond rank, inclining a little on the shoulders 
 of the first, fired over their heads ; and the third, 
 standing upright, fired at the same time from 
 behind the other two. The Swedes with their 
 usual impetuosity, rushed upon the Saxons, who 
 waited the assault without flinching : the dis- 
 charge of the muskets, and the points of the pikes 
 and bayonets maddened the horses, and made 
 them rear instead of advancing. By these means 
 the attack of the Swedes was rendered disorderly, 
 and the Saxons defended themselves by keeping 
 their ranks. 
 
 Though he had received five wounds, he drew 
 up his men in an oblong square, and in this form 
 made an orderly retreat about midnight towards 
 the small town of Gurau, three leagues distant 
 from the field of battle. But he had hardly be- 
 gun to breathe in this place, when the two kings 
 suddenly appeared at his heels. 
 
 Beyond Gurau, towards the river Oder, lay a 
 thick wood, by marching through which the 
 Saxon general saved his fatigued infantry. The 
 Swedes, who were not to be checked by such a 
 trivil interruption, pursued them even thro' the 
 wood, advancing with great difliculty thro' paths 
 
CHARLES Xir. 93 • 
 
 hardly passable by foot travellers ; and the Saxons 
 had not crossed the wood above five hours before 
 the Swedish horse. On the other side of the wood 
 runs the river Parts, hard by a village called 
 Rutsen. Schullemburg had taken care to send 
 orders for having the boats in readiness ; and he 
 now transported his troops, which were diminish- 
 ed by one half. Charles arrived at the very nao- 
 ment that Schullemburg reached the opposite 
 bank. Never conqueror pursued his enemy with 
 greater celerity, 'ihe reputation of Schullemburg 
 depended upon his escaping from the king of 
 Sweden : the king, on the other hand, thought . 
 his glory concerned in taking Schullemburg, and 
 the remains of his army. He lost not a moment, 
 but immediately caused his cavalry to cross at a 
 ford. And thus the Saxons found themselves shut 
 up between the river of Parts, and the greater 
 river of Oder, which takes its rise in Silesia, and 
 at this place is very deep and rapid. 
 
 Though the destruction of Scballemburg seem- 
 ed to be inevitable, yet with the loss of a few sol- 
 diers he passed the Oder in the night. Thus he 
 saved his army, and Charles could not help say- 
 ing, ' Schullemburg has conquered us to-day.' 
 
 This is the same Schullemburg, who was after- 
 wards general of the Venetians, and to whom the 
 republic erected a statue in Corfu, for having de- 
 fended that bulwark in Italy against the Turks. 
 Such honours are conferred by republics only : 
 kings give nothing but rewards. 
 
 But what contributed so much to the glory of 
 Schullemburg was of no service to king Augustus, 
 who once more abandoned Poland to his enemies, 
 retired into Saxony, and instantly repaired the 
 fortifications of Dresden, being already afraid, 
 and not without reason, for the capital of his 
 hereditary dominions. 
 
94 HISTORY OF 
 
 Charles Xlt. now beheld Poland reduced to 
 subjection. His generals, afier his example, had 
 beat in Courland several small bodies of the Mus- 
 covites, who ever since the battle of Narva had 
 appeared only in small companies, and made war 
 in those parts like the vagrantJ'artars, who pillage, 
 fly, and then re-appear in order to fly again. 
 
 Wherever the Swedes came they thought them- 
 selves sure of victory, when they v/ere only 
 twenty to a hundred. At this happj conjunc- 
 ture Stanislaus prepared for his coronation. For- 
 tune, to which he owed his election at Warsaw, 
 and his expulsion from thence, now recalled him 
 thither, amidst the acclamations of a numerous 
 nobility, attached to him by the fate of war. A 
 diet was immediately convoked, where all ob- 
 stacles were removed, except such as were raised 
 by the court of Rome, which alone endeavoured 
 to traverse the project. 
 
 It was natural for Rome to declare in favourof 
 Augustus, who from a protestant had become a 
 catholic, in order to mount the throne of Poland, 
 and to oppose Stanislaus, who had been placed 
 upon the same throne by the great enemy of the 
 catholic religion. Clement XI. the then pope, 
 sent briefs to all the prelates of Poland, and par- 
 ticularly to the cardinal- primate, threatening 
 them with excommunication, if they presumed to 
 assist at the consecration of Stanislaus, or at- 
 tempt any thing against the rights of .4iugustus. 
 
 Should these brief.* be delivered to the bishops, 
 who were at Warsaw, it was believed that some 
 of them would be weak enough to obey them ; and 
 that the majority would avail themselves of this 
 pretext to become more troublesome in proportion 
 as they were more necessary. Every possible 
 precaution was therefore taken to prevent these 
 letters of the pope from being admitted into War- 
 
CHARLES XII. 95 
 
 saw. But a Franciscan received the briefs secretly, 
 promising to deliver lliem into the bishops' own 
 hands. He presently gave one to the suffragan 
 of Chelm. This prelate, who was strongly at- 
 tached to Stanislaus, carried it to the king un- 
 opened. The king sent for the monk, and asked 
 him how he durst undertake to deliver a writing 
 of that nature. The Franciscan answered, that 
 he did it by order of his general. Stanislaus de- 
 sired him for the future to pay a greater regard to 
 the orders of his king than to those of the general 
 of the Franciscans, and forthwith banished him 
 the city. 
 
 The same day a placard was published by the 
 king of Sweden, forbidding, under the most severe 
 penalties, all the ecclesiastics in Warsaw, both 
 secular and regular, to interfere in affairs of state j 
 and, for the greater security, he caused guards to 
 be placed at the gates of all the prelates, and for- 
 bade any stranger to enter the city. These little 
 severities he took upon himself, in order to prevent 
 any rupture between the clergy and Stanislaus, 
 at his accession to the throne. He said he re- 
 laxed himself from the fatigues of war, in giving 
 a check to the intrigues of the Romish court ; and 
 that he must fight against it with paper, whereas 
 he was obliged to attack other sovereigns with 
 real arms. 
 
 The cardinal-primate was solicited by Charles 
 and Stanislaus to come and perform the ceremony 
 of the coronation. He did not think himself 
 obliged to leave Dantzic, and to consecrate a king 
 •who had been chosen against his will. But as it 
 was his maxim never to do any thing without a 
 pretext, he resolved to provide a lawful excuse for 
 his refusal. He caused the pope's brief to be 
 fixed in the mght time to the gate of his own 
 house. I'he magistrates of Dantzic took fire at 
 
96 HISTORY OF 
 
 this indignity, and caused strict search to be made 
 for the authors, who nevertheless could not be 
 found. The primate affected to be highly incensed, 
 but in reality was very well pleased, as it furnish- 
 ed him with a reason for refusing to consecrate 
 the new king ; and thus at one and the same time 
 he kept fair with Charles X 11. Augustus, Stanis- 
 laus, and the pope. He died a few days after, 
 leaving his country involved in confusion, and hav- 
 ing reaped no other fruit from all his intrigues, 
 but that of embroiling himself with the three 
 kings, Charles, Augustus, and Stanislaus ; and 
 ■with the republic and the pope, who had ordered 
 him to repair to Rome, ta give an account of his 
 conduct. But as even politicians are sometimes 
 touched with remorse in t'.eir last moments, he 
 wrote to king Augustus oa his death bed, and 
 begged his pardon. 
 
 The consecration was performed with equal 
 tranquillity and magnificence on the 4th of Octo- 
 ber, 1705, in the city of VV.'\rsaw, notwithstanding 
 the usual custom of the Poles, of crowning their 
 kings at Cracow. Stanislaus Leczinsky, and his 
 wife CharlottaOpalinska, were consecrated king 
 and queen of Poland, by the hands of the arch- 
 bishop of Leopold, assisted by several other pre- 
 lates. Charles XII. saw the ceremony incognito, 
 the only advantage he reaped from his conquests. 
 
 While he was thus giving a king to the con- 
 quered Poles, and Denmark durst not presume to 
 create him any disturbances ; while the king of 
 Prussia courted his friendship, and Augustus was 
 retired to his hereditary dominions, the czar was 
 every day becoming more and more formidable. 
 Though he had given but little assistance to 
 Augustus in Poland, he had nevertheless made 
 powerful diversions in Ingria. 
 
 He now began to grow not only a good soldier 
 
CHARLES XII. 97 
 
 himself, but likewise instructed his subjects in the 
 art of war. Discipline was established among 
 his troops. He had good engineers, and well 
 served artillery, and several good officers; and 
 he understood the great secret of subsisting his 
 armies. Some of bis generals had learned both 
 how to fight, and, as occasion required, to de- 
 cline fighting ; and he had besides formed a 
 respectable navy, capable of making head against 
 the Swedes in the Biiltic. 
 
 Strengthened by all these advantages, which 
 were entirely owing to his own genius, and the 
 absence of the king of Sweden, he took Narva by 
 assault, on the 2 1st of August, 1704, after a re- 
 gular siege, during which he had prevented its 
 Feceiving any succours either by sea or land. 
 The soldiers were no sooner masters of the city 
 than they ran to pillage, and abandoned them- 
 selves to the most enormous barbarities. The 
 czar flew from place to place, to stop the disorder 
 and carnage. He snatched the women from the 
 hands of the soldiers, who, after having ravished 
 them, were going to cut their throats. He was 
 even obliged to kill eome Muscovites, who did 
 not obey his orders. They still shew you, in the 
 town-house of Narva, the table upon which he 
 laid his sword as he entered, and repeat the 
 words which he spoke to the citizens, who were 
 there assembled. ' It is not with the blood of the 
 inhabitants that this sword is stained, but with 
 that of the Muscovites, which I have shed to save 
 your lives.' 
 
 Had the czar always observed these humane 
 maxims, he would have been the greatest man 
 in the world. He aspired to a nobler character 
 than that of a destroyer of towns. He was, at that 
 time, laying the foundation of a city not far from 
 Narva in the middle of his new conquests. This 
 £ 
 
98 HISTORY OF 
 
 was the city of Petersburg, which he afterwards 
 made the place of his residence, and the centre 
 of his trade. It is situated between Finland and 
 Ingria, in a marshy island, around which the 
 Keva divides itself into several branches, before it 
 falls into the gulf of Finland. With his own hands 
 he drew the plan of the city, the fortress, and the 
 harbour, the keys which embellished it, and the 
 forts which defended its entrance. This desert 
 and uncultivated island, which during the short 
 summer in those climates was only a heap of 
 mud, and in winter a frozen pool, into which 
 there was no entry by land but through pathless 
 forests and deep morasses, and which had hitherto 
 been the haunt of wolves and bears, was filled in 
 1703 with above three hundred thousand men, 
 whom the czar had brought thither from his other 
 dominions. The peasants of the kmgdom of 
 Astracan, and those who inhabit the frontiers of 
 China, were transported to Petersburg. 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. 
 
 The whole was a force put upon nature. The 
 czar was determined to people a country, which 
 did not seem designed for the habitation of men. 
 Neither the inundation which razed his works, 
 nor the sterility of the soil, nor the ignorance of 
 the workmen, nor even the mortality which car- 
 ried off about two hundred thousand men in the 
 beginning of the undertaking, could divert hira 
 from his firm resolution. The town was founded 
 amidst the obstacles which nature, the genius of 
 the people, and an unsuccessful war, conspired to 
 raise against it. Petersburg was become a city 
 in 1705, and its harbour was filled with ships. 
 The emperor, by a proper distribution of favours^ 
 drew many strangers thither, bestowing lands 
 
CHARLES XII. 99 
 
 upon some, houses upon others, and encouraging 
 all the artists that came to civilize this barbarous 
 climate. Above all, he had rendered it proof 
 against the utmost efforts of his enemies. The 
 Swedish generals, who frequently beat his troops 
 in every other quarter, were never able to hurt 
 his infant colony. ltenjo\eda profound tran- 
 quillity in the midst of the war, with which it 
 was surrounded. 
 
 While the czar was thus creating, as it were» 
 new dominions to himself, he still held out a 
 helping hand to Augustus, who was losing his. 
 He persuaded him, by means of general Palkul, 
 who had lately entered into the service of Mus- 
 covy, and was then the czar's ambassador in 
 Saxony, to come to Grodno to confer with him 
 once more on the unhappy situation of his affairs. 
 Thither Augustus repaired with some troops, and 
 accompanied by general Schullemburg, who was 
 now become famous over all the north for his 
 passage across the Oder, and in whom the king 
 reposed his last hopes. The czar arrived at the 
 same place, followed by an army of seventy thou- 
 sand men. The two monarchs concerted new 
 measures for carrying on the war. Augustus, 
 being now dethroned, was no longer afraid of 
 provoking the Poles, by abandoning their coun- 
 try to the Muscovite troops It was resolved 
 that the army of the czar should be divided into 
 several bodies, to check the progress of the King 
 of Sweden at every step. It w^as at this time that 
 Augustus renewed the order of tne white eagle, 
 a weak expedient for attaching to his interest 
 some Polish lords, who were more desirous of 
 real advantages than of an empty honour which 
 becomes ridiculous when it is held of a prince 
 possessed of nothing but the name of king. The 
 conference of the two kings ended in a very ex- 
 
100 HISTORY OF 
 
 traordina.ry mariner. The czar departed sud- 
 denly, left his troops to his ally, and went to ex- 
 tinguish a rebellion with which he was threaten- 
 ed in Astracan. Immediately after his depar- 
 ture Augustus ordered Patkul to be arrested at 
 Dresden. All Europe was surprised at his con- 
 duct, in presuming, contrary to the law of na-. 
 tions, and even in appearance to his own in- 
 terest, to imprison the ambassador of the only 
 prince from whom he could expect any assist- 
 ance. 
 
 The secret spring of this transaction, as I had 
 the honour to be informed from marshal Saxe, 
 eon to king Augustus, 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, being unable to brook the haughty beha- 
 viour of general Flemming, the king's favourite, 
 more imperious and lofty than himself, he had 
 passed into the service of the czar, whose ge- 
 neral he then was, and his ambassador at the 
 court of Augustus. Endowed, as he was, with a 
 penetrating genius, he had observed that Flem- 
 ming and the chancellor of Saxony intended to 
 purchase a peace from the king of Sweden at any 
 price. He forthwith formed a design to prevent 
 them, and to effect an accommodation between 
 the czar and Sweden. 'J'he chancellor discovered 
 his project, and obtained leave to seize him. 
 Augustus told the czar that Patkul was a perfi- 
 dious wretch, and would betray them both. And 
 yet he was no further culpable than in having 
 served his new master too well; but an ill- 
 timed piece of service frequently meets with the 
 punishment due to treason. 
 
 Meanwhile, the sixty thousand Russians di- 
 vided into several small bodies, were burning 
 
CHARLES XII. 101 
 
 and ravaging the lands of Stanislaus' adherents 
 on one side ; and on the other, Schullemburg was 
 advancing with fresh troops. The fortune of the 
 Swedes dispersed these two armies in less than 
 two months. Charles XII. and Stanislaus at- 
 tacked the separate bodies of the Muscovites, 
 one after another, and with so much vigour and 
 dispatch, that one Muscovite general was beat 
 before he heard of the defeat of his companion. 
 
 Nothing could stop the progress of the con- 
 queror. If a river intervened between hira and 
 the enemy, Charles XII. and his Swedes swam 
 across it. A party of Swedes took the baggage 
 of Augustus, in which were found two hundred 
 thousand crowns of silver. Stanislaus seized 
 eight hundred thousand ducats belonging to 
 prince Menzikoff, the Russian general. Charles, 
 at the head of his cavalry, marched thirty leagues 
 ia four-and-twenty hours ; every soldier leading 
 a horse in his hand to mount when his own was 
 weary. The Muscovites struck with terror, and 
 reduced to a small number, fled in disorder be- 
 yond the Borifitbeues. 
 
 While Charles was driving the Muscovites be- 
 fore him into the heart of Lithuania, Schullem- 
 burg at last repassed the Oder, and came at the 
 head of twenty thousand men to give battle to 
 the grand marshal, Renschild, who was reckoned 
 the best general that Charles had. and was called 
 theParmenioofthis Alexander of the north. These 
 two illustrious generals, who seemed to share 
 the fate of their masters, met near Punitz, in a 
 place called Travenstad, a spot already fatal to 
 the troops of Augustus. Renschild had only 
 thirteen battalions and two and twenty squadrons, 
 amounting in all t.) about ten thousand men. 
 Schullemburg had double that number. It is wor- 
 thy of remark, that there was in his army a body 
 
102 HISTORY OF 
 
 of six or seven thousand Muscovites, who had been 
 long disciplined, and were esteemed good sol- 
 diers. The battle of 'J'ravenstad vfas fought on 
 the l!i!th of February, 1706. But this very ge- 
 neral SchuUeniburg, who, with four and -twenty 
 thousand men, had. in some measure, baffled the 
 good fortune of the king- of Sweden, sunk under 
 that of general Renschild. The combat did not 
 last a quarter of an hour ; the Saxons made no 
 resistance ; the Muscovites threw down their 
 arms the moment they saw the Swedes. The 
 panic was so sudden, and the confusion so great, 
 that the conquerors found on the field of battle 
 seven thousand loaded fusees, which the enemy- 
 had thrown away without firing. No defeat was 
 ever more sudden, more complete, or more dis- 
 graceful : and yet no general ever made a finer 
 disposition of his troops than Schullemburg, even 
 by the confession of the Saxon and Swedish ge- 
 nerals themselves, who this day saw how little 
 human prudence is able to command events. 
 
 Among the prisoners there was an entire re- 
 giment of Frenchmen. These unhappy men had 
 been taken by the Saxons in 1704, at the famous 
 battle of Hochstet, so fatal to the grandeur of 
 Lewis XIV. They had afterwards passed into 
 the service of Augustus, who had formed them 
 into a regiment of dragoons, the command of 
 which he had given to a Frenchman of the family 
 of Joyeuse. The colonel was killed at the first, 
 or rather the only charge of the Swedes ; and the 
 ■whole regiment were made prisoners of war. 
 That very day the French begged to be admitted 
 into the service of Charles XII. into which they 
 •were accordingly received by a strange caprice of 
 fortune, which reserved them once more to change 
 their master and their conqueror. 
 
 With regard to the Muscovites, they begged 
 
CHARLES Xir. 103 
 
 their lives on their knees ; but tbe Swedes cruelly 
 put them to death above six hours after the battle, 
 m order to revenge on them the outrages which 
 their countrymen had committed, and to rid their 
 hands of those prisoners whom they did not know 
 how to dispose of. 
 
 Augustus now saw himself deprived of all re- 
 sources. He had nothing left but Cracow, where 
 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 de- 
 livered up to the conqueror: but his misfortunes 
 ■were completed when he heard that Charles XII. 
 had at last entered Saxony, on the 1st of Sep- 
 tember, 1706. 
 
 He had marched through Silesia, without so 
 much as deigning to apprise the court of V^ieuna 
 of his motions. Germany was struck with con- 
 sternation. The diet of Ratisbon, which repre- 
 sents the empire, and whose resolutions are fre- 
 quently as ineffectual as they are solemn, de- 
 clared the king of Sweden an enemy of the em- 
 pire, if he should pass the Oder with his army : 
 a step which only determined him to march the 
 sooner into Germany. 
 
 At his approach the villages were deserted, and 
 the inhabitants fled on all siHes. Charles behaved 
 in the same manner as he had done at Copen- 
 hagen : he caused a declaration to be fixed up in 
 all public places, importing, That his only in. 
 tention in coming was to procure peace ; that all 
 those who would return home and pay the contri- 
 butions he demanded, should be treated as his 
 own subjects, and the rest punished without 
 mercy. This declaration from a prince who was 
 never known to break his word, made all those 
 who had fled for fear to return home. He pitched 
 bis camp at Altranstad, near the plain of Lutzen, 
 
104 HISTORY OF 
 
 a field famous for the victory and death of Gas* 
 tavus Adolphus. He went to see the place where 
 that great man fell. When he reached the spot, 
 * I have endeavoured,' said he, ' to live like him ; 
 God, perhaps, will one day grant me as glorious 
 a death.' 
 
 From this camp he sent orders to the states of 
 Saxony to assemble, and to transmit to him, with- 
 out delay, the registers of the electoral finances. 
 As soon as he had got them in his power, and 
 was exactly informed how much Saxony could 
 supply, he taxed it at six hundred and twenty- 
 five thousand rix-doUars a month. Over and 
 above 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 fourpence a day, with forage for the horse. 
 The contributions being thus regulated, the king 
 established a new police, to protect the Saxons 
 from the insults of his soldiers. In all the towns 
 where he placed garrisons, he ordered the inn- 
 keepers, in whose houses the soldiers were quar- 
 tered, to deliver every month certificates of their 
 behaviour, without which the soldiers were to 
 have no pay. Besides, inspectors were appointed, 
 who, once in every fifteen days, went from house 
 to house, to make inquiry whether the Swedes 
 had committed any outrage ; in which case, care 
 was taken to indemnify the inn- keepers, and to 
 punish the delinquents. 
 
 It is well known under what severe discipline 
 the troops of Charles XII. were kept ; that they 
 never plundered the towns which they took by as- 
 sault till they had received permission ; and that 
 they even plundered in a regular manner, and left 
 off at the first signal. The Swedes pique them- 
 selves to this day on the strict discipline which 
 they observed in Saxony ; and yet the Saxons 
 
CHARLES XII. 105 
 
 complain of the terrible ravages they committed ; 
 contradictions, which it would be impossible to 
 reconcile, did not we know in what very different 
 lights the same objects appear to different men. 
 It could hardly happen but that the conquerors 
 must have sometimes abused their rights ; and the 
 conquered have taken the slightest injuries for 
 the most enormous outrages. One day, as the 
 king was taking the air on horseback, in the 
 neighbourhood of Leipsic, a Saxon peasant threw 
 himself at his feet, begging he would do him jus- 
 tice on a grenadier, who had just taken from him 
 what was designed for his family's dinner. The 
 king ordered the soldier to be brought before him ; 
 • And is it true,' says he with a stern countenance, 
 •that you have robbed this man V — ' Sir,' says 
 the soldier, ' 1 have not done him so much harm 
 as you have done to his master : you have taken 
 a kingdom from him, and I have only taken a 
 turkey from this fellow.' The king gave the pea- 
 sant ten ducats with his own hand, and pardoned 
 the soldier for the wit and boldness of the reply ; 
 adding, * Remember, friend, that if I have taken 
 a kingdom from Augustus, 1 have kept nothing 
 to myself.' 
 
 The great fair of Leipsic was held as usual. 
 The merchants came thither in perfect security. 
 Not one Swedish soldier was to be seen in the 
 fair. One would have said that the army of the 
 king of Sweden was in Saxony for no other reason 
 than to watch over the safety of the country. He 
 commanded throughout all the electorate with a 
 power as absolute, and a tranquillity as profound, 
 as if he had been in Stockholm. 
 
 Augustus, wandering up and down Poland, and 
 
 deprived at once of his kingdom and electorate, 
 
 at last wrote a letter with his own hand to Charles 
 
 XII. in which he humbly sued for peace. This 
 
 2 £ 
 
106 HISTORY OF 
 
 letter he sent secretly by baron d'Imhoff and Mr. 
 Fingsten refendary of the privy council, to whicb 
 two gentlemen he gave full power, and a blank 
 signed : ' Go,' says he to them, ' endeavour to 
 procure me reasonable and Christian conditions/ 
 He was obliged, however, to conceal these over- 
 tures, and to decline the mediation of any prince j 
 for being then in Poland, at the mercy of the Mus- 
 covites, he had reason to fear that that dangerous 
 ally, whom he was now going to abandon, would 
 punish him for his submission to the conqueror. 
 His two plenipotentiaries came to Charles's camp 
 in the night-time, and had a private audience. 
 The kin§ having read the letter, told them they 
 should have his answer in a moment i and accord- 
 ingly retiring to his closet, he wrote as follows : 
 
 ' I consent to give peace on the following con- 
 ditions, in which it must not be expected that 
 ever 1 make the least alteration. 
 
 ' I. That Augustus renounce the crown of Po- 
 land for ever ; that he acknowledge Stanislaus 
 as lawful king, and that he promise never to re- 
 mount the throne, not even after the death of Sta- 
 nislaus. 
 
 'II. That he renounce all other treaties, and 
 particularly those he hath made with Muscovy. 
 
 'III. That he send back to my camp, in an ho- 
 nourable manner, the princes Sobieski, and all 
 the prisoners he hath taken. 
 
 * IV. That he deliver into my hands all the de- 
 serters that have entered into his service, and 
 particularly John Patkul ; and that he stop all 
 proceedings against such as have passed from his 
 service into mine.' 
 
 This paper he gave to count Piper, with order* 
 to transact the rest with the plenipotentiaries of 
 Augustus. These gentlemen were shocked at 
 the cruelty of the proposals, and used all the 
 
CHARLES XII. 107 
 
 little arts that men without power can employ, 
 to soften, if possible, the rigour of the king of 
 Sweden, They had several conferences with count 
 Piper ; but that minister answered all their ar- 
 guments with this short reply : * Such is the will 
 of the king my master, and he never alters his 
 resolution.' 
 
 While these negotiations were carrying on in 
 Saxony, fortune seemed to put Augustus in a 
 condition to obtain more honourable terms, and 
 of treating with his conqueror on a more equal 
 footing. 
 
 Prince Menzikoff, generalissimo of the Mus- 
 covite army, brought into Poland a body of thirty- 
 thousand men, at a time when Augustus not only 
 did not desire their assistance, but even feared 
 it. He had with him some Polish and Saxon 
 troops, making in all, about six thousand men. 
 Surrounded with this small body 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 arrested by his ally. In 
 this delicate conjuncture, one of the Swedish 
 generals, named Meyerfeld, at the head of ten 
 thousand men, appeared at Calish, near the 
 palatinate of Posnania. Prince Menzikoff, press- 
 ed Augustus to give them battle. The king, who 
 was greatly embarrassed, delayed the engage- 
 ment under various pretexts ; for though the 
 enemy had but one-third of his number, there 
 were four thousand Swedes in Meyerfeld's 
 army, and that alone was sufficient to render the 
 event doubtful. To give battle to the Swedes 
 during the negotiation, and lose it, was in effect 
 to deepen the abyss in which he was already 
 plunged. He therefore resolved to send a trusty 
 servant to the general of the enemy, to give him 
 
m HISTORY OF 
 
 some distant hints with regard to the peace, and 
 advise him to retreat. But this advice produced 
 an effect quite contrary to what he expected. 
 General Meyerfeld thought they were laying a 
 snare to intimidate him; and for that reason 
 resolved to hazard a 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 hia 
 bad fortune be entered triumphant into Warsaw, 
 formerly his flourishing capital, but then a dis- 
 mantled and ruined town, ready to receive any 
 conqueror, and to acknowledge the strongest for 
 king. He was tempted to seize upon this mo- 
 ment of prosperity, to go and attack the king of 
 Sweden in Snxony with the Muscovite army : but 
 when he reflected that Charles XI [.was at the 
 head of a Swedish army, hitherto invincible ; 
 that the Russians would abandon him on the first 
 intelligence of the treaty he had begun ; that hi» 
 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 which the 
 king of Sweden should impose. These terma 
 became still more hard when Charles heard that 
 Augustus had attacked his troops during the nego- 
 tiation. His resentment, and the pleasure of 
 further humbling an enemy who had just van- 
 quished his forces, made him inflexible upon all 
 the articles of the treaty. I'hus the victory of 
 Augustus served only to render his situation the 
 more miserable; a thing which perhaps never 
 happened to any but himself. 
 
CHARLES XII. 109 
 
 He had just caused Te Deum to be Buug at 
 Warsaw, when Fingsten, one of his plenipoten- 
 tiaries, arrived from Saxony with the treaty of 
 peace which deprived him of his crown. Au- 
 gustus hesitated for a little, but at last signed it , 
 and then set out for Saxony, vainly hoping that 
 his presence would soften the king of Sweden, 
 and that his enemy would perhaps remember the 
 ancient alliances of their families, and the com- 
 mon blood that ran in both their veins. 
 
 These two princes met for the first time in 
 count Piper's tent, at a place called Gutersdorff, 
 without any ceremony. Charles XII. was in 
 jack-boots, with a piece of black taffety tied 
 round his neck instead of a cravat : his clothes, 
 as usual, were of coarse blue cloth, with gilt brass 
 buttons. He had a long sword by his side, 
 which ha^ served him in the battle of Narva, 
 and upon the pummel of which he frequently 
 leaned. The conversation turned wholly upon 
 these jack-boots : Charles XII. told Augustus 
 that he had not laid them aside for these six 
 years past, except when he went to bed. These 
 trifles were the only subject of discourse between 
 two kings, one of whom had deprived the other 
 of a crown. Augustus, especially, spoke with 
 an air of complaisance and satisfaction, which 
 princes, and men accustomed to the manage- 
 ment of great aflFairs, know how to assume amidst 
 the most cruel mortifications. The two kings 
 dined together two several times. Charles XII. 
 always affected to give Augustus the right hand^j 
 but, far from mitigating the rigour of his de- 
 mands, he rendered them still more severe. It. 
 was certainly a very mortifying thing, for a so- 
 vereign 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 
 
110 HISTORY OF 
 
 jewels and archives of the crown to his suc- 
 cessor Stanislaus. But what completed his de- 
 gradation was his being at last compelled to con- 
 gratulate, on his accession to the throne, the 
 man who was going to usurp his place. Charles 
 required Augustus to write a letter to Stanislaus. 
 The dethroned king endeavoured to evade the 
 demand ; but Charles insisted upon his writing 
 the letter, and he was at last obliged to comply. 
 Here follows an exact copy of it, which I have 
 seen. It is transcribed from the original, which 
 is still in possession of king Stanislaus. 
 
 ' Sir and Brother, 
 
 ' We little imagined it would have been ne- 
 cessary to enter into a literary correspondence 
 with your majesty ; nevertheless, in order to 
 please his Swedish majesty, and to avoid the sus- 
 picion of our being unwilling to gratify his desire, 
 ■we hereby congratulate you on your accession to 
 the throne ; and wish you may find in your na- 
 tive 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. 
 
 Dresden, Your brother and neighbour, 
 
 April a, 1707. Augustus, King.' 
 
 Augustus was obliged to give orders to all his 
 jnagistrates no longer to style him king of Poland, 
 and to eraze his title, which he now renounced, 
 out of the public prayers. He was less averse to 
 the releasing of the Sobieskies ; but the sacrifice 
 of Patkttl was the severest of all. The czar, on 
 
CHARLES XII. Ill 
 
 the one hand, loudly demanded hira back as hia 
 ambassador ; and, on the other, the king of Swe- 
 den, with the most terrible menaces in case of a 
 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 pre- 
 viously dispatched 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 
 Patkul 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. Dur- 
 ing this interval, the guards, who were commis- 
 sioned to seize the prisoner arrived, and immedi- 
 ately delivered him to four Swedish captains, 
 who carried him forthwith to the general quarters 
 at Altranstad, where be remained for three 
 months tied to a stake, with a heavy iron chain j 
 and from thence was conducted to Casimir. 
 
 Charles XII. forgetting that Patkul was the 
 czar's ambassador, and considering him only ad 
 his own subject, ordered a council of war to try 
 him with the utmost rigour. He was condemned 
 to be broke alive, and quartered. A chaplain 
 having come to inform him of the fatal sentence, 
 without acquainting h im with the manner in which 
 it was to be executed, Patkul, who had braved 
 death in so many battles, finding himself shut up 
 with a priest, and his courage being no longer 
 supported by glory or passion, the only sources of 
 human intrepidity, poured out a flood of tears in 
 the chaplain's bosom. He was afiSanced to a 
 
112 HISTORY OF 
 
 Saxon lady, called Madam d'Einsiedel, a woman 
 of birth, of merit, and of beauty, and whom he 
 intended to have married much about the time 
 that he was now condemned to die. He entreated 
 the chaplain to wait upon her, to give her ail the 
 consolation he could, and to assure her that he 
 died full of the most tender affection for his in- 
 comparable mistress. When he was brought to 
 the place of punishment, and beheld the wheels 
 and stakes prepared for his execution, he fell into 
 convulsions, and threw himself into the arms of 
 the minister, who embraced him, covered him 
 with his cloak, and wept over him. 'J'hen a 
 Swedish officer read aloud a paper to the follow- 
 ing effect : 
 
 * This is to declare, that it is the express order 
 of his majesty, 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 faith- 
 fully serve his king.' At the words ' most mer- 
 ciful prince,' Patkul cried out, ' What mercy V 
 and at those of ' traitor to his country,' — ' Alas !' 
 said he, ' I have served it but too well.' He re- 
 ceived sixteen blows, and suffered the longest 
 and most excruciating tortures that can be ima- 
 gined. Thus died the unfortunate John Reinold 
 Patkul, ambassador and general of the emperor 
 of Russia. 
 
 Those that looked upon him only as a rebel, 
 said that he deserved death ; but those who con- 
 sidered him as a Livonian, born in a province that 
 bad 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. 
 But all agreed that the title of ambassador to the 
 
CHARLES XII. 113 
 
 czar ought to have rendered his person sacred. 
 The king of Sweden alone, brought up in the prin- 
 ciples of arbitrary power, thought that he had only 
 performed an act of justice, whilst all Europe 
 condemned his cruel tyn 
 
 His mangled limbs remained exposed upon 
 gibbets till 17 13, when Augustus, having regained 
 his throne,, caused these testimonies of the ne- 
 cessity to which he was reduced at Akranstad to 
 be gathered together. They were brought to 
 Warsaw in a box, and delivered to him in pre 
 sence of the French envoy. The king of Poland 
 shewing the box to this minister, only paid, ' These 
 are the limbs of Patkul ;' without adding any 
 thing, either to blame his conduct or to bewail 
 his memory, and without any one daring to speak 
 on so delicate and mournful a subject. 
 
 About this time, a Livonian called 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 punish- 
 ments in the same case, made it but too plain, 
 that Charles, in putting Patkul to such a cruel 
 death, was more auxious to avenge himself than 
 to punish the criminal. Be that as it will, Pai- 
 kel, after his condemnation, proposed to the se- 
 nate to impart to the king the secret of making 
 gold, on condition that he should )btain his par- 
 don. He made the experiment in prison, in pre- 
 sence of Colonel Hamilton and the magistrates 
 of the town : and whether he had actually dis- 
 covered some useful secret, or, which is more 
 probable, had only acquired the art of deceiving 
 with a plausible air, thev cariied the gold which 
 was found in the crucible to the mint at Stock- 
 holm, and gave the senate such a full, and seem- 
 ingly such an important account of the matter. 
 
114 HISTORY OF 
 
 that the queen-dowager, Charles's grandmother, 
 ordered the execution to be suspended till the 
 king should be informed of this uncommon affair^ 
 and should send his orders accordingly. 
 
 The king made answer,** That he had refused 
 the pardon of the criminal to the entreaties of his 
 friends, and that he would never grant to interest 
 what he had denied to friendship.' This inflexi- 
 bility had something in it very heroical in a 
 prince, especially as he thought the secret prac- 
 ticable. Augustus, upon hearing this story, said, 
 ' I am not surprised at the king of Sweden's in- 
 diflFerence about the philosopher's stone: he has 
 found it in Saxony.' 
 
 When the czar was informed of the strange 
 peace which Augustus had, notwithstanding their 
 former treaties, concluded at Altranstad : and 
 that Patkul.his ambassador-plenipotentiary, was 
 delivered up to the king of Sweden, in contempt 
 of the law of nations, he loudly complained of 
 these indignities to the 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 pro- 
 cure the restoration of his ambassador, and to 
 prevent the affront, which, in his person, was 
 going to be offered to all crowned heads. He 
 pressed them, by the motive of honour, not to de- 
 mean themselves so far as to become guarantees 
 of the treaty of Altranstad ; a concession which 
 Charles Xll. meant to extort from them by his 
 threatening and imperious behaviour. These let- 
 ter/ had no other effect than to set the power of 
 th-? king of Sweden in a stronger light. The em- 
 pp.Tor, England, and Holland, were then engaged 
 
CHARLES XII. 115 
 
 in a destructive war against France, and thought 
 it a very unseasonable 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 
 that interposed its good offices in his behalf ; frona 
 whence it appears what little confidence a sub- 
 ject ought to put in princes, and how much all 
 the European powers at tha* time stood in awe of 
 the king of Sweden. 
 
 It was proposed in the czar's council to reta- 
 liate on the Swedish officers who were prisoners at 
 Moscow ; but the czar would not consent to a bar- 
 barity which would have been attended with fatal 
 consequences, as there were more Muscovites 
 prisoners in Sweden, than Swedes in Muscovy. 
 
 He resolved to take a more advantageous re- 
 venge. The main body of his enemy's army lay 
 idle in Saxony. Levenhaupt, the king of Swe- 
 den's general, who was left in Poland with abouf 
 twenty thousand men, was not able to guard the 
 passes into a country without forts, and full of fac- 
 tions. Stanislaus was in the camp of Charles XII. 
 The emperor of Muscovy seizes this opportunity, 
 and re-enters Poland with above sixty thousand 
 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. 
 
 At that time Poland had two primates, as well 
 as two kings, the one nominated by Augustus, the 
 other by Stanislaus. The primate nominated by 
 Augustus summoned the assembly of Leopold, to 
 which resorted all those whom that prince had 
 
116 HISTORY OF 
 
 abandoned by the peace of AltranstaJ, anrt s'Jch as 
 •were gained by the czar's money. Here it was 
 proposed to elect anew sovereign ; so that Poland 
 was almost upon the point of having three kings 
 at once, without being able to say which was the 
 real one- 
 
 During the conferences at Leopold, the czar, 
 whose interest was closely connected with that of 
 the emperor of Germany, on account of the com- 
 mon dread which they both entertained of the 
 power of the king of Sweden, secretly obtained 
 from him a number of German officers ; who, 
 daily arriving, increased his strength in a con- 
 siderable degree, by bringing along with them 
 discipline and experience. I'hese he engaged in 
 his service by several instances of liberality ; and 
 the more to encourage his own troops, he gave 
 his picture set round with diamonds to all the 
 general officers and colonels who had fought at 
 the battle of Calish : the subaltern officers had 
 medals of gold, and every private soldier a medal 
 of silver. These monuments of the victory at Ca- 
 lish were all struck in the new city of Petersburg ; 
 where the improvement of the arts kept pace 
 with the desire of glory and spirit of emulation 
 which the czar had infused into his troops. 
 
 The confusion, the multiplicity of factions, and 
 the continual ravages prevailing in Poland, hin- 
 dered the diet of Leopold from coming to any re- 
 solution. The czar transferred it to Lublin ; but 
 the change of place did not lessen the disorder 
 and perplexity in which the whole nation was in- 
 volved. The assembly contented themselves with 
 declaring, that they neither acknowledged Augus- 
 tus 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. During these 
 
CHARLES XII 117 
 
 fruitless deliberations, the party of the princes 
 Sapieha, that of Ogiusky, those who secretly ad- 
 hered to Augustus, and the new subjects of Sta- 
 nislaus, all made war upon one another, and by 
 pillaging each other's estates, completed theruia 
 of their country. The Swedish troops, com- 
 manded by Leveuhaupt, one part of which lay in 
 Livonia, another in Lithuania, and a third ia 
 Poland, were daily in pursuit of the Russians, 
 and set fire to every thing that opposed Sta- 
 nislaus. The Russians ruined their friends and 
 foes without distinction . and nothing was to be 
 seen but towns reduced to ashes, and wandering 
 troops of Poles, deprived of their substance, and 
 detesting alike their two kings, the czar, and 
 Charles XU. 
 
 To quell these commotions, and to secure the 
 possession of the throne, Stanislaus set out from 
 Aitranstad on the 15th of July, 1707, accom- 
 panied b}' general Kenschild, and sixteen Swe- 
 dish regiments, and furnished with a large sum 
 of money. He was acknowledged wherever he 
 came. The strict discipline of his troops, which 
 made the barbarity of the Muscovites to be more 
 sensibly felt, conciliated the affections of the 
 people. His extreme affability, in proportion as 
 it was better known, reconciled to him almost 
 all the different factions ; and his money pro* 
 cured him the greatest part of the army of the 
 crown. The czar, apprehensive of wanting pro- 
 visions, in a country which his troops had laid 
 waste, retired into Lithuania, where he had fixed 
 the general rendezvous of his army, and where 
 he resolved to establish magazines. This retreat 
 left Stanislaus the undisturbed sovereign oi the 
 greatest part of Poland. 
 
 The only person that gave him anv uneasiness 
 was count Smiawski, grand geneial of the crown. 
 
lia HISTORY OF 
 
 by the nomination of Augustus. This man, who 
 was possessed of no contemptible talents, and en- 
 tertained the most ambitious views, was at the 
 head of a third party. He neither acknowledged 
 Augustus nor Stanislaus ; and after having used 
 his utmost efforts in order to procure his own 
 election, he contented himself with being the 
 head of a party, since he could not be king. The 
 troops of the crown, which continued under his 
 command had no other pay but the liberty of pil- 
 laging their fellow- subjects with impunity: and 
 all those who had either suffered, or were appre- 
 hensive of suffering from the rapacity of these 
 free-booters, soon submitted to Stanislaus, whose 
 power was gathering strength every day. 
 
 The king of Sweden was then receiving, in 
 his camp at Altranstad, ambassadors from almost 
 all the princes in Christendom. Some entreated 
 him to quit the empire, others desired 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 ambassadors was the famous John duke of 
 Marlborough, sent by Anne, queen of Great Bri- 
 tain. 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 perfect 
 courtier, in parliament the head of a party, and 
 in foreign countries the most able negotiator of 
 his time. He did France as much mischief by 
 his politics as by his arms. Mr. Fagel, secre* 
 tary of the states-general, and a man of great 
 meritjhas 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 him- 
 self but very indifferently, and brought them all 
 
CHARLES XII. It9 
 
 over to his opinion. This account I had from lord 
 Bolingbroke. 
 
 In conjunction with prince Eugene, the compa- 
 nion of his victories, and Heinsius, the grand pen- 
 sionary of Holland, he supported the whole weight 
 of the war which the ajlies waged against France. 
 He knew that Charles was incensed against the 
 empire and the emperor ; that he was secretly 
 solicited by the French ; and that if this con- 
 queror should espouse the cause of Lewis XIV. 
 the allies must be entirely ruined. 
 
 True it is, Charles had given his word in 1700, 
 that he would not intermeddle in the quarrel 
 between Lewis XIV. and the allies ; but the duke 
 of Marlborough could not believe that any prince 
 would 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 intentions of the king of Sweden. 
 Mr. Fabricius, who then attended upon Charles 
 XII. assured me, that the duke of Marlborough, 
 on his arrival, applied secretly, not to count 
 Piper, the prime minister, but to baron de Gortz, 
 who now began to share with Piper the confi- 
 dence of the king. He even went to the quar- 
 ters of Charles XII. in the coach of this gentle- 
 man,* between whom and the chancellor Piper, 
 together with Robinson, the English minister, he 
 spoke to the king in French. He told him that he 
 should esteem it a singular happiness, could he 
 
 • When the duke arrived at the quarters of comit 
 Piper, of whom he had demanded an audience, he wa» 
 told the count was busy, and obliged to wait half an 
 hour before the Swedish minister came down to receive 
 him. Then the duke alighted from his coach, put on hit 
 hat, passed the count without saluting him, went aside to 
 the wall, where having staid a few minutes, he retoraod 
 and accosted Piper with the most polite address. 
 
120 HISTORY OF 
 
 have an opportunity of learning under his com- 
 mand such parts of the art of war as he did not 
 yet understand. To this pohte compliment the 
 king made no return, and seemed to forget that 
 it was Marlborough who was speaking to him. 
 He even thought, as 1 have been credibly informed, 
 that the dress of this great man was too fine and 
 costly ; and that his air had in it too little of a 
 soldier. The conversation was tedious and ge- 
 neral. Charles XII. speaking in the Swedish 
 tongue, and Robinson serving as an interpreter. 
 Marlborough, who was never in a haste to make 
 proposals ; and who, by a long course of ex- 
 perience, had learned the art of diving into the 
 real characters of men, and discovering the con- 
 nexion between their met secret thoughts and 
 their actions, gestures, and discourse, regarded 
 the king with the utmost attention. When he 
 spoke to him of war in general, he thought he 
 perceived in his majesty a natural aversion to 
 France ; and remarked tbat he talked with plea- 
 sure 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 conver.sation. Besides, he saw a map 
 of Muscovy lying before him upon the table. He 
 wanted no more to convince him, that the real de- 
 sign and the sole ambition of the king of Sweden 
 was to dethrone the czar, as he had already done 
 the king of Poland. He was sensible that, if 
 Charles remained in Saxony, it was only to im- 
 pose some hard conditions on the emperor of 
 Germany. He knew the emperor would make 
 no resistance, and that thus all disputes would be 
 easily accommodated. He left Charles XII. to 
 follow the bent of his own mind ; and, satisfied 
 with having discovered his intentions, he made 
 him no proposals. These particulars I had from 
 
CHARLES XII. 121 
 
 the duchess of Marlborough, his widow, who is 
 still alive.* 
 
 As few negotiations are finished without 
 money, and as ministers are sometimes seen to 
 sell the hatred or favour of their masters, it was 
 the general opinion throughout all 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 labours under the imputation. 
 For my own part, after having traced this report 
 to its source, with all the care and accuracy of 
 which I am master, I have found that Piper re- 
 ceived a small present from the emperor, by the 
 hands of the count de Wratislau, with the con- 
 sent of his master, and not a farthing 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 needed the instigation of count Piper 
 to prompt him to wreak his long-meditated ven- 
 geance on the head of Peter Alexiowitz. 
 
 But what vindicates the character of that mi- 
 nister beyond all probability and cavil, 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 corpse 
 to be transported to Stockholm, and gave him a 
 magnificent funeral at his own expense. 
 
 The king, who had not as yet experienced any 
 reverse of fortune, nor even met with any inter- 
 ruption in his victories, thought one year would 
 be suflBcient for dethroning the czar ; after which, 
 he imagined he might return in peace, and erect 
 
 • The author wrote in 1727, siuce which time, as ap- 
 pears from other dates, the work hath undergone several 
 corrections. 
 
 F 
 
122 HISTORY OF 
 
 himself into the arbiter of Europe. But first of 
 all, he resolved to humble the emperor of Ger- 
 many. 
 
 The baron de Stralheim, the Swedish envoy at 
 Vienna, had had a quarrel at a public entertain- 
 ment with the count de Zobor, chamberlain of 
 the emperor. The latter having refused to drink 
 the health of Charles XU. and having bluntly de- 
 clared, that that prince had used his master ill, 
 Stralheim 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 em- 
 peror, afraid of displeasing the king of Sw^eden, 
 was obliged to banish his subject, whom he ought 
 rather to have avenged. Charles, not satisfied 
 even with this condescension, insisted that count 
 Zobor should be delivered up to him. The pride 
 of the court of Vienna was forced to stoop. The 
 count was put into the hands of the king, who 
 sent him back, after having kept him some time 
 as a prisoner at Stettin. 
 
 He further demanded, contrary to all the laws 
 of nations, that they should deliver up to him 
 fifteen hundred unhappy Muscovites, who having 
 escaped the fury of his arms, had fled for refuge 
 into the empire. The emperor was obliged to 
 yield even to this unreasonable demand ; and had 
 not the Russian envoy at V^ienna given these un- 
 happy wretches an opportunity of escaping by dif- 
 ferent roads, they must have been delivered into 
 the hands of their enemies. 
 
 The third and last of his demands was the most 
 daring. He declared himself the protector of the 
 emperor's protestant subjects in Silesia, a province 
 belonging to the house of Austria, and 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, 
 
CHARLES XIT. 123 
 
 but which ■were extinguislied. or, at least eluded 
 by those of Ryswick. The emperor, who wanted 
 only to get rid of such a dangerous neighbour, 
 yielded once more, and granted all that he desired. 
 The Lutherans of Silesia had above a hundred 
 churches, which the catholics were obliged to 
 cede to them bj this treaty ; but of these advan- 
 tages, which were now procured them by the king 
 of Sweden's good fortune, they were afterwards 
 deprived when that prince was no longer in a con- 
 dition to impose laws. 
 
 The emperor, who made these forced conces- 
 sions, and complied in every thing with the will 
 of Charles XIl. was called Joseph ; and was the 
 eldest son of Leopold, and brother of Charles VI. 
 who succeeded him. The pope's inter-nuncio, 
 who then resided at the court of Joseph, reproach- 
 ed him in very severe terms, alleging that it was 
 a most shameful condescension for a catholic 
 emperor, like him, to sacrifice the interest 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 a Lutheran ; for, if he had, I do not 
 know what I might have done.' 
 
 The count de Wratislau, his ambassador with 
 Charles XII. brought to Leipsic the treaty in fa- 
 vour of the Silesians, signed with his master's 
 hand ; upon which Charles said, he was the em- 
 peror's very good friend. He was far from being 
 pleased, however, with the court of Rome, which 
 had employed all its arts and intrigues, in order 
 to traverse his scheme. He looked with the ut- 
 most contempt upon the weakness of that court, 
 which having one half of Europe for its irrecon- 
 cilable enemy, and placing no confidence in the 
 other, can only suppqrt its credit by the dexterity 
 of its negotiations j and he resolved therefore to 
 
124 HISTORY OF 
 
 be revenged on his holiness. He told the count 
 de Wratislau, that the Swedes had formerly sub- 
 dued Rome, and had not degenerated like her. 
 He sent the pope word, that he would one day 
 redemand the effects which queen Christina had 
 left at Rome. It is hard to say how far this young 
 conqueror might have carried his resentment and 
 his arms, had fortune favoured his designs. At 
 that time nothing appeared impossible to him. He 
 had even sent several officers privately into Asia 
 and Egypt, to take plans of the towns, and to ex- 
 amine into the strength of those countries. Cer- 
 tain it is, that if ever prince was able to overturn 
 the empire of the Turks and Persians, and from 
 thence pass into Italy, it was Charles XII. ; he 
 was as young as Alexander, as brave, as enter- 
 prising, more indefatigable, more robust, and more 
 temperate ; and the Swedes perhaps were better 
 soldiers than the iMacedonians. But such pro- 
 jects, which are called divine when they succeed, 
 are regarded only as chimeras when they prove 
 abortive. 
 
 At last, having removed every difficulty, and 
 accomplished all his designs ; having humbled 
 the emperor, given laws in the empire, protected 
 the Lutheran religion in the midst of the catho- 
 lics, dethroned one king, crowned another, and 
 rendered himself the terror of all the princes 
 around him, he begun to prepare for his depar- 
 ture. The pleasures of Saxony, where he had re- 
 mained inactive for a whole year, had not made 
 the least alteration in his manner of living. He 
 mounted his horse 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 uncertain whither their 
 
CHARLES XII. 125 
 
 king intended to lead them. They had only some 
 slight suspicion that he meant to go to Moscow. A 
 few days bpfore his departure, he ordered the 
 grand marshal of his household, to give him in 
 writing the route from Leipsic — at that word he 
 paused a moment ; nnd lest the marshal should 
 discover his proiect, he added, with a smile — to 
 all the capital cities of Europe. The marshal 
 brought him a list of all these routes, at the head 
 of which he placed, in great letters, 'The route 
 from Leipsic to Stockholm.' The generality of 
 Swedes were extremely desirous of returning 
 home ; but the king was far from the thoughts of 
 carrying them back to their native country. 'Mr. 
 Marshal,' says he, ' I plainly see whither you 
 would lead me : but we shall not return to Stock- 
 holm so soon.' 
 
 The army was already on its march, and was 
 passing by Dresden. Charles was at the head of 
 his men, always riding, as usual, two or three 
 hundred paces before his guards. All of a sudden 
 he vanished from their sight. Some officers ad- 
 vanced at full gallop to see where he was. They 
 ran to all parts, but could not find him. in a mo- 
 ment the alarm was spread over the whole army. 
 The troops were ordered to halt; the generals 
 assembled together, and were already in the ut- 
 most consternation. At last 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 en- 
 tered the town on horseback, followed by three or 
 four general officers. The sentries of the gates 
 asked them their names 1 Charles said hi.s name 
 was Carl, and that he was a Draban ; and all the 
 rest took fictitious names. Count Flemming, seeing 
 them pass through the town, had only time to run 
 
126 HISTORY OF 
 
 and inform his master. All that could possibly 
 be done on such an occasion immediately present- 
 ed itself to the mind of that minister, who laid it 
 before Augustus. But Charles entered the cham- 
 ber in his boots, before Augustus had time to re- 
 cover from his surprise. Augustus was then sick, 
 and in his night-gown, but dressed himself in a 
 hurry. Charles breakfasted with him, as a tra- 
 veller who comes to take leave of his friend, and 
 then expressed his desire of viewing the fortifica- 
 tions. During the short time he employed in 
 ■walking round them, a Livonian who had been, 
 condemned in Sweden, and now served in the 
 Saxon army, imagining that he could never find a 
 more favourable opportunity of obtaining his par- 
 don, entreated Augustus to ask it of Charles, being 
 fully convinced that his majesty wculd not refuse 
 so small a favour to a prince from whom he had 
 taken a crown, and in whose power he now was. 
 Augustus readily undertook the charge. He was 
 then at some distance from the king, and was 
 conversing with Hord, a Swedish general. * I 
 believe,' said he, smiling, * your master will not 
 refuse me.' — ' You do not know him,' replied ge- 
 neral Hord, ' he will rather refuse you here than 
 any where else.' Augustus however did not fail 
 to preter 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 conster- 
 nation. They told him they had determined to 
 besiege Dresden, in case his majesty had been 
 detained a prisoner. ' Right,' said the king, 
 * they durst not.' Next day, upon hearing the 
 news that Augustus held an extraordinary council 
 at Dresden : 'You see/ said baron Stralheim, 
 
CHARLES XII. la? 
 
 ' they are deliberating upon what they should have 
 done yesterday.' A few days after, Renschild, 
 coming to wait upon the king, expressed his sur- 
 prise at this unaccountable visit to Augustus. ' I 
 confided,' said Charles, ' in my good fortune ; but 
 I have seen the moment that might have proved 
 prejudicial to me. Flemming had no mind, that I 
 should le^ave Dresden so soon.' 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 Charles quits Saxony in a victorious manner; pursaes 
 tbe czar ; shuts himself up in the Ukraine ; his losses; 
 his wound. The battle of Pultowa ; consequences of 
 that battle. Charles obliged to fly into Turkey ; his 
 reception in Bessarabia. 
 
 r^ H A RLES at last took leave of Saxony, in Sep- 
 tember 1707, followed by an array of forty- 
 three thousand men, formerly covered with steel, 
 but now shining with gold and silver, and en- 
 riched with the spoils of Poland and Saxony. 
 Every soldier carried with him fifty crowns in 
 ready money. Not only were all the regiments 
 complete, but in every company there were seve- 
 ral supernumeraries. Besides this army, count 
 Levenhaupt, one of bis best generals, waited for 
 him in Poland with twenty thousand men. He 
 had another army of fifteen thousand in Finland ; 
 and fresh recruits were coming to him from Swe- 
 den. With all these forces it was not doubted but 
 that he would easily dethrone the czar. 
 
 The emperor was then in Lithuania, endea- 
 vouring to reanimate a party which Augustus 
 seemed to have abandoned. His troops, divided 
 into several bodies, fled on all sides at the first re- 
 port of the king of Sweden's approach. He him- 
 self had enjoined his generals never to wait for 
 
128 HISTORY OF 
 
 the conqueror with unequal forces ; and he was 
 punctually obeyed. 
 
 The king of Sweden, in the midst of his victo- 
 rious march, received an ambassador from the 
 Turks. The ambassador had his audience in count 
 Piper's quarters ; for it was always in that mi- 
 nister's tent that ceremonies of pomp were per- 
 formed. On these occasions he supported the 
 dignity of his master, by an appearance which had 
 in it something magnificent ; and the king, who 
 was always worse lodged, worse served, and more 
 plainly dressed than the meanest officer in his 
 array, was wont to say, that his palace w as Piper's 
 quarters. The Turkish ambassador presented 
 Charles with a hundred Swedish soldiers, who 
 having been taken by the Calmucks, and sold in 
 Turkey, had been purchased by the grand seignior, 
 and sent back by that emperor as the most ac- 
 ceptable present he could make to his majesty ; 
 not that the Ottoman pride condescended to pay 
 homage to the glory of Charles XII. but because 
 the sultan, the natural enemy of the Russian and 
 German emperors, was willing to fortify himself 
 against them by the friendship of Sweden and the 
 alliance of Poland. The ambassador compliment- 
 ed Stanislaus upon his accession to the throne ; so 
 that this king was acknowledged by Germany, 
 France, England, Spain, and Turkey. There re- 
 mained only the pope, who, before he would ac- 
 knowledge him, resolved to wait till time should 
 have settled on his head that crown of which a 
 reverse of fortune might easily deprive it. 
 
 Charles had no sooner given audience to the 
 ambassador of the Ottoman Porte, than he went 
 in pursuit of the Muscovites. The Russians, in 
 the course of the war, had quitted Poland and re- 
 turned to it above twenty diiferent times. That 
 country, which is open on all sides, and has no 
 
CHARLES XII. 129 
 
 places of strengtli to cut off the retreat of an army, 
 gave the Muscovites an opportunity of sometimes 
 revisiting the very spot where they had formerly 
 been beat, and even of penetrating as far into the 
 heart of the kingdom as the conqueror himself. 
 While Charles remained in Saxony, the czar had 
 advanced as far as Leopold, situated at the south- 
 ern extremity of Poland. Charles was then at 
 Grodno in Lithuania, a hundred leagues to the 
 northward of Leopold. 
 
 He left Stanislaus in Poland to defend his new 
 kingdom, with the assistance of ten thousand 
 Swedes, and that of his own subjects, against all 
 his enemies, both foreign and domestic. He 
 then put himself at the head of his cavalry, and 
 marched amidst frost and snow to Grodno, in the 
 month of January, 1708. 
 
 He had already passed the Niemen, about two 
 leagues from the town ; and the czar as yet knew 
 nothing of his march. Upon the first news of the 
 approach of the Swedish army, the czar quits the 
 town by the north gate, and Charles enters it by 
 the south. Charles had only six hundred of his 
 guards with him ; the rest not being able to keep 
 pace with his rapid march. The czar fled with 
 above two thousand men, from an apprehension 
 that a whole army was entering Grodno. That 
 very day he was informed by a Polish deserter, 
 that he had abandoned the place to no more than 
 six hundred men, and that the main body of the 
 army was still at the distance of five leagues. 
 He lost no time : he detached fifteen hundred 
 horse, of his own troops, in the evening, to sur- 
 prise the king of Sweden in the town. This de- 
 tachment, under favour of the darkness, arrived 
 undiscovered at the first Swedish guard, which, 
 though consisting only of thirty men, sustained, 
 for half a quarter of an hour, the efforts of the 
 F2 
 
130 HISTORY OF 
 
 whole fifteen hundred. The king, who happened 
 to be at the other end of the town, flew to their 
 assistance with the rest of his six hundred men; 
 upon which the Russians fled with precipitation. 
 In a short time his army arrived, and he then set 
 out in pursuit of the enemy. All the corps of the 
 Russian army, dispersed through Lithuania, re- 
 tired hastily into the palatinate of Minsky, near 
 the frontiers of Muscovy, where their general ren- 
 dezvous was appointed. The Swedes, who were 
 likewise divided into several bodies, continued 
 to pursue the enemy for more than thirty leagues. 
 The fugitives and the pursuers made forced 
 marches almost every day, though in the middle 
 of winter. For a long time past all seasons of 
 the year were become indiff'erent to the Swedes 
 and Russians ; and the only difference between 
 them now arose from the terror of Charles's 
 arms. 
 
 From Grodno to the Boristhenes eastward, 
 there is nothing but morasses, deserts, and im- 
 mense forests. In the cultivated spots there are 
 no provisions to be had, the peasants burying un- 
 der ground all their grain, and whatever else can 
 be preserved in these subterraneous receptacles. 
 In order to discover these hidden magazines, the 
 earth must be pierced with long poles pointed 
 with iron. The Muscovites and the Swedes 
 alternately made use of these provisions ; but 
 they were not always to be found, and even then 
 they were not sufficient. 
 
 The king of Sweden, who had foreseen these dif- 
 ficulties, had provided biscuit for the subsistence 
 of his army, and nothing could stop him in his 
 march. After having traversed the forest of Min- 
 sky, where he was every moment obliged to cut 
 down trees in order to clear the road for his troops 
 and baggage, he found himself, on the 25th of 
 
CHARLES XII. 131 
 
 June, 1708, on the banks of the river Berezine, 
 opposite to Borislow. 
 
 In this place the czar had assembled the best 
 part of his forces, and intrenched himself to great 
 advantage. His design was 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. Meanwhile 
 he leads his army three leagues higher up the 
 river, throws a bridge across it, cuts his way 
 through a body of three thousand men who de- 
 fended that pass, and without halting, marches 
 against the main body of the enemy. The Rus- 
 sians did not wait his approach, but decamped 
 and retreated towards the Boristhenes, spoiling 
 all the roads, and destroying every thing in their 
 way, in order, at least to retard the progress of 
 the Swedes. 
 
 Charles surmounted every obstacle, and still 
 advanced towards the Boristhenes. In his way 
 he met with twenty thousand Muscovites, in- 
 trenched in a place called Holozin, 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 : he 
 plunges into the water at the head of his foot- 
 guards, and crosses the river and the morass, the 
 water frequently reaching above his shoulders. 
 While he was thus pressing forward to the enemy, 
 he ordered his cavalry to go round the morass 
 and take them in flank. The Muscovites, sur- 
 prised that no barrier could defend them, were 
 instantly routed by the king, who attacked them 
 on foot, and by the Swedish cavalry. 
 
 The horse having forced their way through the 
 enemy, joined the king in the midst of the battle. 
 He then mounted on horseback j but some time 
 
132 HISTORY OF 
 
 after observing in the field a young Swedish 
 gentleman, named Gyllenstiern, for whom he had 
 a great regard, wounded and unable to walk, he 
 forced him to take his horse, and continued to 
 command on foot at the head of his infantry. Of 
 all the battles he had ever fought, this was per- 
 haps the most glorious ; this was the one in which 
 he encountered the greatest dangers, and dis- 
 played the most consummate skill and prudence. 
 The memory of it is still preserved by a medal, 
 with this inscription on one side, Siflvce, paludes, 
 aggeres, hastes vicli:* and on the other this verse 
 of Lucan, Victrices copias alinm latnrus in orhem.f 
 
 The Russians, chased from all their posts, re- 
 passed the Boristhenes, which divides Poland 
 from Muscovy. Charles did not give over the 
 pursuit ; but followed them across the Boristhe- 
 nes, which he passed at Mohilou, the last town 
 of Poland, and which sometimes belongs to the 
 Poles, and sometimes to the Russians ; a fate 
 common to frontier places. 
 
 The czar thus seeing his empire, where he had 
 lately established the polite arts and a flourishing 
 trade, exposed to a war, which in a short time, 
 might overturn all his mighty projects, and per- 
 haps deprive him of his crown, began to think 
 seriously of peace ; and accordingly ventured to 
 make some proposals for that purpose, by means 
 of a Polish gentleman, whom he sent to the Swe- 
 dish army. Charles XII. who had not been used 
 to grant peace to his enemies, except in their 
 own capitals, replied, ' I will treat with the czar 
 at Moscow.' When this haughty answer was 
 reported to the czar, • My brother Charles,' says 
 he, ' always affects to act the Alexander ; but, 
 
 • Woods, marshes, mounds, and enemies conquered, 
 t Wafting hia warlike troops to other worlds. 
 
CHARLES XII. 133 
 
 I flatter myself, he will not find in me another 
 Darius.' 
 
 From Mohilou, the place where the king passed 
 the Boristhenes, as you advance towards the 
 north, along the banks of that river, and always 
 on the frontiers of Poland and Muscovy, you meet 
 with the country of Smolensko, through which 
 lies the great road that leads from Poland to 
 Muscovy. This way the czar directed Lis flight ; 
 and the king pursued him by long marches. Part 
 of the Russian rear-guard was frequently engaged 
 with the dragoons of the Swedish van-guard. The 
 latter had generally the advantage ; but they 
 weakened themselves even by conquering in these 
 small skirmishes, which were never decisive, 
 and in which they always lost a number of men. 
 
 On the 22nd of September, 1708, the king 
 attacked, near Smolensko, a body of ten thousand 
 horse, and six thousand Calmucks. 
 
 These Calmucks are Tartars, living between 
 the kingdom of Astracan, which is 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 Mogul from the western parts 
 of Asia. Those who inhabit that part of the 
 country which borders upon Astracan are tri- 
 butary to the czar, who pretends to an absolute 
 authority over them ; but their vagrant life hin- 
 ders him from making good his claim, and obliges 
 him to treat them in the same manner in which 
 the grand seignior treats the Arabs, sometimes 
 conniving at, and sometimes punishing their rob- 
 beries. There are always some of these Calmucks 
 in the Russian army ; and the czar had even re- 
 duced them to a regular discipline, like the rest 
 of his soldiers. 
 
134 HISTORY OF 
 
 The king attacked these troops with only six 
 reginnents of horse, and four thousand foot ; broke 
 their ranks at the first onset, at the head of hia 
 Ostrogothick regiment, and obliged them to fly. 
 He pursued them through rugged and hollow 
 ways, where the Calmucks lay concealed, who 
 soon began to shew themselves and cut off the 
 regiment in which the king fought from the rest 
 of the Swedish army. In an instant the Russians 
 and Calmucks surrounded this regiment, and 
 penetrated even to the king. Two aids-de-camp 
 who fought 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 struck dead upon the 
 spot. Charles fought on foot, surrounded by 
 some of his officers, who instantly flocked around 
 him. 
 
 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 
 left at last with no more than five attendants. 
 "With his own hand he had killed above a dozen 
 of the enemy, without receiving a single wound, 
 owing to that surprising good fortune which had 
 hitherto attended him, and upon which he always 
 relied. At length a colonel, named Dardof, 
 forced his way through the Calmucks, with a 
 single company of his regiment, and arrived time 
 enough to save the king. The rest of the Swedes 
 put the Tartars to the sword. The army re- 
 covered 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. The distance from Smo- 
 lensko, near which the battle was fought, to 
 Moscow, is about a hundred French leagues j 
 
CHARLES XII. 135 
 
 and the army began to be in want of provision. 
 The officers earnestly entreated the king to wait 
 till general Levenhaupt, who was coming up with 
 a reinforcement of fifteen thousand men, should 
 arrive. The king, who seldom indeed took counsel 
 of any one, not only rejected this wholesome ad- 
 vice, but, to the great astonishment of all the army, 
 quitted the road to Moscow, and began to march 
 southwards towards the Ukraine, the country of 
 the Cossacks, lying between Little Tartary, Po- 
 land, and Muscovy, This country extends about 
 a hundred French leagues from south to north, 
 and almost as many from east to west. It is di- 
 vided into two parts, almost equal, by the Boris- 
 thenes, which runs from the north-west to the 
 Bouth-east. The chief town is called Bathurin, and 
 is situated upon the little river Sem. The northern 
 part of the Ukraine is rich and well cultivated. 
 The southern, 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 bad 
 form of government stifles in embryo, as it were, 
 all the blessings which nature, if properly en- 
 couraged, would shower down upon the inhabi- 
 tants. '.The people of these cantons neither sow 
 nor plant, because the Tartars of Budziack, Pre- 
 cop, and Moldavia, all of them free-hooters and 
 banditti, would rob them of their harvests. 
 
 Ukrania hath always aspired to liberty ; but 
 being surrounded by Muscovy, the dominions of 
 the grand seignior, and Poland, it has been 
 obliged to choose a protector, and consequently a 
 master, in one of these three states. The Ukra- 
 nians at first put themselves under the protec- 
 tion of the Poles, who treated them with great 
 severity. They afterwards submitted to the Rus- 
 sians, who governed them with despotic sway. 
 They had originally the privilege of electing a 
 
136 HISTORY OF 
 
 prince under 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 gentleman, named Mazeppa, and born in 
 the palatinate of Podolia. He had been brought 
 up as a page to John Casimir, and had received 
 some tincture of learning in his court. An in- 
 trigue, which he had had in his youth with the 
 lady of a Polish gentleman, having been dis- 
 covered, the husband caused him to be bound 
 stark-naked upon a wild horse, and let him go in 
 that condition. The horse, who had been brought 
 out of Ukrania, returned to his own country, and 
 carried Mazeppa along 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, and signalized himself in several 
 excursions against the Tartars. The superiority 
 of his knowledge gained him great respect among 
 the Cossacks ; and his reputation daily increas- 
 ing, the czar found it necessary to make him 
 prince of Ukrania. 
 
 While he was one day at table with the czar 
 at Moscow, the emperor proposed to him'to dis- 
 cipline the Cossacks, and to render them more 
 dependent. Mazeppa replied, that the situation 
 of Ukrania, and the genius of the nation, were 
 insuperable obstacles to such a scheme. The czar 
 who began to be overheated with wine, and who 
 had not always the command of his passions, 
 called him a traitor, and threatened to have him 
 impaled. 
 
 Mazeppa, on his return to Ukrania, formed the 
 design of a revolt ; and the execution of it was 
 greatly facilitated by the Swedish army, which 
 soon after appeared on his frontiers. He resolved 
 to render himself independent, and to erect Ukra- 
 
CHARLES XII. 137 
 
 nia and some other ruins of the Russian empire 
 into a powerful kingdom. Brave, enterprising, 
 and indefatigable, though advanced in years, he 
 entered into a secret league with the king of 
 Sweden, to hasten the downfal of the czar, and 
 to convert it to his own advantage. 
 
 The king appointed the rendezvous near the 
 river Desna. Mazeppa promised to meet him 
 there at the head of thirty thousand men, with 
 ammunition and provisions, and all his treasures, 
 which were immense. The Swedish army there- 
 fore continued its march on that side, to the great 
 grief of all the officers, who knew nothing of the 
 king's treaty with the Cossacks. Charles sent 
 orders to Levenhaupt to bring his troops and pro- 
 visions with all possible dispatch into Ukrania, 
 where he proposed to pass the winter, that, 
 having once secured that country, he might the 
 more easily conquer Muscovy in the ensuing 
 spring ; and, in the mean time, he advanced to- 
 wards the river Desna, which falls into the Bo- 
 risthenes at Kiou. 
 
 The obstructions they had hitherto found in 
 their march were but trifling, in comparison of 
 what th^y met with in this new road. They were 
 obliged to cross a marshy forest fifty leagues in. 
 length. General Lagexcron, who marched before 
 with five thousand soldiers and pioneers, led the 
 army astray to the eastward, thirty leagues from 
 the right road. It was not till after a march of 
 four days that the king discovered the mistake. 
 With great difficulty they regained the main 
 road ; but almost all their artillery and waggons 
 were lost, being either stuck fast, or quite sunk 
 in the mud. 
 
 At last, after a march of twelve days, attended 
 with so many vexations and untoward circum- 
 stances, during which they had consumed the 
 
138 HISTORY OF 
 
 small quantity of biscuit that was left, the army, 
 exhausted with hunger and fatigue, arrived on the 
 banks of the Desna, in the very spot which Ma- 
 xeppa had marked out as the place of rendez- 
 vous ; but instead of meeting with that prince, 
 they found a body of Muscovites advancing to- 
 wards the other bank of the river. The king was 
 astonished, but resolved immediately to pass the 
 Desna and attack the enemy. The banks of the 
 river were so steep, that they were obliged to let 
 the soldiers down with ropes. They crossed it 
 in their usual manner, some on floats which were 
 made in haste, and others by swimming. The 
 body of Muscovites 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 further into this desolate 
 country, alike uncertain of his road and of Mazep- 
 pa's fidelity. That Cossack appeared at last, 
 but rather like a fugitive than a powerful 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 upon the wheel ; his towns were re- 
 duced to ashes ; his treasures plundered ; the 
 provisions he was preparing for the king of 
 Sweden seized ; and it was with great diflBculty 
 that he himself made his escape with six thousand 
 men, and some horses loaden with gold and sil- 
 ver. However he gave the king some hopes that 
 he should be able to assist him by his intelligence 
 in that unknown country, and by the afl'ection of 
 all the Cossacks, who, being enraged against the 
 Russians, flocked to the camp and supplied the 
 army with provisions. 
 
 Charles hoped that general Leveuhauptat least 
 
CHARLES XII. 139 
 
 would come and repair this misfortune. He was 
 to bring with him about fifteen thousand Swedes, 
 who were better than a hundred thousand Cos- 
 sacks, together with ammunition and provisions. 
 At length, he arrived, in much the same con- 
 dition with Mazeppa. 
 
 He had already passed the Boristhenes above 
 Mohilou, and advanced twenty leagues beyond 
 k, on the road to Ukraine. He was bringing the 
 king a convoy of eight thousand waggons, with 
 the money which he had levied in his march 
 through Lithuania. As he approached the town 
 of Lesno, near the conflux of the rivers Pronia 
 and Sossa, which fall into the Boristhenes far 
 below, the czar appeared at the head of nearly 
 forty thousand men. 
 
 The Swedish general, who had not sixteen 
 thousand complete, scorned to shelter himself in 
 a fortified camp. A long train of victories had 
 inspired the Swedes with so much confidence, 
 that they never informed themselves of the num- 
 ber of their enemies, but only of the place where 
 they lay. Accordingly, on the 7th of October 1708, 
 in the afternoon, Levenhaupt advanced against 
 them with great resolution. In the first attack 
 the Swedes killed fifteen hundred Russians, The 
 czar's army was thrown into great 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 would be utterly ruined, should Levenhaupt 
 join the king of Sweden with a victorious army. 
 
 The moment he saw his troops begin to flinch, 
 he ran to the rear-guard, where the Cossacks and 
 Calmucks were posted. • i charge ygu,' said he 
 to them, ' to fire upon every one that runs away, 
 and even to kill me, should I be so cowardly as 
 
140 HISTORY OF , 
 
 to fly.' From thence he returned to the ran- 
 guard, and rallied his troops in person, assisted 
 by the princes Menzikoff and Galitzin. Leven- 
 haupt, 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 near a morass, and extended his^ 
 lines with a view to surround him. The Swedes 
 faced about on all sides; and the battle waa 
 maintained for the space of two hours, with equal 
 courage and obstinacy. The loss of the Musco- 
 vites was three times greater than that of the 
 Swedes; the former, however, still kept their 
 ground, and the victory was left undecided. 
 
 At four in the afternoon general Baur brought 
 the czar a reinforcement of troops. The battle 
 was then renewed for the third time with more fury 
 and eagerness than ever, and lasted till night put 
 an end to the combat. At last superior numbers 
 prevailed, the Swedes were broke, routed, and 
 driven back to their baggage. Levenhaupt rallied 
 bis troops behind the waggons. 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 with as much ease as if they had 
 not been vanquished. The czar on the other 
 side, remained all night under arms; and forbade 
 his officers, under pain of being cashiered, and his 
 soldiers, under pain of deaths to leave their rank* 
 for the sake of plunder. 
 
 Next morning, at day-break, he ordered afresh 
 assault. Levenhaupt had retired to an advan- 
 tageous situation, ac the distance of a few miles» 
 after having nailed up part of his cannon, and set 
 fire to his waggons. 
 
CHARLES XII. 141 
 
 The Muscovites arrived time enough to pre- 
 vent the whole convoy from being consumed by 
 the flames. They seized about six thousand 
 waggons, which they saved. The czar, desirous 
 of completing the defeat of the Swedes, sent one 
 of his generals, named Phlug, to attack them 
 again for the fifth time. That general offered 
 them an honourable capitulation. Levenhaupt 
 refused it, and fought a fifth battle, as bloody as 
 any of the former. Of the nine thousand sol- 
 diers he had left, he lost about one half in this 
 action, and the other remained unbroken. At 
 last, night coming on, Levenhaupt, after having 
 sustained five battles against forty thousand men, 
 passed the Sossa with about five thousand sol- 
 diers that remained. The czar lost about ten 
 thousand men in these five engagements, in which 
 he had the glory of conquering the Swedes, and 
 Levenhaupt that of disputing the victory for 
 three days, and of effecting a retreat, without 
 being obliged to surrender. Thus he arrived iu 
 his master's camp with the honour of having 
 made such a noble defence ; but bringing with 
 him neither ammunition nor an army. 
 
 By these means Charles found himself desti- 
 tute of provisions, cut off from all communication 
 with Poland, and surrounded with enemies, in 
 the heart of a country where he had no resource 
 but his own courage. 
 
 In this extremity the memorable winter of 
 1709, which was still more terrible in those 
 quarters of the world than in France, destroyed 
 part of his army. Charles resolved to brave the 
 seasons, as he had done his enemies ; and ven- 
 tured to make long marches with his troops dur- 
 ing this mortal cold. It was in one of these 
 marches that two thousand men fell dead with 
 cold before his eyes. The dragoons had no boots. 
 
14» HISTORY OF 
 
 and the foot soldiers were without shoes, and 
 almost without clothes. They were forced to 
 make stockings of the skins of wild beasts, in the 
 best manner they could. They were frequently 
 in want of bread. They were obliged to throw 
 almost all their cannon into the marshes and 
 rivers, for want of horses to draw them ; so that 
 this army, which was once so flourishing, was 
 reduced to twenty-four thousand men ready to 
 perish with hunger. They no longer received 
 any news from Sweden, nor were able to send 
 any thither. In this condition only one oflScer 
 complained, ' What,' said the king to him, * are 
 you uneasy at being so far from your wife 1 If 
 you are a good soldier, I will lead you to 
 such a distance, that you shall hardly be able 
 to receive news from Sweden once in three 
 years.' 
 
 The marquis de Brancas, afterwards ambas- 
 sador in Sweden, told me, that a soldier ven» 
 tared, 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 suf- 
 ficient quantity. The king received the bit of 
 bread without the least emotion, eat it up, and 
 then said coldly to the soldier, ' It is not good, 
 but it may be eaten.' This incident, trifling as 
 it is, if indeed any thing that increases respect 
 and confidence can be said to be trifling, contri- 
 buted more than all the rest to make the Swedish 
 army support those hardships, which would have 
 been intolerable under any other general. 
 
 While he was in this situation, he at last re- 
 ceived a packet from Stockholm, by which he was. 
 informed of the death of his sister, the duchess 
 of Hol8tein» who was carried off by the smaM 
 
CHARLES Xll. 143 
 
 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, that now beginning to taste of misfor- 
 tunes himself, he was of course become themoi« 
 susceptible of tender impressions. 
 
 By this packet he was likewise informed , that 
 they had raised money and troops, in obedience 
 to his orders ; but nothing could reach his camp, 
 as between him and Stockholm there were near 
 five hundred leagues to travel, and an enemy su- 
 perior in number to engage. 
 
 The czar, who was as active as the king of 
 Sweden, after having sent some fresh troops to 
 the assistance of the confederates in Poland, 
 who, under the command of general Siniauski, 
 exerted their joint efforts against Stanislaus, im- 
 mediately advanced into the Ukraine, in the 
 midst of this severe winter, to make head against 
 Lis Swedish majesty. Then he continued to 
 pursue the political scheme he had formed of 
 ■weakening his enemy by petty rencounters, 
 wisely judging, that the Swedish army must in 
 the end be entirely ruined, as it could not possi- 
 bly be recruited. The cold must certainly have 
 been very severe, as it obliged the two monarchs 
 to agree to a suspension of arms. But on the 
 1st of February they renewed their military ope- 
 rations, 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 re- 
 maining. Mazeppa, the prince of the Cossacks, 
 supplied them with provisions : without his as- 
 sistance, the army must have perished with want 
 
144 HISTORY OF 
 
 and hunger. At this conjuncture, the czaT made 
 proposals to Mazeppa for submitting again to 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 revenging their death, he continued faithful 
 to his new ally. 
 
 Charles, with his eighteen thousand Swedes, 
 had neither laid aside the design nor the hopes of 
 penetrating to Moscow. Towards the end of 
 May he laid siege to Pukowa, upon the rivei 
 Vorskla, at the eastern extremity of the Ukraine, 
 and thirty leagues from the Boristhenes. This 
 country is inhabited by the Zaporavians, the most 
 remarkable people in the universe. They are a 
 collection of ancient Russians, Poles, and Tar- 
 tars, professing a species of Christianity, and ex- 
 ercising a kind of free-booting, somewhat a-kin 
 to that of the buccaniers. They choose a chief, 
 whom they frequently depose or strangle: ihey 
 allow no women to live among them ; but they 
 carry off all the children from twenty to thirty 
 leagues around, and bring them up in their own 
 manners. The summer they always pass in the 
 open fields ; in winter they shelter themselves 
 in large barns, containing four or five thousand 
 men. They fear nothing; they live free; they 
 brave death for the smallest booty, with as much 
 intrepidity as Charles XII. did, in order to ob- 
 tain the power of bestowing crowns. The czar 
 gave them sixty thousand florins, hoping by this 
 means to engage them in his interest. They took 
 his money: and, influenced by the powerful elo- 
 quence of Mazeppa, declared in favour of Charles 
 XII. but their service was of very little conse- 
 quence, as they think it the most egregious folly 
 to fight for any thing but plunder. It was no 
 
CHARLES XII. 145 
 
 small advantage, however, that they were pre- 
 vented from doing harm. The number of their 
 troops was, at most, but about two thousand. 
 One morning teu of their chiefs were presented 
 to the king ; but it was with great difficulty they 
 could be prevailed upon to remain sober, as they 
 commonly begin the day by getting drunk. They 
 were brought to the intrenchments, where they 
 shewed their dexterity in firing with long car- 
 bines ; for being placed upon the mounds they 
 killed such of the enemy as they picked out at 
 the distance of two hundred paces. To these 
 banditti Charles added some thousands of Wala- 
 chians, whom he had hired from the cham of 
 Little Tartary ; and thus laid siege to Pultowa, 
 with all these troops of Zaporavians, Cossacks, 
 and Walachians, which joined to his eighteen 
 thousand Swedes, composed an army of about 
 thirty thousand men; but an army in a wretched 
 condition and in want of every thing. The czar 
 had formed a magazine in Pultowa : if the king 
 should take it, he would open himself a way to 
 Muscovy ; and be able at least, amidst the great 
 abundance he would then possess, to wait the 
 arrival of the succours which he still expected 
 from Sweden, Livonia, Pomerania, and Poland. 
 His only resource therefore being in the con- 
 quest of Pultowa, he pressed the siege of it with 
 great vigour. Mazeppa, who carried on a cor- 
 respondence with some of the citizens, assured 
 him that he would soon be master of it ; and 
 this assurance revived the hopes of the soldiers, 
 who considered the taking of Pultowa as the end 
 of all their miseries. 
 
 The king perceived, from the beginning of the 
 
 fiiege, that he had taught his enemies the art 
 
 of war. In spite of all his precautions, princ€ 
 
 Menzikoff threw some fresh troops into the tow^ ; 
 
 G 
 
146 HISTORY OF 
 
 by which means the garrison was rendered almost 
 five thousand strong. 
 
 They made several sallies, and sometimes with 
 success : they likewise sprung a mine ; but what 
 saved the town from being taken was the approach 
 of the czar, who was advancing with seventy 
 thousand men. Charles went to reconnoitre 
 them on the 27th of May, which happened to 
 be on his birth-day, and beat one of their de- 
 tachments ; but, as he was returning to his camp, 
 he received a shot from a carbine, which pierced 
 his boot and shattered the bone of his heel. 
 There was not the least alteration observable in 
 his countenance, from which it could be suspected 
 that he had received a wound. He continued to 
 give his orders with great composure ; and after 
 this accident remained almost six hours on horse- 
 back. One of his domestics observing that the 
 sole of the king's boot was bloody, made haste 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 to his tent. 
 The surgeons examined the wound, and were of 
 opinion that the leg must be cut off, which threw 
 the army into the utmost consternation. But 
 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 the leg with both his hands, and 
 beheld the incisions that were made in it, as if 
 the operation had been performed upon another 
 person. 
 
 As they were laying on the dressing he or- 
 dered an assault to be made the next morning ; 
 but he had hardly given these orders, when ho 
 was informed that the whole army of the enemy 
 
CHARLES XII. 147 
 
 was advancing against him ; in consequence of 
 •which he was obliged to alter his resolution. 
 Charles, wounded and incapable of acting, saw 
 himself cooped up between the Bori&thenes and 
 the river that runs to Pultowa, in a desert coun- 
 try, without any places of security, or ammuni- 
 tion, in the face of an army, which at once cut 
 off his retreat, and prevented his being supplied 
 with provisions. In this extremity, he did not 
 assemble a council of war, as, considering the 
 perplexed situation of his affairs, he ought to 
 have done ; but on the 7th or 8th of July, in the 
 evening, he sent for velt-mareschal Renschild to 
 his tent ; and, without deliberation, or the least 
 discomposure, ordered him to make the neces- 
 sary dispositions for attacking the czar next day. 
 Renschild made no objections, and went to carry 
 his orders into execution. At the door of the 
 king's tent he met count Piper, with whom he 
 had long lived on very bad terms, as frequently 
 happens between the minister and the general. 
 Piper asked him if he had any news : • No,' 
 said the general coldly, and passed on to give 
 his orders. As soon as count Piper had en- 
 tered the tent ; ' Has Renschild told you no- 
 thing ?' said the king: ' Nothing,' replied Piper; 
 * Well then,' resumed he, ' I tell you, that we 
 shall give battle to-morrow.* Count Piper was 
 astonished at such a desperate resolution : but, 
 well knowing that it was impossible to make his 
 master change his mind, he expressed his sur- 
 prise only by silence ; and left Charles to sleep 
 till break of day. 
 
 It was on the 8th of July, 1709, that the de- 
 cisive battle of Pultowa was fought between the 
 two most famous monarchs that were then in the 
 world. Charles XII. illustrious for nine years of 
 victories ; Peter Alexiowitx for nine years of 
 
148 HISTORY OF 
 
 pains taken to form troops equal to those of 
 Sweden : the one glorious for having given awa^ 
 dominions ; the other for having civilized his own : 
 Charles, fond of dangers, and fighting for glory 
 alone ; Alexiowitz scorning to fly from danger, 
 and never making war but from interested views : 
 the Swedish monarch liberal from an innate great- 
 ness of soul ;* the Muscovite never granting fa- 
 vours but in order to serve some particular people : 
 the former a prince of uncommon sobriety and 
 continence, naturally magnanimous, and nevet 
 cruel but once ; the latter having not yet worn oflF 
 the roughness of his education, or the barbarity 
 of his country, as much the object of terror to his 
 subjects as of admiration to strangers, and too 
 prone to excesses, which even shortened his days. 
 Charles had the title of ' Invincible,' of which a 
 single moment might deprive him ; the neighbour- 
 ing nations had already given Peter Alexiowitz 
 the name of * Great,' which, as he did not owe it 
 to his victories, he could not forfeit by a defeat. 
 
 In order to form 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, stretching a little 
 
 • "We cannot perceive the least tincture of liberality 
 or greatness of soul in Charles. He might indeed have 
 made himself king of Poland by dint of violence, but the 
 consequence of that violence would have disabled him 
 from gratifying his revenge, which seems to have beea 
 the predominant passion of his soul. Had he ascended 
 the throne of Poland, he must have maintained an army 
 of Swedes in that kingdom, consequently' he could not 
 have advanced to the banks of the Boristhenes io pursuit 
 of Peter Alexiowitz. We find in Charles an insensibility 
 of danger, a contempt of wealth, a clownishness of man- 
 ners, a brutality of disposition, an implacable thirst of 
 revenge and dominion ; without taste, sentiment, or hu- 
 manity, 
 
CHARLES XII. 149 
 
 towards the east, his baggage about a mile behind 
 him, and the river of Pultowa on the north of the 
 town, running from east to west. 
 
 The czar had passed the river about a league 
 from Pultowa, towards the west, and was begin- 
 ning to form his camp. 
 
 At break of day the Swedes appeared before 
 the trenches with four iron cannons for their whole 
 artillery ; the rest were left in the camp, with 
 about three thousand men, and four thousand re- 
 mained with the baggage ; so that the Swedish 
 armj which advanced against the enemy, con- 
 sisted of about one and twenty thousand men, of 
 which about sixteen thousand only were regular 
 troops. 
 
 The generals Renschild, Roos, Levenhaupt, 
 Slipenbak, Hoorn, Sparre, Hamilton, the prince 
 of Wirtemberg, the king's relation, and some 
 others, who had most of them seen the battle of 
 Narva, put the subaltern officers in mind of that 
 day, when eight thousand Swedes defeated an 
 army of eighty thousand Muscovites in their in- 
 trenchments. The officers exhorted the soldiers 
 by the same motive, and as they advanced they 
 all encouraged one another. 
 
 Charles, carried in a litter at the head of his 
 infantry, conducted the march. A party of horse 
 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 
 horse was posted towards the west, on the right 
 side of the Russian camp. Prince Menzikoff and 
 count Gallowin had placed them at certain dis- 
 tances between two redorfbts lined with cannon. 
 General .Slipenbak, at tiie head of the Swedes, 
 rushed upon them. All those who have served 
 in the .Swedish troops are sensible that it is almost 
 impuasible to withstand the fury of their first at- 
 
160 HISTORY OF 
 
 tack. The Muscovite squadrons were broken and 
 routed. The czar ran up to rally them in person ; 
 his hat was pierced with a musket ball ; Menzikoff 
 had three horses killed under hi*, and the Swedes 
 cried out Victory. 
 
 Charles did not doubt but the battle was gained. 
 About midnight he had sent general Creutz with 
 five thousand horse or dragoons to take the enemy 
 in flank, while he attacked them in front ; but as 
 his ill fortune would have it, Creutz mistook his 
 wa}', and did not make his appearance. The czar, 
 who thought he was ruined, had time to rally his 
 cavalry, and in his turn fell upon that of the king, 
 which, not being supported by the detachment of 
 Creutz, was likewise broken. Slipenbak was 
 taken prisoner in this engagement. At the same 
 time seventy-two pieces of cannon played from 
 the camp upon the cavalry ; and the Russian foot, 
 opening their lines, advanced, to attack Charles's 
 infantry. 
 
 After this the czar detached prince Menzikoff 
 to go and take post between Pultowa and the 
 Swedes. Prince Menzikoft' executed his master's 
 orders with dexterity and expedition. He not 
 only cut off the communication between the 
 Swedish army and the camp before Pultowa ; but, 
 having met with a corps de reserve, he surround- 
 ed them and cut them in pieces. If Menzikoff 
 performed this exploit of his own accord, Russia 
 is indebted to him for its preservation : if it was 
 by the orders of the czar, he was an adversary 
 worthy of Charles XII. Meanwhile the Russian 
 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 quar* 
 ter of a league from the enemy ; and the king, 
 assisted by velt-mareschal Renschild, made the 
 necessary dispositions for a general engagement. 
 
CHARLES XII. 151 
 
 He ranged the few troops that were left him in 
 two lines, his infantry occupying the centre and 
 his cavalry forming the two wings. The czar 
 disposed his army in the same manner. He had 
 the advantage of numbers, and of seventy-two 
 pieces of cannon, while the Swedes had no more 
 than four to oppose to him, and began to be in 
 want of powder. 
 
 The emperor of Muscovy was in the centre of 
 his army, having then only the title of major-ge- 
 neral, and seemed to obey general Sheremeto. But 
 he rode from rank to rank in the character of em- 
 peror, mounted on a Turkish horse, which had 
 been given him in a present by the grand seignior, 
 animating the captains and soldiers, and promis- 
 ing rewards to them ail. 
 
 At nine in the morning the battle was renewed. 
 One of the first discharges of the Russian cannon 
 carried oflf the two horses of Charles's litter. He 
 caused two others to be immediately put to it. A 
 second discharge broke the litter in pieces, and 
 overturned the king. Of four and twenty Dra- 
 bants, who mutually relieved each other in carry- 
 ing him, one and twenty were killed. The Swedes, 
 struck with consternation, began to stagger ; and 
 the cannon of the enemy continuing to mow them 
 down, the first line fell back upon the second, and 
 the second began to fly. In this last action it was 
 only a single line of ten thousand Russian in- 
 fantry that routed the Swedish army — so much 
 were matters changed! 
 
 All the Swedish writers allege, tii at they would 
 have gained the battle, if they had not committed 
 several blunders ; but all the officers affirm, that 
 it was a great blunder to give battle at all, and 
 a greater still to shut themselves up in a desert 
 country, against the advice of the most prudent 
 generals, in opposition to a warlike enemy, three 
 
152 HISTORY OF 
 
 times stronger than Charles, both in number of 
 men, and in the many resources from which the 
 Swedes were entirely cut off. The remembrance 
 of Narva was the chief cause of Charles's misfor- 
 tune at Pultowa. 
 
 The prince of Wirtemberg, general Renschild, 
 and several principal officers were already made 
 prisoners ; the camp before Pultowa was stormed ; 
 and all was thrown into a confusion which it was 
 impossible to rectify. 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 to another. A major, called Bere, offered 
 to conduct them to the baggage ; but the clouds 
 of dust and smoke which covered the plain, and 
 the dissipation of mind so natural amidst such a 
 desolation, brought thera straight to the counter- 
 scarp of the town, were they were all made pri- 
 soners by the garrison. 
 
 The king scorned to fly, and yet was unable to 
 defend himself. General Poniatowsky happened 
 to be near him at that instant. He was a colonel 
 of Stanislaus' Swedish guards, a man of extraor- 
 dinary merit, and had been induced, from his 
 strong attachment to the person of Charles, to 
 follow him into the Ukraine, without any post in 
 the army. He was a man, who, in all the occur- 
 rences of life, and amidst those dangers, when 
 others would at most have displayed their courage, 
 always took his measures with dispatch, pru- 
 dence, and success. He made a sign to two Dra- 
 bants, who took the king under the arm, and 
 placed him on his horse, notwithstanding the ex- 
 quisite pain of his wounds. 
 
 Poniatowsky, though he had no command in 
 the army, became on this occasion a general 
 tJirough necessity, and drew up five hundred horse 
 
CHARLES XII. 153 
 
 near the king's person ; some of them Drabants, 
 others officers, and a few private troopers. This 
 body being assembled and animated by the mis- 
 fortune of their prince, forced their way through 
 more than ten Russian 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 closely pursued in his flight, had 
 his horse killed under him; and 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, though he 
 had not been able to mount a horse during the 
 engagement. 
 
 This surprising retreat was of great conse- 
 quence in such distressful circumstances ; but he 
 was obliged to fly to a still greater distance. They 
 found count Piper's coach among the baggage ; for 
 the king had nevei used one since he left Stock- 
 holm : they p<it him into this vehicle, and fled to- 
 wards the Boristhenes with great precipitation. 
 The king, who, from the time of his being set on 
 horseback till his arrival at the baggage, had not 
 spoke a single word, at length inquired, what was 
 become of count Piper? They told him he was 
 taken prisoner, with all the officers of the chan- 
 cery, ' And general Renschild and the duke of 
 Wirtemberg V added the king. ♦ Yes,' says Po- 
 niatowsky. ' Prisoners to the Russians !' resumed 
 Charles, shrugging up his shoulders. ' Come, then, 
 let us rather go to the Turks.' They could not 
 perceive however the least mark of dejection in 
 his countenance ; and had any one seen him at 
 that time, without knowing his situation, he would 
 never have suspected that he was conquered and 
 wounded. 
 
 While he was getting off, the Russians seized 
 G2 
 
154 HISTORY OF 
 
 his artillery in ibe camp before Pnltowa, his bag- 
 gage, and his military chest, in which they found 
 six millions in specie, the spoils of Poland aud 
 Saxony. Nine thousand men, partly Swedes and 
 partly Cossacks, were killed in the battle, and 
 about six thousand taken prisoners. There still 
 remained about sixteen thousand men, including 
 the Swedes, Poles, and Cossacks, who fled towards 
 the Boristhenes, under conduct of general Leven- 
 haupt. He marched one way with his fugitive 
 troops, and the king took another road with some 
 of his horse. The coach in which he rode broke 
 down by the way, and they again set him on horse- 
 back ; and, to complete his misfortune, he wan- 
 dered all night in a wood ; where, his courage 
 being no longer able to support his exhausted 
 spirits, the pain of his wound becoming more in- 
 tolerable through fatigue, and his horse falling 
 under him through excessive weariness, he lay 
 some hours at the foot of a tree, in danger of being 
 surprised every moment by the conquerors, who 
 •were searching for him on all sides. 
 
 At last, on the 9th or lOth of J uly, at night, h« 
 found himself on the banks of the Boristhenes, 
 Levenhaupt had just arrived with the shattered 
 remains of his army. It was with an equal mix- 
 ture of joy and sorrow tbat the Swedes again be- 
 held their king, whom they thought to be dead. 
 The enemy was approaching. The Swedes had 
 neither a bridge to pass the river, nor time to 
 make one, nor powder to defend themselves, nor 
 provisions to support an army, which had eat no- 
 thing for two days. But the remains of this army 
 were Swedes, and the conquered king was Charles 
 XII. Most of ihe officers imagined that they were 
 to halt there for tbe Russians, without flinching ; 
 and that they would either conquer or die, on the 
 banks of the Boristhenes. Charles would un- 
 
CHARLES XII. 155 
 
 doubledly have taken this resolution, had he not 
 been exhausted with weakness. His wound was 
 now come to a suppuration, attended with a fever ; 
 and it hath been remarked, that men of the great- 
 est intrepidity, when seized with the fever thati3 
 common in a suppuration, lose that impulse to 
 valour, which, like all other virtues, requires the 
 direction of a clear head. Charles was no longer 
 himself. This, at least, is what I have been well 
 assured of, and what indeed is extremely proba- 
 ble. They carried him along like a sick person 
 in a state of insensibility. Happily there was left 
 a sorry calash, which by chance they had brought 
 along with them : this they put on board a little 
 boat ; and the king and general Mazeppa em- 
 barked in another. The latter had saved several 
 coffers full of money ; but the current being rapid, 
 and a violent wind beginning to blow, 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, on account of his 
 admirable dexterity in finding expedients for all 
 difficulties, crossed over in some barks with some 
 officers. Three hundred troopers of the king's 
 guards, and a great number of Poles and Cossacks, 
 trusting to the goodness of their horses, ventured 
 to pass the river by swiming. Their troop, keep- 
 ing close together, resisted the current, and broke 
 the waves ; but all those who attempted to pass 
 separately a little below were carried down by the 
 stream, and sunk in the river. Of all the foot 
 who attempted to pass, there was not a single 
 man that reached the other side. 
 
 While the shattered remains of the army were 
 in this extremity, prince Menzikoff came up with 
 ten thousand horsemen, having each a foot sol- 
 dier behind him. The carcases of the Swedes, 
 
156 HISTORY OF 
 
 who had died by the way, of their wounds, fatigue, 
 and hunger, shewed Prince lAienzikofF but too 
 plainly the road which the fugitive army had 
 taken. The prince sent a trumpet to the Swedish 
 general, to offer him a capitulation. Four gene- 
 ral oflScers were presently dispatched by Leven- 
 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 a flight of two days, deprived of the 
 presence of their prince, who was himself con- 
 strained to fly, the strength of every soldier being 
 exhausted, and their courage no longer supported 
 by the least prospect of relief, the love of life 
 overcame their natural intrepidity. ColonelTrout- 
 fetre alone, observing the Muscovites approach, 
 began to advance with one Swedish battalion to 
 attack them, hoping by this means to induce the 
 rest of the troops to follow his example. But 
 Levenhaupt was obliged to oppose this unavailing 
 ardour. The capitulation was settled, and the 
 whole army were made prisoners of war. Some 
 soldiers, reduced to despair, at the thoughts of 
 falling into the hands of the Muscovites, threw 
 themselves into the Boristhenes. Two officers of 
 the regiment commanded by the brave Troutfetre 
 killed each other, and the rest were made slaves. 
 They all filed off in presence of prince Menzi- 
 koff, laying their arms at his feet, as thirty thou- 
 sand Muscovites had done nine years before at 
 those of the king of Sweden, at Narva. But 
 whereas the king sent back al! the Russians, 
 whom he did not fear, the czar retained the 
 Swedes that were taken at Pultowa. 
 
 These unhappy creatures were afterwards dis- 
 persed through the czar's dominions^ particularly 
 
CHARLES XII. 157 
 
 in Siberia, a vast province of great Tartary, 
 which extends eastward to the frontiers of the 
 Chinese empire. In tliis barbarous country, 
 where even the use of bread was unknown, the 
 Swedes, who were become ingenious through ne- 
 cessity, exercised the trades and employments of 
 which they had the least notion. All the dis- 
 tinctions which fortune makes among men were 
 then banished. The officer, who could not fol- 
 low any trade, was obliged to cleave and carry 
 wood for the soldier, now turned tailor, clothier, 
 joiner, mason, or goldsmith, and who got a sub- 
 sistence by his labour. Some of the officers be- 
 came painters, and other architects : some of them 
 taught the languages and mathematics. They even 
 established some public schools, which in time be- 
 came so useful and famous that the citizens of 
 Moscow sent their children thither for education. 
 
 Count Piper, the king of Sweden's first minis- 
 ster, was for a long time confined in prison at 
 Petersburg. The czar was persuaded, as. well as 
 the rest of Europe, that this minister had sold 
 his master to the duke of Marlborough, and drawn 
 on Muscovy the arms of Sweden, which might 
 have given peace to Europe ; for which reason 
 he rendered his confinement the more severe. 
 Piper died in Muscovy a few years after, little 
 assisted by his own family, which lived in opu- 
 lence at Stockholm, and vainly lamented by his 
 sovereign, who would never condescend to oflfer 
 a ransom for his minister, which he feared the 
 czar would not accept of ; for no cartel of ex- 
 change had ever been settled between them. 
 
 The emperor of Muscovy, elated with a joy 
 which he was at no pains to conceal, received 
 upon the field of battle the prisoners, whom they 
 brought to him in crowds ; and asked every me- 
 ment, • Where then is my brother Chariest' 
 
158 HISTORY OF 
 
 He did the Swedish generals the honour of in- 
 riting them to dine with him. Among other 
 questions which he put to them, he asked gene- 
 ral Renschild, what might be the number of hia 
 master's troops before the battle 1 Renschild an- 
 swered, that the king always kept the muster-roll 
 himself, and would never shew 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 1 'We were not always con- 
 sulted,' replied the Swedish general ; ' but, like 
 faithful servants, we obeyed our master's orders, 
 without ever presuming to contradict them.' 
 The czar, upon receiving this answer, turned 
 about to some of his courtiers, who were formerly 
 suspected of having engaged in a conspiracy 
 against him: *Ah!' says he, 'see how a king 
 should be served ;' 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 personswhomhe honoured with so high atitle? 
 ' You, gentlemen, the Swedish generals,' replied 
 the czar. ' Your majesty, then,' resumed the 
 count, ' is very ungrateful, 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 had a mind to give his subjects a lesson of 
 generosity and politeness, with which he was 
 well acquainted. But this same prince, who 
 treated the Swedish generals with so much hu- 
 manity, caused all the Cossacks that fell into 
 his hands to be broke upon the wheel. 
 
 Thus the Swedish army, which left Saxony in 
 
CHARLES XII. I5q 
 
 such a triumphant manner, was now no mort. 
 One half of them had perished with hunger, and 
 the other half were either massacred or mad-e 
 slaves. Charles XU. had lost in one daj the 
 fruit of nine years' labour, and of almost a hun- 
 dred battles. He made his escape in a wretched 
 calash, attended by major-general Hoord, who 
 was dangerously wounded. The rest of his little 
 troop followed, some on foot, some on horseback, 
 and others in waggons, through a desert, where 
 neither huts, tents, men, beasts, or roads were to 
 be seen. Every thing was wanting, even to 
 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 fell by the way ; and the men were ready 
 to die with thirst. A brook of muddy water which 
 they found towards evening was all they met 
 with ; they filled some bottles with this water, 
 which saved the lives of the king's little troop. 
 After a march of five days, he at last found him- 
 self on the banks of the river Hjpanis, now called 
 Bogh by the barbarians, who have spoiled not 
 only the general face, but even 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, towards the 
 south, stands the little town of Oczakou, a fron- 
 tier of the Turkish empire. The inhabitants, 
 fleeing a body of soldiers approach, to whose dress 
 and language they were entire strangers, refused 
 to carry them over the river, without an order 
 from Mehemet Basha, governor of Oczakou. 
 The king sent an express to the governor, de- 
 manding a passage ; but the Turk not know- 
 
t60 HISTORY OF 
 
 ing what to do, in a country where one false step 
 frequently costs a man bis life, durst not ven- 
 ture to take any thing upon himself, without having 
 first obtained 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 prisoners, 
 had crossed the Boristhenes, and were approach- 
 ing to take him also. At last the basha of Oc- 
 zakou sent word to the king, that he would fur- 
 nish him with one small boat, to transport him- 
 self and two or three attendants. In this extre- 
 mity the Swedes took by force what they could 
 not obtain by" gentle means ; some of them went 
 over to the further side in a small skiff, seized on 
 some boats, and brought them to the hither bank 
 of the river : and happy was it for them that they 
 did so ; for the masters of the Turkish barks, 
 fearing they should lose such a favourable oppor- 
 tunity of getting a good freight, came in crowds 
 to offer their service. At that very instant arrived 
 the favourable answer of the seraskier of Bender; 
 and the king had the mortification to see five 
 hundred of his men seized by the enemy, whose 
 insulting bravadoes he even beard. The basha 
 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 
 entreated him not to complain of it to the giand 
 seignior. Charles promised him that he would 
 not ; but at the same time gave him a severe re- 
 primand, 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 cf gene- 
 ral, and basha of the province, which signifies 
 governor and intendant, forthwith sent an aga 
 to ccmpiiment the king, and to offer him a mag- 
 
CHARLES XIL 161 
 
 niCcent tent, with provision, baggage, waggons, 
 and all the conveniences, officers, and attendants, 
 necessary to conduct him to Bender in a splendid 
 manner : for it is the custom of the Turks, not 
 only to defray the charges of ambassadors to 
 the place of their residence, but likewise to sup- 
 ply, with great liberality, the necessities of those 
 princes who take refuge among them during the 
 time of their stay. 
 
 BOOK V. 
 
 State of the Ottoman Porte. Charles resides near Ben- 
 der ; his employments ; his intrigues at the Porte ; hia 
 designs. Augustus restored to his throne. The Icing of 
 Denmark makes a descent upon Sweden. All the other 
 dominions of Charles are invaded. The czar enters 
 Moscow in triumph. Affair of Pruth. History of the 
 Czarina, who from a countr3' girl became empress. 
 
 A CHMET III. was at that time emperor of the 
 Turks. He had been placed upon the throne 
 in 1703, by a revolution not unlike to that which 
 transferred the crown of England from James H. 
 to his son in-law William. Mustapha, being 
 governed by his mufti, who was hated by all the 
 Turks, provoked the whole empire to rise against 
 him. His army, by the assistance of which he 
 hoped to punish the malcontents, went over to 
 the rebels. He was seized and deposed in form, 
 and his brother taken from the seraglio and ad- 
 vanced to the throne, almost without spilling a 
 single drop of blood. Achmet shut up the de- 
 posed sultan in the seraglio at Constantinople, 
 where he lived for several years, to the great 
 astonishment of Turkey, which had been wont to 
 see the dethronement of her princes always fol- 
 lo'A'ed by their death. 
 
162 HISTORY OF 
 
 The new sultan, as the only recompence for a 
 crown which he owed to the ministers, to the 
 generals, to the officers of the janissaries, and in 
 a word to those who had any hand in the revolu- 
 tion, put them all to death, one after another, for 
 fear they should one day attempt a second revo- 
 lution. By sacrificing so many brave men, he 
 weakened the strength of the nation, but estab- 
 lished his throne at least for some years. The 
 next object of his attention was to amass riches. 
 He was the first of the Ottoman race that ven- 
 tured to make a small alteration in the current 
 coin, and to impose new taxes ; but he was obliged 
 to drop both these enterprises, for fear of an in- 
 surrection. The rapacity and tyranny of the 
 grand seignior are seldom felt by any but the 
 officers of the empire, who, whatever they may 
 be in other respects, are domestic slaves to the 
 sultan ; but the rest of the Mussulmans live in 
 profound tranquillity, secure of their liberty, their 
 lives, and fortunes.* 
 
 Such was the Turkish emperor, to whom the 
 king of Sweden fled for refuge. As soon as he 
 set foot on the sultan's territories, he wrote him 
 a letter which bears date the 1 jth of July, 1709. 
 Several copies of this letter were spread abroad, 
 all of which are now held spurious ; but of all 
 those I have s^en, there is not one but what suf- 
 ficently marks the natural haughtiness of the 
 author, and is more suitable to his courage than 
 his condition. The sultan did not return him an 
 
 • We are surprised to hear our author still harping 
 upon this string, namelj', the liberty and security which 
 the Turks enjo3'; as it is well known that these misera- 
 ble creatures are every day subject to be pillaged and 
 massacred by the soldier^' ; to be oppressed, stripped, and 
 often punished with death by the officers of justice, even 
 without form of trial. 
 
CHARLES XII. 163 
 
 answer till towards the end of September. The 
 pride of the Ottoman Porte made Charles sensi- 
 ble what a mighty difference there was between 
 a Turkish emperor and a king of part of Scandi- 
 navia, a conquered and fugitive Christian. For 
 the rest, all these letters, which kings seldom 
 write themselves, are but vain formalities, which 
 neither serve to discover the characters of princes, 
 nor the state of their affairs. 
 
 Though Charles XII. was in reality no better 
 than a prisoner honourably treated in Turkey, he 
 yet formed the design of arming the Ottoman 
 empire against his enemies. He flattered him- 
 self that he should be able to reduce Poland 
 under the yoke, and subdue Russia. He had an 
 envoy at Constantinople ; but the person that 
 served him most effectually in his vast projects, 
 was the count de Poniatowsky, who went to 
 Constantinople without a commission, and soon 
 rendered himself necessary to the king, agreeable 
 to the Porte, and at last dangerous even to the 
 grand viziers.* 
 
 One of those, who seconded his designs with 
 the greatest activity, was the physician Fonseca, 
 a Portuguese Jew* settled at Constantinople, a 
 man of knowledge and address, 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 gained him the confidence of the 
 viziers. With this gentleman I was very well 
 acquainted at Paris ; and all the particulars I am 
 going to relate, were, he assured me, unquestion- 
 able truths. Count Poniatowsky hath informed 
 
 * It was from this nobleman I received not only the 
 remarks which have been published, aad of which the 
 chaplain Norberg hath made use, but likewise several 
 Other manuscripts relating to this history. 
 
164 HISTORY OF 
 
 me, both by letters and by word of mouth, that 
 he bad the address to convey some letters to the 
 sultaness Valide, the mother of the reigning 
 emperor, who had formerly been ill-used by her 
 eon, but now began to recover her influence ia 
 the seraglio. A Jewess, who was often admitted 
 to this princess, was perpetually recounting to 
 her the exploits of the king of Sweden, and 
 charmed her ear by these relations. The sulta- 
 ness, moved by that secret inclination with which 
 most women feel themselves inspired in favour 
 of extraordinary men, even without having seen 
 them, openly espoused the king's cause in the 
 seraglio. She called him by no other name than 
 that of her lion : ' And when will you,' would 
 she sometimes say to the sultan her son, ' when 
 will jouhelp my lion to devour this czarl' She 
 even dispensed with the rules of the seraglio, so 
 far as to write several letters with her own hand 
 to count Poniatowsky, in whose custody they still 
 are, at the time of my writing this history. 
 
 Meanwhile the king was honourably conducted 
 to Bender, through the desert that was formerly 
 called the Wilderness of the Get?e. The Turks 
 took care that nothing should* be wanting on the 
 road, to render his journey agreeable. A great 
 many Poles, Swedes, and Cossacks, who had 
 escaped from the Muscovites, came by different 
 ways to increase his train on the road. By the 
 time he reached Bender he had eighteen hundred 
 men, who were all maintained and lodged, both 
 they and their horses, at the expense of the grand 
 seignior. 
 
 The king chose to encamp near Bender, rather 
 than lodge in the town. The seraskier Jussuf 
 basha caused a magnificent tent to be erected 
 for him ; and tents were likewise provided for alf 
 the lords of his retinae. Some time after, Charles 
 
CHARLES Xn. 165 
 
 built a house in this place ; the oiEcers followed 
 his example ; and the soldiers raised barracks ; 
 so that his camp insensibly became a little town. 
 As the king was not yet cured of his wound, he 
 was obliged to have a carious bone extracted 
 from his foot ; but, as soon as he could mount a 
 horse, he resumed his wonted labours, always 
 rising before the sun, tiring three horses a-day, 
 and exercising his soldiers. By way of amuse- 
 ment, he sometimes played at chess ; and, as 
 the characters of men are often discovered by 
 the most trifling incidents, it may not be impro- 
 per to observe, that he always advanced the king 
 first at that game, and made greater use of him 
 than of any of the other men, by which he was 
 always a loser. 
 
 At Bender he had all the necessaries of life in 
 great abundance, a felicity that seldom falls to 
 the lot of a conquered and fugitive prince ; for, 
 besides the more than sufficient quantity of pro- 
 visions, and the five hundred crowns a-day, which 
 he received from the Ottoman munificence, he 
 drew some money from France, and borrowed 
 of the merchants at Constantinople. Part of 
 this money was employed in forwarding his in- 
 trigues in the seraglio, in buying the favours of 
 the viziers, or procuring their ruin. The rest he 
 squandered away with great profusion among his 
 own officers and the janissaries who composed 
 his guards at Bender. The dispenser of these 
 acts of liberality was Grothusen, his favourite ; 
 a man who contrary to the custom of persons in 
 that station, was as fond of giving as his master. 
 He once brought him an account of sixty thousand 
 crowns in two lines ; ten thousand crowns given 
 to the Swedes and janissaries by the generoiis 
 orders of his majesty, and the rest eat up by him- 
 self : * It is thus,' says the king, 'that I would 
 
166 HISTORY OF 
 
 have my friends to give in their accounts. Mul- 
 lern makes me read whole pages for the sum of 
 ten thousand livres.' 1 like the laconic style of 
 Grothusen much better. One of his old officers, 
 who was suspected of being somewhat covetous, 
 complained that his majesty gave all to Grothu- 
 sen : * I give money,' replies the king, ' to none 
 but those who know how to use it.' This gene- 
 rosity frequently reduced him to such a low ebb, 
 that he had not wherewithal to give. A better 
 economy in bis acts of generosity would have 
 been as much for his honour, and more for his 
 interest ; but it was the failing of this prince to 
 carry all his virtues beyond their due bounds. 
 
 Great numbers of strangers went from Con- 
 stantinople to see him. The Turks and the 
 neighbouring Tartars came thither in crowds : 
 all respected and admired him. His inflexible 
 resolution to abstain from wine, and his regu- 
 larity in assisting twice a-day at public prayers, 
 made them say that he was a true Mussulman, 
 and inspired thena with an ardent desire of march- 
 ing along with him to the conquest of Muscovy. 
 
 During his abode at Bender, which was much 
 longer than he expected, he insensibly acquired 
 a taste for reading. Earon Fabricius, a gentle- 
 man of the bed-chamber to the duke of Holstein, 
 a young man of an amiable character, who pos- 
 sessed that gaiety of temper, and easy turn of 
 ■wit, which is so agreeable to princes, was the 
 person who engaged him in these literary amuse- 
 ments. He had been sent to reside with him at 
 Bender in the character of envoy, to take care of 
 the interests of the young duke of Holstein ; and 
 he succeeded i-n his negotiations by his open and 
 agreeable behaviour. He had read all the best 
 French authors. He persuaded the king to read 
 the tragedies of Peter Corneille, those of Racine, 
 
CHARLES Xir. 167 
 
 and 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 pas- 
 sage of the eighth satire, where the author treats 
 Alexander as a fool and a madman, he tore out 
 the leaf. 
 
 Of all the French tragedies, Mithridates pleased 
 him most, because the situation of that monarch, 
 who, though vanquished, still breathed ven- 
 geance, was so similar to his own. He shewed 
 M. Fabricius the passages that struck him ; but 
 would never read any of them aloud, nor ever 
 hazard a single word in French. Nay, when he 
 afterwards saw M. Desaleurs, the French am- 
 bassador at the Porte, a man of distinguished 
 merit, but acquainted only with his mother- 
 tongue, he answered him in Latin ; and, when 
 M. Desaleurs protested that he did not under- 
 stand four words of that language, the king, rather 
 than talk French, sent for an interpreter. 
 
 Such were the occupations of Charles XIL at 
 Bender, where he waited till a Turkish army 
 should corae to his assistance. His envoy pre- 
 sented memorials in his name to the grand vizier, 
 and Poniatowsky supported them with all his 
 interest. This gentleman's address succeeded in 
 every thing ; he was always dressed in the Turk- 
 ish fashion, and he had free access to every 
 place. The grand seignior presented him 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 ; I will lead you to 
 Moscow at the head of two hundred thousand 
 men.' The name of this grand vizier was Chour- 
 louli Ali Basha ; he was the son of a peasant of 
 the village of Chourlou. Such an extraction is 
 not reckoned a disgrace among the Turks, who 
 
168 HISTORY OF 
 
 have no ranks of nobility, neither that which is 
 annexed to certain employment, nor that which 
 consists in titles. With them the dignity and 
 importance of a man's character depends entirely 
 upon his personal services. This is a custom 
 which prevails in most of the eastern countries ; 
 a custom extremely natural, and which might be 
 productive of the most beneficial eftects, if posts 
 of honour were conferred on none but men of 
 merit ; but the viziers for the most part are no 
 better than the creatures of a black eunuch, or a 
 favourite female slave. 
 
 The first minister soon changed his mind. 
 The king could do nothing but negotiate, and the 
 czar could give money, which he distributed with 
 great profusion ; and he even employed the money 
 of Charles XII. on this occason. Ike military- 
 chest which he took at Pultowa, furnished him 
 with new arras against the vanquished king; 
 and it was no longer the question at court, whe- 
 ther 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 en- 
 joyed at Constantinople. They allowed him to 
 have a seraglio, that is a palace, in the quarter 
 of the Franks, who converse with the foreign 
 ministers. The czar thought he might even de- 
 mand, that general Mazeppa should be put into 
 his hands, as Charles XII. had caused the un- 
 iappy Patkul to be delivered np to him. Chour- 
 louli Ali Basba could refuse nothing to a prince 
 who had backed his demands with miUions. Thus 
 that same grand vizier, who had formerly pro- 
 mised in the most solemn manner to lead the 
 king of Sweden into Muscovy with two hundred 
 thousand, men, had the assurance to make 
 him a proposal of consenting to the sacrifice of 
 
CHARLES XII. 169 
 
 general Mazeppa. Charles was enraged at this 
 demand. It is hard to say how far the vizier 
 might have pushed the affair, had not IVlazeppa, 
 who was now seventy years of age, died exactly 
 at this juncture. The king's grief and indigna- 
 tion were greatly increased, when he understood 
 that Tolstoy, nov/ become the czar's ambassador 
 at the Porte, was served in public by the Swedes 
 that had been made slaves at Pultowa, and that 
 the brave soldiers were dailj sold in the market 
 at Constantinople. Nay the Russian ambas- 
 sador made no scruple of declaring openly, that 
 the Mussulman troops were placed there rather 
 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 been by his arms in the Ukraine, saw him- 
 self deceived and despised by the Porte, and al- 
 most a prisoner among the Tartars, His atten- 
 dants began to despair. Himself alone remained 
 lirm, and never appeared in the least dejected. 
 Convinced that the sultan was ignorant of the 
 intrigues of Chourlouli Ali, his grand vizier, he 
 resolved to acquaint him with them ; and Ponia- 
 towsky undertook the execution of this hazardoioa 
 enterprise. The grand seignior goes every Fri- 
 day to the mosque, surrounded by his solaks, a 
 kind of guards, whose turbans are adorned with 
 ouch high feathers as to conceal the sultan from 
 the view of the people. When any one has a 
 petition to present to the grand seignior, he en- 
 deavours to mingle with the guards, and holds 
 the petition aloft. Sometimes the sultan con- 
 descends to receive it himself; but for the most 
 part he orders an aga to take charge of it, and 
 upon his return from the mosque, causes the peti- 
 tion to be laid before him. There is no fear of 
 H 
 
fTO HISTORY OF 
 
 any one's daring to importune him with useless 
 memorials and trifling petitions, inasmuch as 
 they write less at Constantinople in a year than 
 they do at Paris in one day. There is still less 
 of any memorials being presented against the 
 ministers, to whom he commonly remits them un- 
 read. Poniatowsky had no other way of con- 
 veying the king of Sweden's complaint to the 
 grand seignior. He drew up a heavy charge 
 against the grand vizier. M. de Feriol, who was 
 then the French ambassador, and who gave me 
 an account of the whole afiFair, got the memorial 
 translated into the Turkish tongue. A Greek 
 was hired to present it: this Greek, mingling 
 with the guards of the grand seignior, held the 
 paper so high and for so long a 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 em- 
 ployed. A Swede, called Leloing, gave in an- 
 other petition a few days after. Thus in the 
 Turkish empire Charles XII. was reduced to the 
 necessity of using 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 Arabian 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 pre- 
 sent was accompanied with an obliging letter, but 
 conceived in general terms, and such as gave rea- 
 son to suspect that the minister had done nothing 
 without the sultan's consent. Chourlouli too» 
 who was a perfect master of the art of dissimu- 
 lation, sent the king five very curious horses. 
 But Charles, with a lofty air, said to the person 
 
CHARLES Xn. 371 
 
 that brought them — • Go back to your master, and 
 tell him that I don't receive presents from ray 
 enemies.' 
 
 Poniatowsky having already ventured to pre- 
 sent a petition against the grand vizier, he next 
 formed the bold design of deposing him. Un- 
 derstanding that the vizier was disagreeable to 
 the sultaness mother, and that he was hated by 
 Kislar Aga, the chief of the black eunuchs, and 
 by the aga of the janissaries, he prompted them 
 all three to speak against him. It was something 
 very surprising to see a Christian, a Pole, an un- 
 commissioned agent of the king of Sweden, who 
 had taken refuge among the Turks, caballing al- 
 most 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 mas- 
 ter. Poniatowsky could never have succeeded, 
 and the bare attempt would have cost him his 
 life, had not a power superior to all those that 
 operated in his favour given a finishing stroke to 
 the fortune of the grand vizier Chourlouli. 
 
 The sultan had a young favourite, who after- 
 wards governed the Ottoman empire, and was 
 killed in Hungary, in 1716, at the battle of Pe- 
 terwaradin, which prince Engene of Savoy gained 
 over the Turks. His name was Coumourgi Ali- 
 Basha : his birth was much the same with that of 
 Chourlouli ; being the son of a coal-heaver, as 
 Coumourgi imports. Courmour in the Turkish 
 tongue signifying coal. The empferor Achmet II. 
 uncle of Achmet HI. having met Coumourgi, while 
 yet an infant, in a little wood near Adrianople, 
 was struck with his extraordinary beauty, and 
 caused him to be conducted to the seraglio. Mus- 
 tapha, the eldest son and successor of Mahomet, 
 was very fond of him; and Achmet III. made 
 bim his favourite. He had then no other place 
 
172 HISTORY OF 
 
 but that of selictar-aga, or swor J- bearer to the 
 crown. His extreme youth did not allow him to 
 make any open pretensions to the post of grand 
 vizier ; and yet he had the ambition to aspire to 
 it. The Swedish faction could never draw over 
 this favourite to their side. He had never been a 
 friend to Charles, or to any other Christian prince, 
 or to any of their ministers ; but on this occasion 
 he served king Charles XII. without intending to 
 do so. He joined with the sultaness Valide and 
 the great officers of the Porte, to hasten the ruin 
 of Chourlouli, who was equally hated by them all. 
 This old minister, who had served his master for 
 a long time, and with great fidelity, fell a victim 
 to the caprice of a boy, and the intrigues of a 
 foreigner. He was stripped of his dignity and 
 riches. His wife, who was the daughter of the 
 late sultan Mustapha, was 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 N umaa 
 Couprougli, grandson to the great Couprougli, 
 who took Candia. This new vizier was, what 
 ill-informed Christians can hardly believe it possi- 
 ble for a Turk to be, a man of incorruptible virtue, 
 a scrupulous observer of the law, and one who 
 frequently opposed the rigid rules of justice to the 
 wayward will of the sultan. He could not endure 
 to hear of a war against Muscovy, which he con- 
 sidered as alika unjust and unnecessary ; but the 
 same attachment to his law that prevented his 
 making war upon the czar, contrary to the faith 
 of treaties, made him observe the rights of hospi- 
 tality towards the king of Sweden. ' The law 
 forbids you,' would he say to his master, ' to at- 
 tack the czar, who has done you no injury ; but 
 it commands you to succour the king of Sweden, 
 who is an unfortunate prince, in your dominions,' 
 
CHARLES XII. 173 
 
 He sent his majesty 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 Ger- 
 many, or in some of the French vessels which then 
 lay in the harbour of Constantinople, and which 
 M. de Feriol, the French ambassador at the Porte» 
 offered to Charles to conduct him to Marseilles. 
 Count Poniatowsky carried on his negotiations 
 with greater activity than ever, and acquired 
 such a superiority with an incorruptible vizier, 
 as the gold of the Muscovites was unable to 
 counterbalance. The Russian faction thought it 
 would be their wisest course to poison such a 
 dangerous negotiator. They gained one of his 
 domestics, who was to give him the poison in a 
 dish of coffee ; but the crime was discovered be- 
 fore it was carried into execution. The poison 
 was found in the hands of the domestic, con- 
 tained in a small vial, which was carried to the 
 grand, seignior. The prisoner was tried in a full 
 divan, and condemned to the gallies ; the justice 
 of the Turks never inflicting death for those 
 crimes that have not been perpetrated. 
 
 Charles, who could not be persuaded but that 
 sooner or later he should be able to engage the 
 Turkish empire in a war against Muscovy, re- 
 jected every proposal that was made for his 
 peaceable return home. He was continually re- 
 presenting to the Turks the formidable power of 
 that same czar, whom he had so long despised. 
 His emissaries 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 Crim Tartary. Sometimes 
 these representations aroused the Forte, at others 
 the Russian ministers destroyed all their effect. 
 
174 HISTORY OF 
 
 While Charles XII. made his fate depend 
 upon the caprice of viziers, and while he was al- 
 ternately receiving favours and affronts from a 
 feorign power, presenting petitions to the sultan, 
 and subsisting upon his bounty in a desert, all 
 his enemies, awakened from their former lethargy, 
 invaded his dominions. 
 
 The battle of Pultowa was the first signal to a 
 revolution in Poland. Augustus returned to that 
 country, protesting against his abdication, and 
 the peace of Altranstad, and publicly accusing 
 Charles XII. whom he no longer feared, of rob- 
 bery and cruelty. He imprisoned Fingsten 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 
 defhronemeut, conducted him back to Warsaw, 
 accompanied by most of the Polish palatines, 
 who having formerly sworn fidelity to him, had 
 afterwards done the same to Stanislaus, and 
 were now come to do it again to Augustus. Si- 
 niawski himself rejoined his party, and laying 
 aside the ambitious hopes of raising himself to 
 the royal dignity, was content to remain grand- 
 general of the crown. Flemming, his first minis- 
 ter, who had been obliged to leave Saxony, for 
 fear of being delivered up with Patkul, now con- 
 tributed by his address to bring back to his mas- 
 ter'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, seasonably taken 
 and supported by the forces of Augustus, was of 
 considerable weight. It strengthened the credit 
 of the court of Rome in Poland, the natives of 
 which had no inclination at that time to dispute 
 with the sovereign pontiffs their chimerical right 
 
CHARLES xir. irs 
 
 of interfering in the temporal concerns of princes. 
 Every one was ready to submit anew to the au- 
 thority of Augustus, and willingly received an 
 absolution, which, however useless in itself, the 
 nuncio took care to represent as absolutely ne- 
 cessary. 
 
 The power of Charles and the grandeur of 
 Sweden were now drawing towards their last 
 period. Above ten crowned heads had long be- 
 held with fear and envy the Swedish power ex- 
 tending 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 re-kindled the 
 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, who was more powerful than all of 
 them put together, improving his late victory, 
 took Vibourg and all Carelia, over-run Finland, 
 laid siege to Riga, and sent a body of forces 
 into Poland to aid Augustus in recovering his 
 throne. The czar was, at that time, what Charles 
 had been formerly, the arbiter of Poland and the 
 North ; but all his measures were directed to the 
 promotion of his own interest : whereas Charles 
 nad never been prompted by any other motive 
 tiian those of revenge and glory. The Swedish 
 monarch had succoured his allies and crushed his 
 enemies, without reaping any fruit from his vic- 
 tories. The czar behaving 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 had kindled the war, should 
 remain for ever in the possession of the Musco- 
 vites. 
 
 The king of Denmark, forgetting the treaty of 
 
176 HISTORY OF 
 
 Travendal, as Augustus had that of AItranstaiJ» 
 began to entertain thoughts 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 
 Pomerania, which he now resolved to revive. 
 The duke of Mecklenburg was vexed to see that 
 the Swedes were still in possession of Wismar, 
 the finest town in the duchy. This prince was 
 to marry a nieee of the Russian emperor ; and the 
 czar wanted only a pretext for establishing him- 
 self in Germany, after the example of the Swedes. 
 George, elector of Hanover, was likewise desir- 
 ous of enriching himself with Charles's spoils. 
 The bishop of Munster, too, would have been 
 ■willing enough to avail himself of some of his 
 claims, had be been able to support them. 
 
 About twelve or thirteen thousand Swedes de- 
 fended Pomerania, and the other countries which 
 Charles possessed in Germany ; and k was there 
 that war was most likely to begin. This storm 
 alarmed the emperor and his allies. It is a law 
 of the empire, that whoever invades one of its 
 provinces shall be reputed an enemy to the whole 
 Germanic body. 
 
 But there was a still greater difficulty. All 
 these princes, except the czar, were then united 
 against Lewis XIV. whose powerfor a longtime, 
 bad been as formidable to the empire as that oi 
 Charles. 
 
 At the beginning of this century, Germany 
 found itself hard pressed from south to north by 
 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 utterly undone. But the same fatality that 
 ruined Sweden had likewise humbled Franc&» 
 
CHARLES XII. 177 
 
 Sweden, however, Lad still some resources left; 
 and Lewis XIV. carried on the war with vigour, 
 though without success. Should Pomerania and 
 the duchy of Bremen become the theatre of the 
 war, it was to be feared that the empire would 
 suffer by such an event ; and tliat being weak- 
 ened on that side, it would be less able to with- 
 stand the arms of Lewis XIV. To prevent this 
 danger, the emperor, the princes of the empire, 
 Anne, queen of England, and the states-general 
 of the United Provinces, concluded at the Hague, 
 about 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 in Pome- 
 rania, nor in any of the German provinces ; and 
 that the enemies of Charles XII. should be at 
 liberty to attack him any where else. Even the 
 czar and the king of Poland acceded to this 
 treaty, in which he caused to be inserted an ar- 
 ticle as extraordinary as the treaty itself, viz. 
 that the twelve thousand Swedes who were in 
 Pomerania should not be allowed to leave it in 
 order to defend their other provinces. 
 
 To secure the execution of the treaty, and to 
 maintain this imaginary neutrality, it was pro- 
 posed to assemble an army, which should encamp 
 on the banks of the Oder. An unheard-of novelty 
 sure, to levy an army in order to prevent a war! 
 Nay, the very princes who were to pay the army, 
 were most of them concerned to commence the 
 war which they thus affected to prevent. The 
 treaty imported, that the army should be com- 
 posed of the troops of the emperor, of the king 
 of Prussia, of the elector of Hanover, of the land- 
 grave of Hesse, and of the bishop of Munster. 
 
 The issue of this project was such as might 
 naturally be expected : it was not carried into 
 H2 
 
178 HISTORY OF 
 
 execution* The princes, who were to have few* 
 
 nished their contingents for completing the army^ 
 contributed nothing. There were not two regi- 
 ments formed. Every body talked of a neutrality, 
 but nobody observed it ; and the princes of the 
 North, who had any quarrel with the king of 
 Sweden, were left at full liberty to dispute with 
 each other the spoils of that prince. 
 
 l>uring these transactions, the caar having 
 quartered his troops in Lithuania, and given 
 orders for pushing the siege of Riga, returned to- 
 Moscow to shew his people a sight as new as any 
 thing he had hitkerto 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 1st of January, 1710, undes 
 seven triumphant 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 import. The 
 procession began with a regiment of guards, fol- 
 lowed by the pieces of artillery taken from the 
 Swedes at Lesno and Pultowa» each of which was- 
 drawn by eight horses, covered with scarlet hous- 
 ings hanging down to the ground. Next came 
 the standards, kettle drums, and colours won aft 
 these two battles, carried by the officers and 
 soldiers who had taken them» All these spoil* 
 were followed by the finest troops of the czar. 
 After they had filed off, there appeared in a 
 chariot, made on purpose,* the litter of Charlea 
 XII. found in the field of battle at Pukowa, all 
 shattered with two cannon shot. Behind the lit- 
 
 • Here Mr. Norberg, the confessor of Charles XII. 
 finds fault with the author, and affirms that the litter waa 
 carried by soldiers. "With regard to these circumstances 
 (which are of great importance to be SMie) we appa«il HOf 
 thoas who saw ttiem. 
 
CHARLES XI I. 179 
 
 ter marched all the prisoners two and two, among 
 whom was count Piper, first minister of Sweden, 
 the famous mareschal Renschild, the count de 
 Levenhaupt, the generals Slipenbak, Siackel- 
 biirg, and Hamilton, and all the oflScers, who were 
 afterwards dispersed through Great Russia. Im- 
 mediate!)' after these appeared the czar himself, 
 mounted on the same horse which he rode at the 
 battle of Pultowa : a little after came the general* 
 who had had a share in the success of the day. 
 Next followed a regiment of guards ; and the 
 whole was closed by the waggons loaded with 
 the Swedish ammunition. 
 
 This grand procession was accompanied with 
 the ringing of all the bells in Moscow, with the 
 sound of drums, kettle-drums, trumpets, and an 
 infinite number of musical instruments, which 
 played in concert, together with the vollies of two 
 •hundred pieces of cannon, amidst the acclama- 
 tions of five hundred thousand men, who, at every 
 stop the czar made in this triumphal entry, cried 
 out, ' Long live the emperor, our father.' 
 
 This dazzling exhibition augmented the peo- 
 ple's veneration for his person, and perhaps made 
 him appear greater in their eyes than all the solid 
 advantages they had derived from his labours. 
 Meanwhile he continued the blockade of Riga; 
 and the generals 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, and left them 
 under the command of the count de Reventlau, 
 
 Sweden was, at that time, governed by a re- 
 gency composed of senators, who were appointed 
 by the king before he left Stockholm. The body 
 of the senate, imagining that the government of 
 right belonged to them, became jealous of the re- 
 
180 HISTORY OF 
 
 gency, and the state suffered by these divisioH». 
 But when, after the battle of Pultowa, the first 
 news was brought to Stockholm, that the king was 
 at Bender, at the mercy of the Turks and Tar- 
 tars, and that the Danes had invaded Schonen, 
 and taken the town of Elsinburg, all their jea- 
 lousies immediately vanished, and they bent their 
 whole attention towards the preservation of the 
 kingdom. 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 armies, yet the innumerable battles he 
 had fought in the space of nine years, the neces- 
 sity he was under of recruiting his forces with 
 continual supplies, and maintaining liis garrisons, 
 and the standing army he was constantly obliged 
 to keep in Finland, Ingria, Livonia, Pomerania, 
 Bremen, and Verden : all these particulars had 
 cost Sweden, during the course of the war, above 
 two hundred and fifty thousand men ; so that there 
 were not eight thousand of the ancient troops re- 
 maining, which, together with the new-raised mi- 
 litia, was the only resource Sweden had to trust 
 to for the defence of her territories. 
 
 The nation is naturally warlike ; and all sub- 
 jects insensibly imbibe the spirit of their sovereign. 
 From one end of the country to the other nothing 
 was talked of but the prodigious achievements 
 of Charles and his generals, and of the old regi- 
 ments that fought under them at Narva, Duna, 
 Clissau, Pultusk, and Holozin. Hence the very 
 lowest of the Swedes were fired with a spirit of 
 emulation and glory ; and this heroic impulse was 
 greatly augmented by their affection for their king, 
 their pity for his misfortunes, and their implaca- 
 ble hatred to the Danes. In several other coun- 
 tries the peasants are slaves, or treated as such ; 
 but here they compose a part of the state, are 
 
CHARLES XIL 181 
 
 considered as citizens, and of consequence, are 
 capable of more exalted sentiments ; so that these 
 new-raised militia became, in a short time, the 
 best troops of the North. 
 
 General Steinbock, by order of the regency, 
 put himself at the head of eight thousand of the 
 ancient troops, and above twelve thousand of 
 these new militia, to go in pursuit of the Danes, 
 ■who ravaged all the country about Elsinburg, and 
 had already extorted contributions from some of 
 the more inland provinces. 
 
 There was neither time nor opportunity to give 
 regimental clothes to the new militia. Most of 
 these boors came in their flaxen frocks, having 
 pistols tied to their girdles with cords. Steinbock, 
 at the head of this strange army, overtook the 
 Danes about three leagues from Elsinburg on the 
 10th of March, 1710. He had designed to give 
 his troops a few days rest, to raise intrenchments» 
 and to allow his new soldiers a sufficient time to 
 habituate themselves to the face of the enemy j 
 but all the peasants called out for the battle the 
 very day on which they arrived. 
 
 1 have been assured by some of the officers who 
 were present, that thej saw almost every indivi- 
 dual soldier foaming with rage and choler; so 
 great is the national hatred of the Swedes to the 
 Danes. Steinbock availed himself of this ardour 
 of spirit, which, in the day of battle, is of as much 
 consequence as military discipline. He attacked 
 the Danes ; and there one might have seen a thing, 
 to which, perhaps, the whole history of mankind 
 cannot furnish above two similar examples ; the 
 new raised militia, in their first assault, equalled 
 the intrepidity of veteran soldiers. Two regiments 
 of these undisciplined peasants cut in pieces the 
 regiment of the king of Denmark's guards, of 
 which there remained only ten men alive. 
 
182 HISTORY OF 
 
 The Danes, being entirely routed, retired under 
 the cannon of Elsinburg. I'he passage from 
 Sweden to Zealand is so short, that the king of 
 Denmark received the news of the defeat of his 
 army in Sweden the same day on which it hap- 
 pened ; and sent his fleet to bring oflF the shattered 
 remains of his army. The Danes quitted Sweden 
 with precipitation five days after the battle ; but, 
 unable to carry off their horses, and unwilling to 
 leave them to the enemy, they killed them all in 
 the suburbs in Elsinburg, and set fire to their pro- 
 visions, burning their corn and baggage, and leav- 
 ing in Elsinburg four thousand wounded, the 
 greatest part of whom died of the infection, oc- 
 casioned by so many dead horses, and for want 
 of provision, of which even their countrymen de- 
 prived them, in order to prevent the Swedes from 
 enjoying any share of it. 
 
 Meanwhile, the peasants of Dalecarlia having 
 Beard in the heart of their forests, that their king 
 was a prisoner among the Turks, sent a deputa- 
 tion to the regency of Stockholm, and offered to 
 go, at their own expense, to the number of twenty 
 thousand men, to rescue their master from the 
 hands of his enemies. This proposal, which was 
 better calculated to express their courage and 
 loyalty, than to produce any real advantage, was 
 received with pleasure, though it was not accept- 
 ed; and the senators took care to acquaint the 
 king with it, at the same time that they sent him 
 a circumstantial account of the battle of Elsinburg. 
 
 Charles received this agreeable news in his 
 camp near Bender, in July, 1710. And another 
 event that happened soon after contributed still 
 more to strengthen his hopes. 
 
 The grand vizier, Couprougli, who opposed all 
 nis desigcs, was dismissed from his office, after 
 juaving filled it for two months. The little court of 
 
CHARLES XII. 183 
 
 Charles XII. and those who still adhered to him 
 in Poland, gave out that Charles made and un- 
 made the viziers, and governed the Turkish em- 
 pire from his retreat at Bender. But he had no 
 hand in the disgrace of that favourite. The ri- 
 gid probity of the vizier was said to have been 
 the sole cause of his fall. His predecessor had 
 paid the janissaries not out of the imperial trea- 
 sury, but with the money which he procured by 
 extortion. Couprougli paid them out of the trea- 
 sury. Achmet reproached him with preferring 
 the interests of the subject to that of the emperor : 
 * Your predecessors,' said he, ' well knew how to 
 find other means of paying my troops.' — • If,' re- 
 plied the grand vizier, • he had the art of enrich- 
 ing your highness by rapine, it is an art of which 
 I am proud to say 1 am entirely ignorant.* 
 
 The profound secrecy that prevails in the se- 
 raglio seldom allows such particulars to transpire 
 to the public; but this fact was published along 
 with Couprougli's disgrace. The vizier's bold- 
 ness did not cost him his head, because true vir- 
 tue is sometimes respected, even while it dis- 
 pleases. He was permitted to retire to the island 
 of Negropont. These particulars I learned from 
 the letters of M. Bru, my relation, first druggist 
 to the Ottoman Porte, and I have retold them in 
 order to display the true spirit of that government. 
 
 After this the grand seignior recalled from 
 Aleppo, Baltagi Mahomet, basha of Syria, who 
 had been grand vizier before Chourlouli. The bal- 
 tagis 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 sultaness. This vizier had been a bal- 
 tagi in bis youth, and had ever since retained the 
 name of that office, according to the custom of 
 the Turks, who are not ashamed to take the nama 
 
184 HISTORY OF 
 
 of their first profession, or of that of their father, 
 or even of the place of their linh. 
 
 While Baltagi Mahomet was a valet in the se- 
 raglio, he was so happy as to perform some little 
 services to prince Achmet, who was then a pri- 
 soner of state in the reign of his brother Musta- 
 pha. The princes of the Ottoman blood are al- 
 lowed to keep for their pleasure a few women, 
 who are past the age of child-bearing (and that 
 age arrives very early in Turkey), but still agree- 
 able enough to please. As soon as Achmet be- 
 came sultan, he gave one of these female slaves, 
 for whom he had a great affection, in marriage 
 to Baltagi Mahomet. This woman by her in- 
 trigues made her husband grand vizier ; another 
 intrigue displaced him ; and a third made him 
 grand vizier again. 
 
 When Baltagi Mahomet received the bull of the 
 empire, he found the party of the king of Sweden 
 prevailing in the seraglio. The sultaness Valide, 
 Ali Coumourgi, the grand seignior's favourite, 
 the kislar aga, chief of the black eunuchs, and the 
 aga of the janissaries, were all for a war against 
 the czar : the sultan was fixed in the same reso- 
 lution ; and the first order he gave the grand vi- 
 zier was to go and attack the Muscovites with 
 two hundred thousand men. Baltagi had never 
 made a campaign ; yet was he not an ideot, as 
 the Swedes, who were dissatisfied with his con- 
 duct, affected to represent him. Upon receiv- 
 ing from the grand seignior a sabre, adorned 
 with precious stones, he addressed him in the fol- 
 lowing terms : ' Your highness knows,' said he, 
 * that I was brought up to handle an axe and 
 cleave wood, not to wield a sword and command 
 your armies. Nevertheless, I will endeavour to 
 serve you to the best of my power ; but, should 
 I fail of success, remember 1 have entreated you 
 
CHARLES XII. 185 
 
 beforehand not to impute the blame to me.* The 
 sultan assured him he might depend upon his 
 friendship ; and the vizier prepared to carry his 
 orders into execution. 
 
 The first step of the Ottoman Porte was to im- 
 prison the Russian ambassador in the castle of 
 the Seven Towers. 'Tis the custom of the Turks 
 to begin by arresting the ministers of those princes 
 against whom they declare war. Strict observers 
 of hospitality in every thing else, in this they 
 violate the most sacred law of nations. This in- 
 justice, however, they commit under the pretext 
 of equity, believing themselves, or, at least de- 
 sirous to make others believe, that they never 
 undertake any but just wars, because they are 
 consecrated by the approbation of their mufti. 
 Upon this principle they take up arms (as they 
 imagine) to chastise the violators of treaties; 
 and think they have a right to punish the am- 
 bassadors of those kings with whom they are at 
 enmity, as being accomplices in the treachery of 
 their masters. 
 
 Add to this the ridiculous contempt they affect 
 to entertain for Christian princes and their am- 
 bassadors, the latter of whom they commonly 
 consider in no other light than as the consuls of 
 merchants. 
 
 The han of Crim Tartary, whom we call the 
 kam, received orders to hold himself in readiness 
 with forty thousand Tartars, 'ihis prince is so- 
 vereign of Niigai, Budziack, part of Circassia, 
 and all Crim Tartary, a province anciently known 
 by the name of 'i'aurica Chersonesus, into which 
 the Greeks carried their arms and commerce, 
 and founded powerful cities ; and into which, in 
 after times, the Genoese penetrated, when they 
 were masters of the trade of Europe. In this 
 country are to be seen the ruins of some Greek 
 
186 HISTORY OF 
 
 cities, and some monuments of the Genoese, 
 which still subsist in the midst of desolation and 
 barbarity. 
 
 The kam is called emperor by his own sub- 
 jects ; but with this grand title he is, neverthe- 
 less, the slave of the Porte. Tbe Ottoman 
 blood, from which the kams are sprung, and the 
 right they pretend to have to the empire of the 
 Turks, upon the failure of the grand seignior's 
 race, render their family respectable, and their 
 persons formidable even to the sultan himself. 
 'Tis for this reason that the grand seignior dares 
 not venture to destroy the race of the kams of 
 Tartary ; though indeed he seldom allows any of 
 these princes to live to a great age. Their con- 
 duct is closely inspected by the neighbouring 
 bashas : their dominions are surrounded with 
 janissaries ; their inclinations thwarted by the 
 grand viziers; and their designs always sus- 
 pected. If the Tartars complain of the kam, 
 the Porte deposes him under that pretext. If 
 he is too popular, it is still a higher crime, 
 for which he suffers a more severe punishment. 
 Thus almost all of them are driven from sove- 
 reign power into exile, and end their days at 
 Rhodes, which is commonly their prison and their 
 grave. 
 
 The Tartars, their subjects, are the most 
 thievish people on earth ; and, what is hardly to 
 be credited, are, at the same time, the most hos- 
 pitable. They will go fifty leagues from home 
 to attack a caravan, or pillage a town; and yet 
 when any stranger happens to travel through 
 their country, he is not only received, lodged, 
 and maintained every where, but through what- 
 ever place he passes, the inhabitants dispute with 
 each other the honour of having him for their 
 guest J and the master of the house, his wife^ 
 
CHARLES XII. 187 
 
 and daughters, are ambitious to serve him. This 
 inviolable regard to hospitality they have derived 
 from their ancestors, the Scythians ; and they 
 Btill preserve it, because the small number of 
 strangers that travel among them, and the low 
 price of all sorts of provisions, render the prac- 
 tice of such a virtue no ways burthensome. 
 
 When the Tartars go to war, in conjunction 
 •with the Ottoman army, they are maintained by 
 the grand seignior, 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 to the king of Sweden's 
 interest by presents and promises, at first ob- 
 tained leave to appoint the general rendezvous of 
 the troops at Bender, and even under the eye of 
 Charles XII. in order the more eflfectually to 
 convince that monarch, that the war was under- 
 taken solely for his sake. 
 
 The new vizier, Baltagi Mahomet, who did 
 not lie under the same engagements, would not 
 flatter a foreign prince so highly. He changed 
 the order ; and Adrianople was the place fixed 
 for the rendezvous of this great army. 'Tis al- 
 ways in the vast and fertile plains of Adrianople 
 that the Turks assemble their armies, when they 
 are 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 antici- 
 pate the preparations of the czar, allowed the 
 army but three days' rest, and then marched to 
 the Danube, from whence he advanced into 
 Bessarabia. 
 
 The Turkish troops now-a-days are not near 
 80 formidable as they were in ancient times, 
 when they conquered so many kingdoms in Asia, 
 Africa, and Europe ; when, by their great strength 
 
188 HISTORY OF 
 
 of body, their valour, and immbeis, they, tri- 
 umphed over enemies less robust and worse dis- 
 ciplined than themselves But now that the 
 Christians are more expert in the art of war, 
 they seldom fail to beat the Turks in a pitched 
 battle, and even with unequal numbers. If the 
 Ottoman empire hath made some conquests in 
 latter times, it hath only been over the republic of 
 Venice, esteemed more wise than warlike, de- 
 fended by strangers, and little succoured by the 
 Christian princes, who are perpetually at vari- 
 ance among themselves. 
 
 The janissaries and spahis always attack in a 
 confused and disorderly manner : they are in- 
 capable of obeying the commands of their ge- 
 neral, or of recovering their ranks. Theircavalry, 
 which, considering the goodness and fleetness of 
 their horses, ought to be excellent, is unable to 
 sustain the shock of the German cavalry. Their 
 infantry cannot, even to this day, make use of 
 fixed bayonets to any purpose. Add to this that 
 the Turks have not had an able general since the 
 time of Couprougli, who conquered the isle of 
 Candia. A slave brought up in the indolence and 
 silence of a seraglio, made a vizier by interest, 
 and a general against his will, led a raw army, 
 without discipline or experience, against Russian 
 troops, hardened by twelve campaigns, and proud 
 of having conquered the Swedes. 
 
 The czar in all appearance, must have van- 
 quished Baltagi Mahomet, but was guilty of the 
 same fault, with regard to the Turks, which the 
 king of Sweden had committed with regard to 
 him : he despised his enemy too much. Upon 
 the first news of the Turkish preparations, he 
 left Moscow, and, having given orders for turning 
 the siege of Riga into a blockade, assembled a 
 bodv of eighty thousand men on the frontiera of 
 
CHARLES XII. 189 
 
 Poland.* With this arnij he took the road 
 through Moldavia and Walachia, formerly the 
 country of the Dacee, but now inhabited by 
 Greek Christians, who are tributaries to the grand 
 seignior. 
 
 Moldavia was, at that time, governed by prince 
 Cantemir, a Grecian by birth, and who united in 
 his person the talents of the ancient Greeks, the 
 knowledge of letters and of arms. He was sup- 
 posed to have sprung from the famous Timur, 
 known by the name of Tamerlane, This ex- 
 traction appeared more honourable than a Greek 
 origin ; and the reality of the descent is proved 
 by the name of the conqueror. Tiraur, it is said, 
 resembles Temir : the title of Can, which Timur 
 possesfsed before he conquered Asia, is included 
 in the word Cantemir : therefore prince Cantemir 
 is descended from Tamerlane. Such are the 
 foundations of most genealogies ! 
 
 From whatever family Cantemir was sprung, 
 
 * The chaplain Norberg alleges, that the czar com- 
 pelled everj' fourth man in his dominions, able to bear 
 arms, to follow him to the field. Had that been the case, 
 his army would have amounted, at least, to two millions 
 of men.t 
 
 + Our author seems to have forgot himself on this 
 occasion. In civilized and populous countries, one fifth 
 of the inhabitants is computed as the proportion of men 
 able to carry arms. M. de Voltaire says, the number of 
 people in Muscovy does not exceed fourteen or fifteen 
 millions. The fifth part of fifteen amounts to three ; 
 every fourth man, therefore, if chose fit for war, would 
 bring the number to seven hundred and fifty thousand. 
 But great part of the czar's subjects consisted of people 
 who never served in war ; such as the Laplanders, the 
 Samoiedes, and the clergy ; so that we must understand 
 Norberg as meaning no more than that Peter enlisted 
 every fourth man of the peasants actually found in the , 
 country, properly called Muscovy. 
 
 ( 
 
190 HISTORY OF 
 
 he owed all his fortune to the Ottoman Porte. 
 Hardly had he received the investiture of his 
 principality, when he betrayed his benefactor the 
 Turkish emperor to the czar, from whom he ex- 
 pected greater advantages. He fondly imagined 
 that the conqueror of Charles XII. would easily 
 triumph over a vizier of so little reputation, who 
 had never made a campaign, and who had chosen 
 for his kiaia, or lieutenant, the superintendant 
 of the customs in Turkey. He made no question 
 but all his subjects would readily follow his 
 standard, as the Greek patriarchs encouraged 
 him in his revolt. The czar, therefore, having 
 made a secret treaty with this prince, and re- 
 ceived him into his army, advanced farther into 
 the country ; and in June, 1711, arrived on the 
 northern banks of the river Hierasus, now Pruth,. 
 near Jassi, the capital of Moldavia. 
 
 As soon as the grand vizier heard that Peter 
 Alexiowitz was advancing on that side, he im- 
 mediately decamped, and following the course of 
 the Danube, resolved to cross the river on a 
 bridge of boats, near a town called Saccia, at 
 the same place where Darius formerly built the 
 bridge that long went by his name. The Turkish 
 army proceeded with so much expedition, that 
 it soon came in sight of the Muscovites, the river 
 Pruth being between them. 
 
 The czar, sure of the prince of Moldavia, never 
 dreamed that the Moldavians would fail him. 
 But it frequently happens, that the interest of 
 the prince and that of the subjt^cts are extremely 
 different. The Moldavians liked the Turkish 
 government, which is never fatal to any but the 
 grandees, and 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. 
 
CHARLES XII. 191 
 
 They carried all their provisions to the Ottoman 
 army. 
 
 The undertakers, who had engaged to furnish 
 the Russians with provisions, performed that 
 contract with the grand vizier which they had 
 made with the czar. The Walachians, who 
 border upon the Moldavians, discovered the same 
 attachment to the Turks ; so much had the re- 
 membrance of the Russian cruelty alienated all 
 their affections. 
 
 The czar, thus baulked of his hopes, which 
 perhaps he had too rashly entertained, saw his 
 army on a sudden destitute of forage and pro- 
 visions. The soldiers deserted in troops ; and 
 the army was soon reduced to less than thirty 
 thousand men ready to perish with hunger. The 
 czar experienced the same misfortunes upon the 
 banks of the Pruth, in having delivered himself 
 up to Cantemir, that Charles XII. had done at 
 Pultowa, in relying upon Mazeppa. The Turks 
 meanwhile passed the river, hemmed in the Rus- 
 sians, and formed an intrenched camp before 
 them. It is somewhat surprising that the czar 
 did not dispute the passage of the river, or at 
 least, repair this error by attacking the Turks 
 immediately after the passage, instead of giving 
 them time to destroy his army by hunger and 
 fatigue. It would seem, indeed, that Peter did 
 every thing in this campaign to hasten his own 
 ruin. He found himself without provision ; the 
 iiver Pruth being behind him ; a hundred and 
 fifty thousand Turks before him ; while forty 
 thousand Tartars were continually harassing his 
 army on the right and left. In this extremity he 
 made no scruple of acknowledging in public, that 
 he was at least reduced to as bad a condition as 
 bis brother Charles had been at Pultowa. 
 
 Count Pouiatowsky, aa iiKlefatigable agent of 
 
192 HISTORY OF 
 
 the king of Sweden, was in the grand vizier'a 
 army, together with some Poles and Swedes, all 
 of whom considered the ruin of the czar as in- 
 evitable. 
 
 As soon as Poniatowsky saw that the armies 
 must infallibly come to aa engagement, he sent 
 an express to the king of Sweden, who immedi- 
 ately set out from Bender, accompanied with 
 forty officers, anticipating the mighty pleasure 
 he should have in fighting the emperor of Mus- 
 covy. After many losses, and several marches, 
 in which he suffered severely, the czar was 
 driven back to the Pruth, without any other de- 
 fence than a chevaux de frise, and a few wag- 
 gons. A part of the janissaries and spahis at- 
 tacked his army in this disadvantageous situ- 
 ation ; but the attack was disorderly, and the 
 Russians defended themselves with a firmness 
 and resolution, which nothing but despair and 
 the presence of their prince could inspire. 
 
 The Turks were twice repulsed. Next day 
 M. Poniatowsky advised the grand vizier to 
 starve the Russian army, which, being in want 
 of every thing, would, together with its emperor, 
 be obliged in a day's time to surrender at dis- 
 cretion. 
 
 The czar, since that time, hath more than once 
 acknowledged, that, in the whole course of his 
 life, he never felt anything so exquisitely torment- 
 ing as the perturbation of mind in which he pass- 
 ed the night. He revolved in his thoughts all 
 that he had been doing for so many years, to pro- 
 mote the glory and happiness of his country. He 
 reflected that so many grand undertakings, which 
 had always been interrupted by wars, were now, 
 perhaps, going to perish with him, before they 
 were fully accomplished. And he plainly per- 
 ceived that he xaust either be destroyed by famine. 
 
CHARLES XII. 193 
 
 or attack about a hundred and eighty thousand 
 men with feeble and dispirited troops, diminished 
 one half in their number, the cavalry almost 
 entirely dismounted, and the infantry exhausted 
 with hunger and fatigue. 
 
 He sent for general Sheremeto in the evening, 
 and, without the least hesitation, or even so much 
 as asking any one's advice, ordered him to have 
 every thing in readiness next morning for at- 
 tacking the Turks with fixed bayonets. 
 
 He likewise gave express orders that all the 
 baggage should be burnt, and that no officer 
 should keep above one waggon : and so, in case 
 of a defeat, the enemy might not obtain the booty 
 they expected. 
 
 Having settled every thing virith the general re- 
 lating to the battle, he retired to his tent, oppress- 
 ed with grief, and racked with convulsions, a 
 disease which often attacked him, and always 
 recurred with redoubled violence, when he was 
 under any perturbation of mind. He gave pe- 
 remptory orders that no one should presume, 
 under any pretext whatsoever, to enter his tent 
 in the night ; not choosing to receive any remon- 
 strances against a resolution, which, however 
 desperate, was absolutely necessary, and still less 
 that any one should be a witness of the melan- 
 choly condition in which he was. 
 
 Meanwhile the greatest part of the baggage 
 was burnt, according to his orders. All the army 
 followed the example, though with much reluc- 
 tance ; and several buried their most valuable 
 effects in the earth. The general officers were 
 already giving orders for the march, and endea- 
 vouring to inspire the army with that courage 
 which themselves did not possess. The soldiers, 
 exhausted with hunger and fatigue, advanced 
 without spirit and without hope. The women. 
 
194 HISTORY OF 
 
 •with which the army was but too much crowded, 
 set up the most lamentable shrieks and cries, 
 •which contributed still more to enervate the 
 men ; and next morning every one expected death 
 or slavery, as the only alternative. This picture 
 is by no means exaggerated : it is exactly agree- 
 able to the accounts that were given by some 
 oflScers who served in the army. 
 
 There -was, at that time in the Russian camp, 
 a woman as extraordinary, perhaps, as the czar 
 himself. As yet she was known only by the name 
 of Catharine. Her mother was a poor country- 
 woman, called Erb-Magden, of the village of 
 Ringen in Esthonia, a province where the people 
 held by villenage, and which was then subject 
 to the S'wedes. She never kuew her father; but 
 was baptized by the name of Martha. The vicar 
 of the parish, out of pure charity, brought her 
 up to the age of fourteen ; after which she went 
 to service at Marienburg, and hired herself to 
 a Lutheran minister of that country, called 
 Gluk. 
 
 In 1702, being then eighteen years of age, she 
 married a Swedish dragoon. The day imme- 
 diately succeeding her marriage, a party of the 
 Swedish troops having been defeated by the Mus- 
 covites, the dragoon, who was in the action, dis- 
 appeared, and was never heard of more ; but whe- 
 ther or not he was taken prisoner, his wife 
 could never learn, nor indeed from that time 
 could she ever procure the least intelligence 
 about him. 
 
 A few days after, being made prisoner herself 
 by general Baur, she entered into his service, 
 and afterwards into that of marshal Sheremeto, 
 by whom she was given to Menzikoff, a man 
 who experienced the greatest vicissitudes of for- 
 tune, having from a pastry-cook's boy been raised 
 
CHARLES XII. 195 
 
 to the rank of a general and a prince, and at last 
 stripped of every thing and banished into Siberia, 
 where he ended his days in niisery and despair. 
 The first time the emperor saw her was one 
 evening as he was at supper with prince Menzi- 
 koff, when he instantly fell in love with her. He 
 married her privately in 1707 ; not seduced into 
 this step by the artifices of the woman, but be- 
 cause he found her possessed of a srength and 
 firmness of mind capable of seconding his 
 schemes, and even of continuing them after his 
 death. He had long before divorced his first wife 
 Ottokesa, the daughter of a boyard, who was ac- 
 cused of opposing the alterations which he was 
 introducing into his dominions. This crime in 
 the eyes of the czar was the most heinous of all 
 others. He would have nobody in his family 
 whose thoughts did not exactly correspond with 
 his. He imagined he could discern in this foreign 
 slave the qualities of a sovereign, though she 
 had none of the virtues of her sex. For her sake 
 he disdained and broke through the prejudices 
 that would have fettered a man of ordinary 
 capacity. He caused her to be crowned empress. 
 The same talents which made her the wife of 
 Peter Alexiowitz, procured her the empire after 
 the death of her husband ; and Europe hath be- 
 held with surprise a woman who could neither 
 read* nor write, compensating the want of edu- 
 
 • The Sieur de la Motraye pretends that she had a 
 good education, and could both read and write with great 
 facility, The contrary of this, however, is known to 
 all the world. The peasants of Livonia are never allowed 
 to l«arn either to read or write, owing to an ancient pri- 
 vilege, which is termed the benefit of clergy, formerly 
 established among the baibarians who were converted 
 to Christianitj', and still subsisting in this country. The 
 memoirs, from which we have extracted this anecdote. 
 
196 HISTORY OF 
 
 cation, and the weakness of her sex, by her in- 
 vincible courage and resolution, and filling with 
 glory the throne of a legislator. 
 
 When she married the czar, she renounced the 
 Lutheran religion, in which she had been born, 
 and embraced that of Muscovy. She was re-bap- 
 tized, according to the rules of the Russian church, 
 and instead of Martha she took (he name of Ca- 
 tharine, by which she was ever after known. This 
 woman, being at the camp of Pruth, held a coun- 
 cil with the general officers and the vice-chan- 
 cellor, Schaffirof, while the czar was in his tent. 
 
 The result of their deliberations was, that they 
 must necessarily sue for a peace to the Turks, 
 and endeavour to persuade the czar to agree to 
 such a measure. The vice-chancellor wrote a 
 letter to the grand vizier in his master's name. 
 This letter the czarina carried to the emperor's 
 tent, notwithstanding his prohibition, and having 
 with tears and entreaties prevailed upon him to 
 sign it, she forthwith collected all her jewels, 
 money, and most valuable eflfects, together with 
 what money she could borrow from the general 
 officers, and having by these means made up a 
 considerable present, she sent it, with the czar's 
 letter, to Osman Aga, lieutenant to the grand vi- 
 zier. Mahomet Baltagi replied with the lofty 
 air of a vizier and a conqueror, ' Let the czar send, 
 me his prime minister, and I shall then consider 
 •what is to be done.' The vice-chancellor, Schaf- 
 firof, immediately repaired to the Turkish camp, 
 with some presents which he publicly offered to 
 the grand vizier, sufficient to shew him that they 
 stood in need of his clemency, but too inconsi- 
 derable to corrupt his integrity. 
 
 farther add, that the princess Elizabeth, afterwards em- 
 press, always signed for her mother from the time she 
 «ould write. 
 
CHARLES XII. 197 
 
 The vizier at first demanded, that the czar, 
 with his whole army, sJiould surreader at discre- 
 lion. The vice-chancellor replied, that his mas- 
 ter 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 dishonourable 
 conditions. Schaffirof's application was strongly 
 eeconded by the remonstrances of Osman. 
 
 Mahomet Baltagi was no warrior : he saw that 
 the janissaries had been repulsed the day before} 
 eo that Osman easily prevailed upon him not to 
 risk such certain advantages upon the fate of a 
 battle. He accordingly granted a suspension of 
 arms for six hours, in which time the terms of 
 the treaty might be fully settled. 
 
 During the parley, there happened a trifling 
 incident which plainly shews that the Turks often 
 kept their word with a more scrupulous exactness 
 than we imagine. Two Italian gentlemen, re- 
 lations of M. Brillo, lieutenaut-colonel of a regi- 
 ment of grenadiers in the czar's service, having 
 gone to some distance 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. J'he Turk, enraged at 
 their presumption in having thus violated the 
 truce, arrested the Tartars, and carried them him- 
 self before the grand vizier, together v«ith the two 
 prisoners. 
 
 The vizier sent back the two gentlemen to the 
 czar's camp, and ordered the Tartars, who had 
 been chiefly concerned in carrying them off, to 
 be beheaded. 
 
 Meanwhile the cham of Tartary opposed the 
 conclusion of the treaty, which would deprive hira 
 of all hopes of plunder ; and Poniatowsky se- 
 conded the cham with the strongest arguments. 
 But Osman carried his point against the impor- 
 
198 HISTORY OF 
 
 tunity of the Tartar and the insinuations of Po- 
 niatowsky. 
 
 The vizier thought, that by concluding an ad- 
 vantageous peace, he should sufficiently consult 
 the honour and interest of his master. He in- 
 sisted that the Russians should restore Azoph, 
 burn the gallies which lay in that harbour, de- 
 molish the important citadels built upon the Palus 
 Masotis, and deliver all the cannon and ammu- 
 nition of these fortresses into the hands of the 
 grand seignior j that the czar should withdraw 
 his troops from Poland, give no farther disturb- 
 ance to the few Cossacks that were under the 
 protection of the Poles, nor to those who were 
 subject to the Turks ; and that for the future he 
 should pay the Tartars an annual subsidy of forty 
 thousand sequins ; an odious tribute long since 
 imposed, 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 article, by which the 
 czar bound himself not to incommode the king 
 in his return. And what is very remarkable, it 
 was stipulated in this article, that the czar and 
 Charles should make peace if they thought pro- 
 per, and could agree upon the terms. 
 
 On these conditions the czar was permitted to 
 retire with his army, cannon, artillery, colours, 
 and baggage. The Turks supplied him with pro- 
 visions, and he had plenty of every thing in his 
 camp two hours after the signing of the treaty, 
 which was begun, concluded, and signed the 21st 
 of July 1711. 
 
 Just as the czar, now extricated from this ter- 
 rible dilemma, was marching off with the drums 
 beating and colours flying, the king of Sweden 
 
CHARLES XII. 19S 
 
 arrived impatient for the fight, and happy in the 
 thoughts of having his enemy in his power. He 
 had rid post above fifty leagues from Bender to 
 Jassi. He arrived at the very moment that the 
 Russians were beginning to retire in peace : but 
 he could not penetrate to the Turkish camp, with- 
 out passing the Pruth by a bridge three leagues 
 distant. Charles XII. who never did anything 
 like other men, swam across the river, at the 
 hazard of being drowned, and traversed the Rus- 
 sian camp at the risk of being taken. At length 
 he reached the Turkish army, and alighted at the 
 tent of Poniatowsky, who informed' me of all 
 these particulars, both by letter and word of 
 mouth. The count came to him with a sorrowful 
 countenance, and told him that he had lost an 
 opportunity which perhaps he would never be 
 able to recover. 
 
 The king, inflamed with resentment, flew 
 straight away to the tent of the grand vizier, and 
 ■with a steru air reproached him with the treaty 
 he had made. • I have a right,' said the grand 
 vizier, with a calm aspect, ' either to make peace 
 or war.' — * But,' adds the king, ' have not you 
 the whole Russian army in your power?' — 'Our 
 law commands us,' replies the vizier with great 
 gravity, ' to grant peace to our enemies when 
 the J 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 1 Had not you a fair opportunity, if you 
 would have embraced it. of leading the czar a 
 prisoner to Constantinople 1' 
 
 The Turk, driven to this extremity, replied 
 very coldly, 'And who would have governed his 
 empire in his absence t It is not proper that all 
 kings should leave their dominions.' Charles 
 made no other answer than by a smile of indig- 
 
200 HISTORY OF 
 
 nation. He then threw himself down upon a 
 sopha, and eying the vizier with an air of con- 
 tempt 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 a sorrowful heart returned to 
 Bender. Poniatowsky continued some time 
 longer with the grand vizier, to try if he could 
 not 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 at- 
 tend divine service. 
 
 BOOK VI. 
 
 Intrigues at the Porte. The cham of Tartary and the 
 basha of Bender ecdeavour to force Charles to depart, 
 lie defends himself with forty domestics against the 
 whole army. He is taken, and treated as a prisoner- 
 
 nPHE fortune of the king of Sweden, now so diffe- 
 rent to what it had formerly been, harassed 
 him even in the most trifling circumstances. On 
 his return, he found his little camp at Bender, 
 and all his apartments, overflowed by the waters 
 of the Neister. He retired to the distance of a 
 few miles, near the village of Vamitza ; and, as 
 if he 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 a 
 few hours. He even furnished it in a magnificent 
 manner, contrary to his usual custom, in order 
 the more effectually to attract tbe respect of 
 the Turks. 
 
 He likewise built two other houses, one for 
 his chancery, and the other for his favourite. 
 
CHARLES XII. 201 
 
 Grothusen, who kept a table at the king's ex- 
 pense. While Charles was thus employed in 
 building near Bender, as if he had always to re- 
 main in Turkey, Biiltagi Mahomet, dreading more 
 than ever the intrigues and complaints of this 
 prince at the Porte, had sent the resident of the 
 emperor of Germany into Vienna to demand a 
 free passage for the king of Sweden through the 
 hereditary dominions of the house of Austria. 
 The envoy, in the space of three weeks brought 
 back a promise from the imperial regency, im- 
 porting that they would pay Charles XII. all due 
 honours, and conduct him safely into Pomerania. 
 
 A pplication was made to the regency of Vienna, 
 because Charles, the emperor of Germany, who 
 had succeeded Joseph, was then in Spain, dis- 
 puting the crown of that kingdom with Philip V. 
 While the German envoy was executing this cora- 
 mission at Vienna, the grand visier sent three 
 bashas to acquaint the king of Sweden, that he 
 must quit the Turkish dominions. 
 
 The king, being previously apprised of thtj 
 orders with whirh they were charged, caused in- 
 timation to be given them, that if they presumed 
 to make him any proposals contrary to his honour, 
 or to the respect that was due to his character, 
 he would forthwith have them all strung on a 
 gallows. The basha of Thessalonica, who de- 
 livered the message, disguised the harshness of 
 his commission, under the most respectful terms. 
 Charles put an end to the audience, without 
 deigning to give them an answer. His chancel- 
 lor, Mullern, who staid with the three bashas, 
 briefly explained to them his master's refusal, 
 which indeed they had sufficiently understood by 
 his profound silence. 
 
 The grand vizier was not to be diverted from 
 his purpose ; he ordered Ismael Basha^ the new 
 12 
 
202 HISTORY OF 
 
 seraskier of Bender, to threaten the king with 
 the sultan's indignation, if he did not immedi- 
 ately come to a resolution. 'I'his seraskier was 
 a man of a mild temper and engaging ad- 
 dress, which had gained him the good will of 
 Charles, and the friendship of all the Swedes. 
 The king entered into a conference with him ; but 
 it was only to tell him, that he would not depart 
 till Achmet had granted him two favours ; the 
 punishment of his grand vizier, and a hundred 
 thousand men to conduct him back to Poland. 
 
 Baltagi Mahomet was sensible that Charles 
 remained in Turkey only to ruin him. He there- 
 fore took care to place guards in all the roads 
 from Bender to Constantinople, to intercept the 
 king's letters. He did more; he retrenched his 
 * thaim ;' that is to say, the provision which the 
 Porte allows those princes to whom she grants aa 
 asylum. That of the king of Sweden was im- 
 mense consisting of five hundred crowns a day, 
 in money, and a profusion of every thing ne- 
 cessary to maintain a court in splendour and 
 aflfiuence. 
 
 As soon as the king was informed that the 
 vizier had presumed to retrench his allowance, 
 he turned to the steward of his household, and 
 said, * Hitherto you have only had two tables ; I 
 command you to have four for the future.' 
 
 The officers of Charles XII. had been used to 
 find nothing impossible which their master order- 
 ed ; at present, however, they had neither money 
 nor provisions. They were forced to borrow at 
 twenty, thirty, and forty per cent, of the officers, 
 domestics, and janissaries, who were grown rich 
 by the king's profusion. M. Fabricius, the envoy 
 of Holstein, Jeflfreys. the English minister, and 
 their secretaries and friends, gave all that they 
 had. The king, with his usual stateliness, and 
 
CHARLES XII. 203 
 
 without any concern about the morrow, lived on 
 these presents, which could not have sufficed him 
 long. It was necessary to elude the vigilance of 
 the guards, and to send privately to Constanti- 
 nople to borrow money of the European mer- 
 chants. But every body refused to lend a king 
 who seemed to have puthimself out of a condition 
 of ever being able to repay them. One English 
 merchant alone, called Cook, ventured to lend 
 him about forty thousand crowns, content to lose 
 that sum if the king of Sweden should happen to 
 die. This money was brought to the king's little 
 camp, just as they began to be in want of every 
 thing, and even to give over all hopes of any far- 
 ther relief. 
 
 During this interval, M. Poniatowsky wrote, 
 even from the camp of the grand vizier, an ac- 
 count of the campaign at Pruth, in which he ac- 
 cused Baltagi Mahomet of perfidy and cowardice. 
 An old janissary, provoked at the vizier's weak- 
 ness, and gained moreover by Poniatowsky's li- 
 berality, undertook the delivery of the letter; 
 and, having obtained leave, presented it with his 
 own hand to the sultan. 
 
 A ffew days after, Poniatowsky left the camp, 
 and repaired to the Porte to form cabals, as 
 usual, against the grand vizier. 
 
 Every thing favoured his project. The czar, 
 being now at liberty, was in no haste to perform 
 his engagements. The keys of Azoph were not 
 yet come ; the grand vizier was answerable fot 
 them ; and, justly dreading the indignation of 
 his master, durst not venture to appear in his 
 presence. 
 
 At that time the seraglio was filled more than 
 ever with intrigues and factions. These cabals, 
 which prevail in all courts, and which in ours 
 commonly end in the dismission, or, at most, in 
 
204 HISTORY OF 
 
 the banishment of the minister, never fail at Con= 
 stantinople to occasion the loss of more than one 
 head. The present plot proved fatal to the old 
 vizier, Chourlouli, and to Osraan, the lieutenant 
 of Baltagi Mahomet, who had been 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 
 Saxon and Russian coin ; a plain proof that 
 money alone had extricated the czar from his 
 dangerous situation, and ruined the fortunes of 
 Charles. The vizier, Baltagi Mahomet, was ba- 
 nished to the Isle of Lemnos, where he died 
 three years after. The sultan did not seize his 
 effects, either at his banishment or his death. 
 He was very far from being rich ; and his po- 
 verty was a sufficient vindication of his cha- 
 racter. 
 
 This grand vizier was succeeded by Jussuf, or 
 Joseph, whose fortune was as singular as that of 
 his predecessors. Born on the frontiers of Mus- 
 covy, and taken prisoner at six years of age, 
 with his family, he had been sold to a janissary. 
 He was long a servant in the seraglio, and at 
 last became the second person in the empire 
 where he had been a slave ; but he was only the 
 shadow of a minister. The young selictar, Ali 
 Coumourgi, raised him to that slippery post, in 
 hopes of one day filling it himself; and Jussuf, 
 his creature, had nothing to do but to set the 
 seals of the empire to whatever the favourite 
 desired. From the very beginning of this vizier's 
 ministry, the politics of the Ottoman court 
 seemed to undergo a total alteration, 'i'he czar's 
 plenipotentiaries, who resided at Constantinople, 
 either as ministers or hostages, were'treated with 
 greater civility than ever. The grand vizier 
 
CHARLES XII. 205 
 
 confirmed with them the peace of Pruth ; but 
 what mortified the king of Sweden more than al. 
 the rest was, to hear that the secret alliance made 
 with the czar at Constantinople, was brought 
 about by the mediation of the English and Dutch 
 ambassadors. 
 
 Constantinople, from the time of Charles's re- 
 treat to Bender, was become what Home hath 
 often been, the centre of the negotiations ot 
 Christendom. Count Desaleurs, the French am- 
 bassador at the Porte, supported the interests of 
 Charles and Stanislaus; the emperor of Germany's 
 minister opposed them ; and the factions of 
 Sweden and Muscovy clashed, as those of France 
 and Spain have long done at the court of Rome. 
 
 England and Holland seemed to be neuter, 
 but were not so in reality. The new trade, 
 which the czar had opened at Petersburg, at- 
 tracted the attention of these two commercia, 
 nations. 
 
 The English and Dutch will always side with 
 that prince who favours their trade the most ;* 
 there were many advantages to be derived from 
 a connexion with the czar ; and therefore it is 
 no wonder that the ministers of England and Hol- 
 land should serve him privately at the Porte. 
 One of the conditions of this new alliance was, 
 that Charles should be immediately obliged to 
 quit the Turkish dominions ; whether it was that 
 the czar hoped to seize him on the road, or that 
 he thought him less formidable in his own king- 
 dom than in Turkey, where he was always on the 
 point of arming the Ottoman troops against the 
 Russian empire. 
 
 • We could wish this observation was true ; but of the 
 contrary we are feelingly convinced. The English have 
 no commerce with Muscovy, but such as is prejudicial 
 to the true interest of their countiy. 
 
206 HISTORY OF 
 
 Charles was perpetually soliciting the Porto 
 to send him back through Poland with a nu- 
 merous army. The divan was resolved to send 
 him back with a simple guard of seven or eight 
 thousand men, not as a king whom they meant 
 to assist, hnt as a guest of whom they wanted to 
 get rid. For this purpose the sultan Achmet 
 wrote him the following letter : 
 
 * Most powerful among the kings that adore 
 Jesus, redresser of wrongs and injuries in the 
 ports and republics of the south and north, shining 
 in majesty, lover of honour and glory, and of our 
 sublime Porte, Charles, king of Sweden, whose 
 enterprises may God crown with success. 
 
 * As soon as the most illustrious Achmet, 
 formerly Chiaoux Pachi, shall have the honour 
 to deliver you this letter, adorned with our impe- 
 rial seal, be persuaded and convinced of tlie truth 
 of our intentions therein contained, viz. that 
 though we had proposed once more to march our 
 ever- victorious army against the czar ; yet that 
 prince, in order to avoid the just resentment 
 which we had conceived at his delaying to exe- 
 cute 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 by 
 the mediation of the English and Dutch am- 
 bassadors, our ancient allies, to cultivate a lasting 
 peace with us, we have granted his request, and 
 delivered to his plenipotentiaries, who remain 
 with us as hostages, our imperial ratification, 
 after having received his from their hands. 
 
 ' We have given to the most honourable and 
 valiant Delvit Gheri, cham of Budziac, Crim 
 Tartary, Nagay, and Circassia ; and to our most 
 sage counsellor and noble seraskier of Bender, 
 
CHARLES XII. 207 
 
 Innael (whom God preserve and increase their 
 magnificence and wisdom), our inviolable and 
 salutary orders for your return through Po- 
 land, according to your first intention, which hath 
 again been presented to us in your name. You 
 must, therefore, prepare to set out next wintet 
 under the protection of Providence, and with an 
 honourable guard, in order to return to your own 
 territories, taking care to pass through those of 
 Poland in a friendly manner. 
 
 ' Whatever is necessary for your journey shall 
 be furnished you by my sublime Porte, as well in 
 money as in men, horses, and waggons. Above 
 all things, we advise and exhort you, to give tho 
 most distinct and express orders to all the Swedes, 
 and other persons in your retinue, to commit no 
 outrage, nor be guilty of any action that may tend 
 either directly or indirectly to break this peace 
 and alliance. 
 
 ' By these means you will preserve our good- 
 will, of which we shall endeavour to give you as 
 great and as frequent proofs as we shall have 
 opportunities. The troops designed to attend 
 you shall receive orders agreeable to our imperial 
 iatentions.' 
 
 Given at our sublime Porte of Constantinople, 
 the fourteenth of the moon Rebyul Eurech, 
 1214, which answers to the nineteenth (rf 
 April, 1712. 
 
 This letter did not deprive the king of Sweden 
 of all hopes. He wrote to the sultan, that he 
 should ever retain a gratefiU remembrance of the 
 favours his highness had bestowed upon him ; 
 but that he believed the sultan was too just to 
 send him back with the simple guard of a flying 
 camp into a country that still swarmed with the 
 czar's troops. And indeed the emperorof Russia, 
 notwithstanding the first article of the treaty ojf 
 
200 HISTORY OF 
 
 Pruth, by which he was obliged to withdraw all 
 his troops from Poland, had sent fresh ones into 
 that kingdom ; and it is somewhat surprising, 
 that the grand seignior should be ignorant of this 
 particular.' 
 
 The bad policy of the Porte, in being so much 
 guided by the motives of vanity as to allow Cbris- 
 tian princes to have ambassadors at Constanti- 
 nople, without ever sending a single agent to any 
 Christian court, gives the latter an opportunity 
 of discovering, and sometimes of directing the 
 most secret resolutions of the sultan, and keeps 
 the divan in a profound ignorance of what passes 
 in the Christian world. 
 
 The sultan, shut up in his seraglio among his 
 women and eunuchs, can only see with the eyes 
 of his grand vizier. That minister, as inacces- 
 sible as his master, his time wholly engrossed 
 with the intrigues of his seraglio, and having no 
 foreign correspondence, is commonly deceived 
 himself, or else deceives the sultan, who deposes 
 or causes him to be strangled for the first offence, 
 in order to choose another minister as ignorant or 
 as perfidious, who behaves like his predecessors, 
 and soon shares the same fate. 
 
 So great, for the most part, is the inactivity 
 and supine negligence of this court, that were the 
 Christian princes to combine against it, their 
 fleets might be at the Dardanelles, and their 
 land forces at the gates of Adrianople, before the 
 Turks would think of taking any measures for 
 their defence ; but their jarring interests, that 
 must ever divide the Christian world, will pre- 
 serve the Turks from a fate, to which they seem 
 at present exposed by their want of policy, and 
 by their ignorance of the art of war, both by sea 
 and land. 
 
 So little was Achmet acquainted with what 
 
CHARLES XII. 209 
 
 passed in Poland, that he sent an aga to inquire, 
 whether in reality the czar's troops were still in 
 that country. The aga was accompanied by two 
 secretaries of the king of Sweden, who under- 
 stood the Turkish language, and were to serve 
 as evidences against him, in case he should give 
 in a false repoit. 
 
 The aga saw the Russian forces with his own 
 eyes, and informed the sultan of every particular. 
 Achmet, fired with indignation, was going to 
 strangle the grand vizier ; but the favourite, who 
 protected him, and who thought he should have 
 farther occasion for him, obtained his pardon, 
 and supported him some time longer in the mi- 
 nistry. 
 
 The cause of the Russians was openly espoused 
 by the vizier, and secretly favoured by Ali Cou- 
 mourgi, 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 ministers, the favourites, and even the sultana 
 tremble, called out for war with so much impor- 
 tunity, that no one in the seraglio durst offer a 
 more moderate proposal. 
 
 The grand seignior immediately committed to 
 the Seven Towers the Russian ambassadors, who 
 were already as much accustomed to go to prison 
 as to an audience. War was declared afresh 
 against the czar, the horses tails were displayed, 
 and orders were given to all the bash as to as- 
 semble an army of two hundred thousand men. 
 The sultan himself quitted Constantinople, and 
 fixed his court at Adrianople, that he might be 
 60 much the nearer to the seat of the war. 
 
 Meanwhile a solemn embassy, sentto the grand 
 seignior by Augustus and the republic of Po- 
 land, was upon the road to Adrianople. The 
 palatine of Massovia was at the head of this em.- 
 
210 HISTORY OF 
 
 bassy, "mth a retinue of above three hundred 
 persons. 
 
 All the members of the embassy were seized 
 and imprisoned in one of the suburbs of the city. 
 Never was the king of Sweden's party more 
 highly flattered than on this occasion ; and yet 
 these great preparations were rendered abortive, 
 and all their hopes were again disappointed. 
 
 If we may believe a public minister, a man of 
 sagacity and penetration, who then resided at 
 Constantinople, young Coumourg.' had already 
 formed other designs than that of disputing a de- 
 sert country with the czar, by a war, the event 
 of which must have been so uncertain. He had 
 resolved to strip the Venetians of Peloponnesus, 
 now called the Morea, and to make himself 
 aiaster of Hungary. 
 
 These grand projects he proposed to carry 
 into execution, as soon as he should have at- 
 tained the post of prime 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 so much less to arm 
 the Turkish empire in his favour. He not only 
 resolved to dismiss that prince, but he openly 
 declared that, for the future, no Christian minis- 
 ter should be allowed to reside at Constantinople; 
 that all the common ambassadors were, at best, 
 but honourable spies, who corrupted or betrayed 
 the viziers, and had too long influenced the in- 
 trigues of the seraglio ; and that the Franks set- 
 tled at Pera and in the sea-ports of the Levant, 
 were merchants who needed a consul only, and 
 not an ambassador. The grand vizier, who owed 
 his post and even his life to the favourite, and 
 who besides stood greatly in awe of him, com- 
 
CHARLES XII. 211 
 
 pKed with his intentions with so much the more 
 alacrity, as he had sold himself to the Russians, 
 and hoped by this means to be revenged on the 
 king of Sweden, who had endeavoured to ruin 
 him. The mufti, a creature of Ali Coumourgi, 
 was likewise an absolute slave to his will. He 
 had been a keen advocate for a war with Russia, 
 when the favourite was of that opinion ; but the 
 moment Coumourgi changed his mind, he pro- 
 nounced it to be unjust. Thus the army was 
 hardly assembled when they began to listen 
 to the proposals of peace. The vice-chancellor, 
 Schaffirof, and young Sheremeto, the czar's hos- 
 tages and' plenipotentiaries at the Porte, pro- 
 mised, after several negotiations, that their mas- 
 ter 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, 
 though only in appearance, imposed laws upon 
 the Russians, continued still at Adrianople. 
 Thus, in less than six months, peace was ratified 
 with the czar, war declared, and peace i^newed 
 again. 
 
 The chief article of all these treaties was to 
 oblige the king of Sweden to depart. The sultan 
 was unwilling to endanger his own honour, and 
 that of the Ottoman empire, by exposing the king 
 to the risk of his being taken by his enemies on 
 the road. It was stipulated that he should de 
 part ; but only on condition that the ambassadors 
 of Poland and Muscovy should be responsible 
 for the safely of his person. Accordingly these 
 ambassadors swore in the name of their masters, 
 that neither the czar nor the king of Poland 
 should molest him in his journey ; and Charles 
 was to engage, on his side, that he would not at- 
 tempt to excite any commotions in Poland. The 
 
 / 
 
2n HISTORY OF 
 
 divan having thus settled the fate of Charles, 
 Ismael, seraskier of Bender, repaired to Var- 
 nitza, where the king was encamped, and ac- 
 quainted him with the resolutions of the Porte^ 
 insinuating to him with great politeness, that 
 there was no time for any longer delay, but that 
 be must necessarily depart. 
 
 Charles made no other answer than this, that 
 the grand seignior had promised him an army, 
 and not a guard ; and that kings ought to keep 
 their word. 
 
 Meanwhile general Flemming,the minister and 
 favourite of Augustus, maintained a secret cor- 
 respondence with the cham of Tartary, and the 
 seraskier of Bender. La Mare, a French gen- 
 tleman, a colonel in the service of Saxony, had 
 made several journeys from Bender to Dresden , 
 and all these journeys were strongly suspected. 
 
 At this very time, the king of Sweden caused 
 a courier, whom Flemming had sent to the Tar- 
 tarian prince, to be arrested on the frontiers of 
 Walachia. The letters were brought to him, 
 find deciphered ; and from them it clearly ap- 
 peared that a correspondence was carried on 
 between the Tartars and the court of Dresden ; 
 but the letters were conceived in such ambiguous 
 and general terms, that it was difficult to discover, 
 whether the intention of Augustus was only to 
 detach the Turks from the interest of Sweden, or 
 if he meant that the cham should deliver Charles 
 to the Sa:ions, as he conducted him back to Po- 
 land. 
 
 We can hardly imagine that a prince so ge- 
 nerous as Augustus, would, by seizing the person 
 of the king of Sweden, endanger the lives of his 
 ambassadors, and of three hundred Polish gen- 
 tlemen, who were detained at Adrianople aa 
 pledges for Charles's safety. 
 
CHARLES xir. ais 
 
 But it is ■well known, on the other hand, that 
 Flemming. the minister of Augustus, and whohad 
 an absolute power over his master, was a man 
 devoid of every principle of virtue or honour. The 
 injuries which the elector had received from the 
 king of Sweden might seem to excuse any kind ot 
 revenge ; and it might be thought, that, if the 
 court of Dresden could buy Charles from the 
 cham of Tartary, they would find it no difficult 
 matter to purchase the liberty of the Polish hos- 
 tages at the Ottoman Porte. 
 
 These reasons were carefully canvassed by the 
 king, Mullern his privy chancellor, and Grothusen 
 his favourite. They read the letters again and 
 again ; and their unhappy condition making 
 them more suspicious, they resolved to believe 
 the worst, 
 
 A few days after the king was confirmed in 
 his suspicions by the sudden departure of count 
 Sapieha, who had taken refuge with him, and 
 now left him abruptly, in order to go to Poland 
 to throw himself into the arms of Augustus, 
 Upon any other occasion he would have consi- 
 dered Sapieha only as a malcontent ; but in his 
 present delicate situation he at once concluded 
 him to be a traitor. The repeated importunities 
 with which he was pressed to depart converted 
 his suspicious into certainty. The inflexible ob- 
 stinacy of his temper .co-operating with these 
 circumstances 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. 
 
 Perhaps he was mistaken in supposing that 
 Augustus had made a bargain with the Tartars 
 for his person ; but he was much more deceived 
 in relying on the assistance of the Ottoman court. 
 Be that it as it will, he resolved to gain time. 
 
214 HISTORY OF 
 
 He told tbe basha of Bender, that li€ coatii 
 not depart, till he had received money to dis- 
 charge his debts ; for though his thaim had for % 
 long time been duly paid, his unbounded liberality 
 had always obliged him to borrow. The basha 
 asked him how much he wanted 1 The king re- 
 plied, at a venture, a thousand purses, amounting 
 to fifteen hundred thousand livres, full weight. 
 The basha acquainted the Porte with his request. 
 The sultan instead of a thousand purses which 
 Charles had required, granted him twelve hun- 
 dred, and wrote the basha the following letter : 
 
 The Grand Seignior's letter to the 
 basha of Bender. 
 
 • The design of this imperial letter is to ac- 
 quaint you, that upon your representation and 
 request, and upon that of the most noble Delvet 
 Gherai, cham to our sublime Porte, our imperial 
 munificence hath granted a thousand purses to 
 the king of Sweden^ which shall be sent to Ben- 
 der under the care and conduct of that most 
 illustrious Mehemet Basha, formerly Chiaoux 
 Pachi, to remain in your custody till the de- 
 parture of the king of Sweden, whose steps may 
 God direct, and then to be given him, together 
 with two hundred purses more, as an overplus of 
 our imperial liberality, above what he demands. 
 
 * With regard to the route of Poland, which h« 
 is resolved to take, yoa and the cham, who are 
 to attend him, shall be careful to pursue such 
 wise and prudent measures, as may during the 
 whole journey prevent the troops under your com- 
 mand, as well as those of the king of Sweden, 
 from committing any outrage, or being guilty of 
 any action that may be deemed a violation of 
 the peace which still subsists between our sub- 
 lime Porte and the kingdom and republic of Fo 
 
CHARLES XIC. 215 
 
 laad ; so the king may pass in a friendly man- 
 ner under our protection. 
 
 * By doing this (which you must expressly re- 
 quire hira to do), he will receive from the Holes 
 all the honour and respect that is due to his ma- 
 jesty ; as we have been assured by the ambassa- 
 dors of Augustus and the republic, who, on this 
 condition, have even offered themselves, together 
 with several others of the Polish nobility, if re- 
 quired, as hostages for the security of his passage, 
 
 ' When the time which you and the most noble 
 Delvet Gherai shall fix for the march, is come, 
 you shall put yourself at the head of your brave 
 soldiers, among whom shall be the Tartars, headed 
 by the cham, and you shall conduct the king of 
 Sweden and his men, 
 
 * And may it please the only God, the Al- 
 mighty, to direct your steps and theirs. The 
 basha of Aulos shall continue at Bender with a 
 regiment 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 deserve the continuance of 
 our imperial favour, as well as the praise and re- 
 compense due to all those who deserve them. 
 
 * Done at our imperial residence of Constanti- 
 
 nople, the 2d of the moon Cheval, 1211 of 
 the Hegira.' 
 
 While they were waiting for this answer from 
 the grand seignior, Charles wrote to the Porte, 
 complaining of the treachery of which he suspect- 
 ed the cham of Tartary to be guilty ; but all the 
 passages were well guarded, and besides, the 
 minister was against him, so that his letters never 
 reached the sultan. Nay, the vizier would not 
 allow M. Desaleurs to come to Adrianople, where 
 the Porte then was, lest that minister, who was 
 
216 HISTORY OF 
 
 an agent of the king of Sweden, should endeavour 
 to disconcert the plan he had formed for obliging 
 him to depart. 
 
 Charles, enraged to see himself thus hunted, 
 as it were, from the grand seignior's dominions, 
 resolved not to quit them at all. 
 
 He might have desired to return through Ger 
 many, 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 treasurer, Grothusen, who, during his long 
 abode in Turkey, had learned the language of the 
 country, went to wait upon the basha without an 
 interpreter, hoping to draw the money from him, 
 and afterwards to form some new intrigue at the 
 Porte, foolishly supposing, as he always did, that 
 the Swedish party would at last be able to arm 
 the Ottoman empire against the czar. 
 
 Grothusen told the basha, that the king could 
 not get ready his equipages without money : * But,' 
 said the basha, ' we shall defray all the expenses 
 of your departure ; your master shall be at no 
 charge while he continues under my protection.' 
 
 Grothusen replied, that the difference between 
 the equipages of the Turks and those of the Franks 
 •was so great, that they were obliged to apply to 
 the Swedish and Polish artificers at Vamitza. 
 
 He assured him that his master was willing to 
 depart, and that this money would facilitate and 
 hasten his departure. The too credulous basha 
 gave the twelve hundred purses, and a few days 
 after came to the king, and in a most respectful 
 manner begged to receive his orders for his de- 
 parture. 
 
 He was extremely surprised when the king told 
 him he was not yet ready to go, and that he want- 
 
CHARLES All. 217 
 
 ed a thousand purses more. The basha, con- 
 founded at this answer, stood speechless for a 
 moment ; then retiring to a window, he was ob- 
 served to shed some tears. At last addressing 
 himself to the king ; ' I shall lose m j head,' says 
 he, ' for having obliged your majesty : 1 have 
 given you the twelve hundred purses against the 
 express orders of the sovereign.' So saying he 
 took his leave with a dejected countenance. 
 
 The king stopped him, and said that he would 
 make an excuse for him to the sultan. ' Ah !' re- 
 plied the Turk, as he-was going away, 'my master 
 can punish faults, but cannot excuse them.' 
 
 Ismael Basha carried this piece of news to the 
 chara, who having received the same orders with 
 the basha, not to suffer the twelve hundred purses 
 to be given to the king before his departure, and 
 having consented to the delivery of the money, 
 was as apprehensive as the basha, of the grand 
 seignior's indignation. They both wrote to the 
 Porte in their own vindication, protesting they 
 did not give the twelve hundred purses, but upon 
 a solemn promise from the king's minister that he 
 would depart without delay, and beseeching his 
 highness not to impute the king's refusal to their 
 disobedience. 
 
 Charles, still persisting in the belief that the 
 chara and basha meant to deliver him up to his 
 enemies, ordered M. Funk, who was then his 
 envoy at the Ottoman court to lay his complaints 
 against them before the sultan, and to ask a thou- 
 sand purses more. His great generosity, and the 
 little account he made of money, hindered him 
 from perceiving the meanness of this proposal. He 
 did it with a view to be refused, and in order to find 
 a fresh pretext for delaying his departure. But a 
 man must be reduced to strange extremities, to 
 6taad in need of such artifices. Savari, his inter- 
 K 
 
218 HISTORY OF 
 
 preter, an artful and enterprising man, carried the 
 letter to Adrianople, in spite of all the care which 
 the grand vizier had taken to guard the passes. 
 
 Funk was obliged to present this dangerous 
 request. All the answer he received was to be 
 thrown into prison. The sultan, in a passion, 
 convoked an extraordinary divan, and, what very 
 seldom happens, spoke himself on the occasion. 
 His speech, according to the translation which 
 was then made of it, was conceived in the fol- 
 lowing terms. 
 
 * I hardly ever knew the king of Sweden but 
 by his defeat at Pultowa, and by the application 
 he made to me to grant him an asylum in my do- 
 minions. I have not, I believe, any need of him, 
 nor any reason either to love or fear him. Never- 
 theless, without consulting any other motives than 
 the hospitality of a Mussulman, and my own ge- 
 nerosity, which sheds the dew of its favours upon 
 the great as well as the small, upon strangers as 
 well as my own subjects, I have received and as- 
 sisted him, his ministers, officers, and soldiers, 
 and, for the space of three years and an half have 
 continued to load him with presents. 
 
 ' I have granted him a considerable guard to 
 conduct him back to his own kingdom. He asked 
 a thousand purses to defray some expenses, 
 though I pay them 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, in fact, it is but too large to pass 
 through the country of a friend. 
 
 • I ask you then, whether it be a violation of the 
 laws of hospitality to send back this prince ; and 
 whether foreign powers ought to accuse me of 
 cruelty and injustice, in case I should be oblige(} 
 
CHARLES XII. 219 
 
 to compel him to depart.' All the members of 
 the divan answered that such a conduct would be 
 consistent with the strictest rules of justice. 
 
 The mufti declared that Mussulmans were not 
 bound to shew any hospitality to infidels, and much 
 less to the ungrateful ; and he gave his fetsa, akind 
 of mandate which commonly accompanies the im- 
 portant orders of the grand seignior. These fetsas 
 are revered as oracles, though the persons by 
 whom they are given are as much slaves to the 
 sultan as any others. 
 
 The order and the fetsa were carried to Bender 
 by the bouyouk Imraour, grand master of the 
 horse, and a Chiaou basha, first usher. The basha 
 of Bender received the order of the cham of Tar- 
 tary; from whence he immediately repaired to 
 Varnitza, to ask the king whether he would de- 
 part in a friendly manner, or lay him under the 
 necessity of executing the sultan's orders. 
 
 Charles XII. being thus menaced, could not 
 restrain his passion. * Obey your master, if you 
 dare,' says he to the basha, * and leave mypresence 
 immediately.' The basha, fired with indignation, 
 returned at full gallop, contrary to the common 
 custom of the Turks ; and meeting Fabricius by 
 the way, he called out to him, without halting ; 
 * The king will not listen to reason ; you will see 
 strange things presently.* The same day he dis- 
 continued the supply of the king's provisions, and 
 removed the guard of janissaries. He caused in- 
 timation to be made to the Poles and Cossacks at 
 Varnitza, that, if they had a mind to have any 
 provisions, they must quit the king of Sweden's 
 camp, repair to Bender, and put themselves under 
 the protection of the Porte. These orders were 
 readily obeyed by all, and the king was left with- 
 out any other attendants than the officers of his 
 household, and three hundred Swedish soldiers. 
 
220 HISTORY OF 
 
 to make head against twenty thousand Tartars, 
 and six thousand Turks. 
 
 There was now no provision m the camp either 
 for man or horse. The king ordered twenty of 
 the fine Arabian horses, which had been sent him 
 by the grand seignior, to be shot without the camp, 
 adding, ' I will have none of their provisions nor 
 their horses.' This was an excellent feast to the 
 Tartars, who, as all the world knows, think horse 
 flesh delicious fare. Meanwhile the 'lurks and 
 Tartars invested the king's little camp on all sides. 
 
 Charles, without the least discomposure, order- 
 ed Lis three hundred Swedes to raise regular in- 
 trenchments, in which work he himself assisted; 
 as did likewise his chancellor, his treasurer, his 
 secretaries, his valets de chambre, and all his 
 domestics. Some barricadoed the windows, and 
 others fastened beams behind the doors, in the 
 form of buttresses. 
 
 After the house was suflBciently barricadoed, 
 and the king had rode round his pretended forti- 
 fications, he sat down to chess with his favourite, 
 Grothusen, with as much tranquillity as if every 
 thing had been perfectly safe and secure. Happily 
 M. Fabricius, the envoy of Holstein, iid not lodge 
 at Varnitza, but at a small village between Var- 
 nitza and Bender, where Mr. Jeffreys, the Eng- 
 lish envoy to the king of Sweden, likewise resided. 
 These two ministers, seeing the storm ready to 
 burst, undertook the office of mediators between 
 the king and the Turks. The cham and especially 
 the basha of Bender, who had no inclination to 
 offer any violence to the Swedish monarch, re- 
 ceived the ofifer of these two ministers with great 
 satisfaction. They had two conferences at Bender, 
 in which the usher of the seraglio, and the grand 
 master of the horse, who had brought the sultan's 
 Older and the mufti's fetsa assisted. 
 
CHARLES XII. 22X 
 
 M. Fabricius* declared to them i hat his Swedish 
 majesty had good reason to believe that they de- 
 signed to deliver him up to his enemies in Poland. 
 The cham, the basha, and all the rest, swore by 
 their heads, and called God to witness, that they 
 detested such a horrible piece of treachery ; and 
 that they would shed the last drop of their blood 
 rather than suffer even the least disrespect to be 
 shewn to the king of Sweden ; adding, that they 
 had in their hands the Russian and Polish am- 
 bassadors, whose lives should be answerable for 
 any affront that should be ofFered to the king of 
 Sweden. In fine, they complained bitterly, that 
 the king should entertain such injurious suspicions 
 of those who had received and treated him with 
 so much humanity and politeness. 
 
 Though oaths are frequently the language of 
 treachery, Fabricius could not help being con- 
 vinced of their sincerity. He thought he could 
 discern in their protestations such an air of ve- 
 racity as falsehood can, at best, but imperfectly 
 imitate. He was sensible there had been a secret 
 correspondence between the cham of Tartary and 
 Augustus ; but he was firmly persuaded, that the 
 only end of their negotiation was to oblige Charles 
 XII. to quit the dominions of the grand seignior. 
 Whether Fabricius was mistaken or not, he as- 
 sured them, he would represent to the king the 
 injustice of his suspicions. ' But,' adds he, ' do 
 you intend to compel him to depart"?' — 'Yes,' 
 savs the basha, 'for such are the orders of our 
 master.' He then entreated them to consider seri- 
 ously whether that order implied that they should 
 shed the blood of a crowned head. * Yes,' replies 
 the cham, in a passion, ' if that crowned head dis- 
 obeys the grand seignior in his owr> dominions/ 
 
 ♦ The whole of this account is relates^ by M. Fabricios 
 in his letters. 
 
222 HISTORY OF 
 
 In the mean time, every thing being ready for 
 the assault, the death of Charles XII. seemed in- 
 evitable. But as the sultan had not given them 
 positive orders to kill him in case of resistance, 
 the basha prevailed upon the cham to let him dis- 
 patch an express to Adrianople, where the grand 
 seignior then resided, to receive the last orders 
 of his highness. 
 
 Mr. Jeffreys, and M. Fabricius, having pro- 
 cured this short respite, hastened to acquaint the 
 king with it. They came with all the eagerness 
 of people who bring good news ; but were re- 
 ceived very coldly. He called them unsolicited 
 mediators, and still persisted in the belief that 
 the sultan's orders and the mufti's fetsa were 
 both forged, inasmuch as they had sent to the 
 Porte for fresh orders. 
 
 The English minister retired, with a firm re- 
 solution to interfere no more in the affairs of a 
 prince so very obstinate and inflexible. M. Fa- 
 bricius, beloved by the king, and more accus- 
 tomed to his humour than the English minister, 
 remained with him, and earnestly entreated him 
 not to hazard so precious a life on such an un- 
 necessary occasion. 
 
 For answer, the king shewed him his fortifica- 
 tions, and begged he would employ his good 
 offices in procuring him soibe provisions. The 
 Turks were easily prevailed on to allow pro- 
 visions to be conveyed to the king's camp, until 
 the return of the courier from Adrianople. The 
 cham himself had strictly enjoined his Tartars, 
 who were eager for pillage, not to make any at- 
 tempt against the Swedes till the arrival of fresh 
 orders ; so that Charles XII. 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 even marched 
 
CHARLES XII. 223 
 
 directly up to their lines, which instead of re- 
 sisting, readily opened and allowed him to pass. 
 
 At last, the order of the grand seignior being 
 come, to put to the sword all the Swedes that 
 should make the least resistance, and not even 
 to spare the life of the king, the basha had the 
 complaisance to shew the order to M. Fabricius, 
 with a view of inducing him to make his last 
 effort to bend, if possible, the obstinacy of Charles. 
 Fabricius went immediately to acquaint him 
 with these sad tidings. • Have you seen the 
 order you mention,' said the kmg 1 ' I have,' re- 
 plied Fabricius. * Well then, go tell them in 
 my name, that this second order is another forgery 
 of theirs, 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. ' Go back to your Turks,' said the 
 king to him, smiling ; • if they attack me, I know 
 how to defend myself.' The king's chaplains 
 likewise fell upon their knees before him, con- 
 juring him not to expose to certain death the un- 
 happy remains of Pultowa, and especially his 
 own sacred person ; assuring him, at the same 
 time, that resistance in such a cause was al- 
 together unjustifiable ; and that it was a direct 
 violation of all the laws of hospitality, to re- 
 solve to continue with strangers against their 
 will ; especially with thost strangers who had 
 so long and so generously supported him. The 
 king, who had heard Fabricius with great pa- 
 tience, 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 Hoord and Dardoff, tvho had al- 
 ways declared against hazarding a battle which 
 could not be attended but with fatal consequences, 
 shewed the king their breasts covered with 
 
224 HISTORY OF 
 
 wounds, which they had received in his service ; 
 and assuring him that thoy were ready to lay 
 down their lives for his sake, begged that it 
 might be, at least, upon a more necessary occa 
 fiion. 'I know,' says Charles XII. ' by your 
 wounds and by my own, that we have fought 
 valiantly together. You have hitherto done your 
 duty, do it to-day likewise.' Nothing now re- 
 mained but to pay an implicit obedience to the 
 king's command. Every one was ashamed not 
 to court death with their sovereign. Charles, 
 being now prepared for the assault, enjoyed in 
 secret the pleasing thought that he should have 
 the honour of sustaining with three hundred 
 Swedes the united eflForts 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, 
 was stationed in another post. A third place was 
 to be guarded by the grooms of the stable and the 
 cooks ; for with him every one was a soldier. 
 He rode from the intrenchments to his house, 
 promising rewards to every one, creating officers, 
 and assuring them that he would exalt the very 
 meanest of his servants, who should fight with 
 courage and resolution, to the dignity of captains. 
 It was not long before they beheld the com- 
 bined army of the Turks and Tartars advancing 
 to attack this little camp with ten pieces of can- 
 non and two mortars. The horses tails waved 
 in the air ; the clarions sounded ; the cries of 
 ' Alia, Alia,' were heard on all sides. Baron 
 Grothusen, observing that the Turks did not mix 
 in their cries any injurious reflections on the king, 
 but only called him ' Demirbash,' i. e. Head of 
 Iron, he instantly resolved to go out of the 
 camp alone and unarmed ; and having accord- 
 
CHARLES Xir. 225 
 
 ingly advanced to the lines of the janissaries, 
 most of whom had received money from hira • 
 'What then, my friends,' says he to them, in 
 their own language, ' are you come to massacre 
 three hundred defenceless Swedes f you brave 
 janissaries, who pardoned a hundred thousand 
 Russians, upon their crying, Amman, i. e. par- 
 don ; have you forgot the many favours you have 
 received from us "? and would you assassinate 
 that great king of Sweden for whom you have so 
 great a regard, and frnm whom you have received 
 so many presents ? All he asks, my friends, is 
 but the space of three days ; and the sultan's or- 
 ders are not so strict as you are made to believe.' 
 
 These words produced an effect which Gro- 
 thusen himself could little have expected. The 
 janissaries swore by their beards that they would 
 not attack the king, but would grant liim the 
 three days he demanded. In vain was the sig 
 nal given for the assault. The janissaries were 
 so far from obeying, that they threatened to fall 
 upon their leaders, unless they would consent to 
 grant three days to the king of Sweden. They 
 came to the basha of Bender's tent, crying out 
 that the sultan's orders were fictitious. To this 
 unexpected sedition the basha had nothing to op- 
 pose but patience. 
 
 He affected to be pleased with the generous 
 resolution of the janissaries, and ordered them 
 to return to Bender. The cham of 'i'artary, a 
 man of head-strong and impetuous passions, 
 would have given the assault immediately with 
 his own troops : but the basha, unwilling that 
 the Tartars should have all the honour of taking 
 the king, while himself perhaps might be punished 
 for the disobedience of the janissaries, persuaded 
 the cham to wait till the next day. 
 
 On his return to Bender, the basha assembled 
 K2 
 
226 HISTORY OF 
 
 all the ofl5cers of the janissaries, and the oldest 
 soldiers, to whom he both read and shewed the 
 sultan's positive orders, and the mufti's fetsa. 
 Sixty of the oldest of them, with venerable grey 
 beards, who had received a thousand presents from 
 the king's hands, proposed to go to him in person, 
 to entreat him to put himself into their hands, 
 and to permit them to serve him as guards. 
 
 The basha agreed to the proposal, as indeed 
 there was no expedient he would not willingly 
 have tried, rather than be reduced to the neces- 
 sity of killing the king. Accordingly these sixty 
 veterans repaired next morning to Varnitza, hav- 
 ing nothing in their hands but long white rods, the 
 onlyarmswhich the janissaries wear, unless when 
 they are going to fight ; for the Turks consider the 
 Christian custom of carrying swords in time of 
 peace, and of entering armed into churches and the 
 houses of their friends, as a barbarous practice. 
 
 They addressed themselves to baron Gro- 
 thusen, and chancellor Mullern. They told them 
 that they were come with a view to serve as 
 faithful guards to the king ; and that if he pleased 
 they would conduct bim to Adrianople, where he 
 might have a personal interview with the grand 
 seignior. While they were making this proposal, 
 the king read the letters which were brought 
 from Constantinople, and which Fabricius, who 
 could no longer attend him in person, had sent 
 him privately by a janissary. These letters were 
 from count Poniatowsky, who could neither serve 
 him at Bender nor Adrianople, having been de- 
 tained at Constantinople, by order of the Porte, 
 ever since the time of his making the imprudent 
 demand of a thousand purses. He told the king 
 that the sultan's orders to seize or massacre his 
 royal person, in case of resistance, were but too 
 true ', that indeed the sultan was imposed upon 
 
CHARLES XII. 227 
 
 by his ministers ; but the more he was imposed 
 upon, lie 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 advise him to try every expedient 
 with the ministers by way of negotiations ; not 
 to be inflexible in a matter which required the 
 gentlest management ; and to expect from time 
 and good policy a cure of that evil, which by 
 rash and violent measures would be only ren- 
 dered incurable. 
 
 But neither the proposal of the old janissaries, 
 nor Poniatowsky's letters, could convince the 
 king that it was consistent with his honour to 
 yield. He rather chose to perish by the hands of 
 the Turks, than in any respect to be made a pri- 
 soner. He dismissed the janissaries without 
 condescending to see them, and sent them word, 
 that if they did not immediately depart, he would 
 shave their beards for them : an aifront, which 
 in the eastern countries is considered the most 
 intolerable of all others. 
 
 The old men, filled with the highest indig- 
 nation, returned home, crying out as they went, 
 ' Ah this head of iron ! since he will perish, let 
 him perish.' They gave the basha an account 
 of their commission, and informed their com- 
 rades at Bender of the strange reception they 
 had met with ; upon which they all swore to 
 obey the basha's orders without delay, and were 
 as impatient to go to the assault as they had 
 been averse to it the day before. 
 
 The word of command was immediately given. 
 The Turks marched up to the fortifications : the 
 Tartars were already waiting for them, and the 
 cannon began to play. The janissaries on the 
 one side, and the Tartars on the other, instantly- 
 forced the little camp. Hardly had twenty 
 
228 HISTORY OF 
 
 Swedes time to draw their swords, when the 
 whole three hundred were surrounded and taken 
 prisoners without resistance. The king was then 
 on horseback, between his house and his camp, 
 with the generals Hoord, DardofF. and Sparre ; 
 and seeing that all his soldiers Imd suffered 
 themselves to be taken prisoners before his eyes, 
 he said, with great composure, to these three of- 
 ficers, * Come, let us go and defend the house ; we 
 will fight,' adds he, with a smile, 'pro arisetfocis.' 
 
 Accordingly, accompanied by these three ge- 
 nerals, he forthwith gallops up to the house, in 
 •which he had placed about forty domestics as 
 centinels, and which he had fortified in the best 
 manner he could. 
 
 The generals, accustomed as they were to the 
 dauntless intrepidity of their master, could not 
 help being surprised to see him resolve in cold 
 blood, and even with an air of pleasantry, to de- 
 fend himself against ten pieces of cannon, and a 
 whole army : nevertheless they followed him, 
 with some guards and domestics, making in all 
 about twenty persons. 
 
 When they came to the door, they found it be- 
 set by the janissaries. Besides, two hundred 
 Turks and Tartars had already entered by a 
 window, and made themselves masters of all 
 the apartments, except a large hall where the 
 king's domestics had retired. Happily this hall 
 was near the door, at which the king designed to 
 enter with his little troop of twenty persons. 
 He threw himself oflF his horse with pistol and 
 sword in hand, and his followers did the same. 
 
 The janissaries fell upon him on all sides. 
 They were animated with the promise which the 
 basha had made, of eight ducats of gold to every 
 man who should only touch his clothes, in case 
 they could take him. He wounded and killed 
 
CHARLES XII. 229 
 
 all those who came wear him. A janissary, 
 whom he wounded, clapped his blunderbuss to 
 his face, and had he not be^^n jostled by the arm 
 of a Turk, owing to the crowd that moved back- 
 wards and forwards like waves, the king had 
 certainly been killed. The ball grazed upon his 
 nose, and carried off part of his ear, and then 
 broke the arm of general Hoord, whose constant 
 fate it was to be wounded by his master's side. 
 
 The king plunged his sword in the janissary's 
 breast. At the s^ame time, his domestics, who 
 were shut up in the great hall, open the door to 
 him. The king, with his little troop, sj)ring3 
 in like an arrow. 'I'hey instantly shut the door, 
 and barricade it with whatever they can find. 
 Thus was Charles XI I. shut up in this hall with 
 all his attendants, consisting of about sixty men, 
 oflScers, 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 out these bar- 
 barians ;' and putting himself at the head of his 
 men, he with his own hands opens the door of 
 the hall that leads to his bed-chamber, rushes 
 into the room, and fires upon the plunderers. 
 
 The Turks, loaded with spoil, and terrified at 
 the appearance of the king, whom they bad ever 
 been accustomed to respect, throw down their 
 arms, leap out of the window, or fly to the cel- 
 lars. The king, taking advantage of their con- 
 fusion, and his own men being animated by the 
 success of this attempt, they pursue the Turks 
 from chamber to chamber, kill or wound those 
 who had not made their escape, ?.nd in a quarter 
 of an hour clear the house of the enemy. 
 
 In the heat of the fight the king perceived two 
 janissaries who lay concealed under his bed, one 
 
230 HISTORY OF 
 
 of them he stabbed with his sword, the other 
 asked pardon, by crying, * Amman.' — ' 1 give you 
 your life,' says the king to him, * on this con- 
 dition, that you go and give the basha a faithful 
 account of what you have seen.' The Turk 
 readily promised to do as he was bid, and was 
 allowed to leap out at the window like the rest. 
 
 The Swedes having at last made themselves 
 masters of the house, again shut and barricadoed. 
 the windows. They were in no want of arms. 
 A ground room full of muskets and powder had 
 escaped the tumultuary search of the janissaries : 
 these they employed to good purpose. 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 ; but the stones being 
 very soft, there were only some holes made in 
 the walls, and nothing was demolished. 
 
 The cham of Tartary, and the basha, were de- 
 sirous of taking the king alive, being ashamed to 
 lose so many men, and to employ a whole army 
 against sixty persons, thought it most advisable 
 to set fire to the house, in order to oblige the 
 king to surrender. They ordered some arrows, 
 twisted about with lighted matches, to be shot 
 upon the roof, and against the doors and win- 
 dows. In a moment the house was in flames. 
 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 small 
 barrel full of liquor, he took it up, and being as- 
 sisted by two Swedes, threw it upon the place 
 where the fire was most violent. At last he re- 
 collected that the barrel was full of brandy ; but 
 the hurry inseparable from such a scene of con- 
 fusion, hindered him from thinking of it in time. 
 The fire now raged with double fury. The king's 
 
CHARLES XII. 231 
 
 apartment was reduced to ashes. The great 
 ball where the Swedes were, was filled with a ter- 
 rible smoke, mixed with sheets of flame, that 
 darted in at the doors of the neighbouring apart- 
 ments. One half of the roof sunk within the 
 house, the other fell on the outside, cracking 
 amidst the flames. 
 
 In this extremity, a centinel called Walberg, 
 ventured to cry, that there was a necessity for 
 surrendering. 'What a strange man is this/ 
 says the king, * to imagine, that it is not more glo- 
 rious to be burnt than taken prisoner !' Another 
 centinel, named Kosen, had the presence of 
 mind to observe, that the chancery -house, which 
 was not above 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 themselves to the last extremity. 
 ' There is a true Swede for you,' cries the king, 
 and embracing the centinel, he 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 chan- 
 cery, sword in hand.' 
 
 The Turks, who all the while surrounded the 
 house, were struck with fear and admiration, to 
 see the Swedes continue in it, notwithstanding 
 it was all in flames ; but their astonishment was 
 greatly increased when they saw the doors open- 
 ed, and the king and his followers rushing out 
 upon them like so many madmen. Charles and 
 his principal officers were armed with sword and 
 pistol. Every man fired two pistols at once, the 
 moment the doors were opened ; and in the twink- 
 ling 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 suirounded. The king, who was booted 
 
232 HISTORY OF 
 
 as usual, entangled himself with his spurs and 
 fell. One and twenty janissaries at once spring 
 upon him. He throws up his sword into the air, 
 to save himself the mortification of surrendering 
 it. The Turks bear him to the basha's quarters, 
 some taking hold of his arms, and others of his' 
 legs, in the same manner as sick persons are 
 wont to be carried, in order to prevent their 
 being hurt. 
 
 No sooner did the king see himself in their 
 hands, than 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 : not one word of im- 
 patience dropped from his lips; not one angrj 
 look was to be seen in his face. He eyed the 
 janissaries with a smiling countenance, and they 
 carried him off crying, 'Alia,' with a mixture of 
 respect and indignation. His officers were taken 
 at the same tin.e and stripped by the Turks 
 and Tartars. It was on the I'ifth of February, 
 1713, that this strange event happened; an 
 event that was followed with very remarkable 
 consequences.* 
 
 * M. Norberg, who was not present at this adventure, 
 hath in this particular part of his history only copied 
 the account of M. de Voltaire ; but he' has mangled it : 
 he hath suppressed some interesting circumstances, and 
 has not been able to justify the temerity of Charles XII. 
 All that he hath been able to advance against M. de 
 Voltaire, with regard to the affair of Bender, is reducible 
 to the adventure of the sieur Fredericus, valet de cham- 
 bre to the king of Sweden, who, accorling to some, was 
 burnt in the king's house, and according to others, wag 
 cut in two bj' the Tartars. La Motraye alleges likewise, 
 that the king of Sweden did not use these words, ' We 
 will fight pro aris el Jvcis.' But M. Fabricius, who 
 was present, aflQrms, that the king did pronounce these 
 words ; that La Motraye was not near enough to bear 
 
CHARLES XU. 233 
 
 BOOK VII. 
 
 The Turks conrey Charles to Demirtash. King Sta- 
 nislaus is taken at tiie same time. Bold undertaking 
 of M. de Villelongue. Revolutions in the seraglio. 
 Battle in Pomerania. Alteiia buint by the Swedes. 
 Charles at last sets out on his return to his own domi- 
 nions ; his strange manner of travelling ; his arriral 
 at Stralsuud ; his misfortunes. Successes of Peter 
 the Great ; his triumphant entry into Petersburg. 
 
 nPHE basha of Bender, with great gravity, 
 waited for Charles in his tent, attended by 
 one IMarco, an interpreter. He received his 
 majesty in a most respectful manner, and en- 
 treated him to repose himself on a sopha ; but 
 the king, who did not so much as take notice of 
 the Turk's civilities, continued standing. 
 
 ' Blessed be the Almighty,' says the basha, 
 ' that your majesty is alive : 1 am extremely 
 sorry that your majesty obliged me to execute 
 the orders of his highness.' I he king, who was 
 only vexed that his three hundred soldiers should 
 have suffered themselves to be taken in their in- 
 trenchments, said to the basha, ' Ah ! had they 
 defended themselves as they ought, you would 
 not^ have been able to force our camp in ten 
 days.' — 'Alas!' says the Turk, 'that so much 
 courage should be so ill employed !' He ordered 
 the king to be conducted back to Bender on a 
 horse richly caparisoned. All the Swedes were 
 either killed or taken prisoners. All his equi- 
 page, his goods, his papers, and most necessary 
 utensils were either plundered or burnt. One 
 
 them ; and that if he had he was not capable of compre- 
 hending their meaning, as he did not understand a word 
 of Latin. 
 
234 HISTORY OF 
 
 might have seen in the public roads the Swedish 
 officers, almost naked, and chained together in 
 pairs, following the Tartars or Janissaries on foot. 
 The chancellor and the general officers did not 
 meet with a milder fate ; they were the slaves of 
 the soldiers, to whose share they had fallen. 
 
 Ismael basha, having conducted Charles to his 
 seraglio, at Bender, gave him his own apartment, 
 and ordered him to be served like a king ; but 
 not without taking the precaution to plant a guard 
 of janissaries at the chamber door. A bed was 
 prepared for him ; but he threw himself down up- 
 on a sopha, booted as he was, and fell fast asleep. 
 An officer who stood near him in waiting, covered 
 his head with a cap ; but the king, upon awaking 
 from his first sleep, threw it off"; and the Turk 
 was surprised, to see a sovereign prince sleeping 
 in his boots and bare-headed. 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 dust and blood, and his eye- 
 brows burnt; but still maintaining, in this ter- 
 rible condition, a placid and cheerful look. He 
 fell 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 resumed his 
 wonted familiarity with him, and they began to 
 talk of the battle of Bender with great good 
 humour and pleasantry. * It is reported,' says 
 Fabricius, ' that your majesty killed twenty janis- 
 saries with your own hand.' — ' Well, well,' re- 
 plies the king, ' a story, you know, never loses 
 in the telling.' During this conversation, the 
 basha presented to the king his favourite Gro- 
 thusen, and colonel Ribbins, whom he had had 
 the generosity to redeem at his own expense. 
 
CHARLES XII. 235 
 
 Fabricius undertook to ransom the other pri- 
 soners. 
 
 Jeflfreys, the English envoy, joined his endea- 
 vours with those of Fabricius, in order to pro- 
 cure the money necessary for this purpose. A 
 Frenchman, who had come to Bender out of 
 mere curiosity, and who hath wrote a short ac- 
 count of these transactions, gave all that he had ; 
 and these strangers, assisted by the interest and 
 even by the money, of the basha, redeemed not 
 only the officers, but likewise their clothes, from 
 the hands of the Turks and Tartars. 
 
 Next day, the king was conducted as a pri- 
 soner, in a chariot covered with scarlet, towards 
 Adrianople. His treasurer, Grothusen, was with 
 him. Chancellor Mullern and some officers fol- 
 lowed in another carriage. Several were on 
 horseback ; and when they cast their eyes on 
 the king's chariot, they could not refrain from 
 tears. The basha was at the head of the con- 
 voy : Fabricius told him, that it was a shame 
 the king should want a sword, and begged he 
 would give him one. ' God forbid,' says the 
 basha, ' he would cut our beards for us, if he had 
 a sword.' However, he gave him one a few 
 hours after. 
 
 While they were conducting this king, dis- 
 armed and a prisoner, who, but a few years be- 
 fore, 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 instance of the frailty of human 
 greatness. 
 
 King Stanislaus had been seized in the Turk- 
 ish domiuions, and they were now carrying him 
 a prisoner to Bender at the very time that they 
 were removing Charles from it. 
 
 Stanislaus, being no longer supported by the 
 
236 HISTORY OF 
 
 hand which had raised him to the throne, and find- 
 ing himself destitute of money, and consequently 
 of interest in Poland, had retired at first into Po- 
 merania ; and, unable to preserve his own king- 
 dom, he had done all that lay in his power to de- 
 fend that of his benefactor : he had even gone to 
 Sweden, in order to hasten the reinforcements 
 that were so much wanted in Livonia and Pome- 
 rania. In a word, he had done every thing that 
 could be expected from the friend of Charles XII. 
 About this time, the first king of Prussia, a prince 
 of great prudence, being justly apprehensive of 
 danger from the too near neighbourhood of the 
 Muscovites, thought proper to enter into a league 
 with Augustus and the republic of Poland, in 
 order to send back the Russians to their own 
 country, and he hoped to engage the king of 
 Sweden himself in this project. From this plan 
 three great events were expected to result ; the 
 peace of the North, the return of Charles to his 
 own kingdom, and the establishment of a strong 
 barrier against the Russians, whose power was 
 already become formidable to Europe. The pre- 
 liminary article of this treaty, upon which the 
 public tranquillity depended, was the abdication 
 of Stanislaus ; who not only accepted the pro- 
 posal, but even undertook to use his endeavours 
 in bringing about a peace which deprived him of 
 his crown. To this step he was prompted by 
 necessity, the public good, the glory of the sacri- 
 fice, and the interest of Charles XII. Rewrote 
 to Bender. He explained to the king of Sweden 
 the desperate situation of his affairs, and the only 
 effectual remedy that could be applied. He con- 
 jured him not to oppose an abdication which was 
 rendered necessary by the strange conjunctures of 
 the times, and honourable by the noble motive 
 from which it proceeded. He entreated him uot 
 
CHARLES XII. 237 
 
 to sacrifice the interests of Sweden to those of an 
 unhappy friend, who clieerfully preferred the 
 public good to bis own private happiness. Charles 
 XII. rec<ived these letters at Varnitza. He said 
 to the courier in a passion, in presence of several 
 witnesses, ' If my friend will not be a king, Icaa 
 easily find another that will.' 
 
 Stanislaus was obstinately bent on making the 
 sacrifice which Charles opposed. These times 
 seem to have been destined by Providence to pro- 
 duce strange sentiments and still stranger actions. 
 Stanislaus resolved to go himself, and endeavour 
 to prevail upon Charles ; and thus he ran a greater 
 risk in abdicating 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, ia 
 company with baron Sparr and another colonel, 
 the former of whom hath since been an ambassa- 
 dor in France and England. He assumed the 
 name of a French gentlemen, called Haran, who 
 was then a major in the Swedish army, and 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 pass- 
 port which he got in the name of Haran. At length, 
 after many perils and dangers, he arrived on the 
 frontiers of Turkey. 
 
 As soon as he had reached Moldavia, he sent 
 back baron Sparr to the army, and entered Yassy, 
 the capital of Moldavia, thinking.himself perfectly 
 secure in a country wbere the king of Sweden 
 had been treated with so much respect, and never 
 entertaining the least suspicion of what had hap- 
 pened. 
 
 The Moldavians asked him who he was 1 He 
 said he was a major of a regiment in the service 
 of Charles XII. At the bare mention of that 
 
238 HISTORY OF 
 
 name h& was seized, and carried before the ho9» 
 padar of Moldavia, who, having already learned 
 from the gazettes that Stanislaus had privately 
 withdrawn from his army, began to suspect that 
 this was probably the man. He had heard the 
 king's figure described so exactly, that it was 
 very easy to discover the resemblance ; an open 
 and engaging countenance, and a very uncommon 
 air of sweetness. 
 
 The hospadar examined him, put to him a 
 great many captious questions, at last asked him 
 what commission he bore in the Swedish army. 
 Their conversation was carried on in Latin. 
 Major sum, says Stanislaus. Imo maximus es, 
 replies the Moldavian ; and immediately pre- 
 senting him with a chair of state, he treated him 
 like a king ; but stiil a king who was a prisoner, 
 placing a strict guard about a Greek convent, in 
 which he was obliged to remain, till such time as 
 the sultan's orders should arrive. At length 
 these orders came, importing, that Stanislaus 
 should be carried to Bender, from which Charles 
 XII. had been just removed. 
 
 The news of this event was brought to the 
 basha, at the time he was accompanying the king 
 of Sweden's chariot. The basha communicated 
 the particulars to Fabricius, who, coming up to 
 Charles's chariot, told him he was not the only 
 king that was a prisoner in the hands of the 
 Turks ; and that Stanislaus was but a few miles 
 off, under a guard of soldiers. ' Run to him, 
 my dear Fabricius,' says Charles, without being 
 in the least disconcerted ; ' tell him never to 
 make a peace with Augustus, and assure him that 
 our affairs will soon take another turn.' So 
 much was Charles wedded to his own opinions, 
 that , abandoned as he was in Poland, attacked 
 in his own dominions, a captive in a Turkish 
 
CHARLES XII. S39 
 
 litter, and led a prisoner without knowing whi- 
 ther they were carrrying him, he still reckoned 
 on the favour of fortune, and hoped the Otto- 
 man Porte would assist him with a hundred 
 thousand men. f abricius Lastened to execute 
 his commission, attended by a janissary, hav- 
 ing first obtained leave from the basha. At 
 a few miles distance he met the body of sol- 
 diers that conducted Stanislaus. He addressed 
 himself to a person that rode in the midst of them 
 clad in a French dress, and but indiflFerently 
 mounted ; and asked him in the German tongue, 
 where the king of Poland was. The person to 
 whom he spoke happened to be Stanislaus him- 
 self, whose features he could not recollect under 
 this disguise. ♦ What !' says the king, ' don't 
 you know me V Fabricius then informed him of 
 the wretched condition in which the king of 
 Sweden was; but added, that his resolutions, how- 
 ever unsuccessful, were as determined as ever. 
 
 As Stanislaus was drawing near to Bender, 
 the basha, who had returned thither after having 
 accompanied Charles for some miles, sent the 
 king of Poland an Arabian horse, with a mag- 
 nificent harness. 
 
 He was received at Bender amidst a dis- 
 charge of the artillery ; and, excepting his con- 
 finement, from which he was not as yet delivered, 
 he had no great cause to complain of his treat- 
 ment.* Meanwhile Charles was on his way to 
 Adrianople. Nothing was talked of in that town 
 
 * The good chaplain, Norberg, alleges that we are 
 here gailty of a manifest contradiction, in supposing, 
 that king Stanislaus was at once detained a prisoner, 
 and treated as a king, at Bender. What ! had not the 
 poor man discernment enough to perceive, that it is very 
 possible for a person, at one and the same time> to be 
 loaded with honour and deprived of his libertj 1 
 
240 HISTORY OF 
 
 but his late battle. The Turks at once con- 
 demned and admired him ; but the divan was so 
 provoked, that they threatened to confine him in 
 one of the islands of the Archipelago. 
 
 Stanislaus, king of Poland, from whom I had 
 the honour to receive the greatest part of these 
 particulars, assured me likewise, that a proposal 
 was made in the divan for confining him in one 
 of the islands of Greece ; but the grand seignior, 
 being mollified a few months after, allowed him 
 to depart. 
 
 M. Desaleurs, who could have taken his part, 
 and could have prevented the Turks from offer- 
 ing such an affront to all Christian kings, was at 
 Constantinople ; as was likewise M. Ponia- 
 towsky, whose fertile and enterprisiug genius 
 the divan had always dreaded. Most of the 
 Swedes at Adrianople were in prison ; and the 
 sultan's throne seemed to be inacessible to any 
 complaints of the king of Sweden. 
 
 The marquis dc Fierville, who had resided 
 with Charles at Bender as a private agent of 
 France, was then at Adrianople. He undertook 
 to do that prince a piece of service, at a time 
 when he was abandoned or oppressed by all the 
 world besides. In this design he was happily 
 assisted by a French gentleman, of an ancient 
 family in Champagne, called Villelongue, a man 
 of great courage, but who, not having a fortune 
 equal to his spirit, and charmed with the fame 
 of the king of Sweden, had repaired to Turkey 
 with a view of entering into the service of that 
 prince. 
 
 With the assistance of this young man, M. de 
 Fierville wrote a memorial in the king of Swe- 
 den's name, in which he made his majesty de- 
 mand satisfaction of the sultan for the insult, 
 which, in his person, had been offered to all 
 
CHARLES XII. 241 
 
 crowned heads, and for the treachery, either 
 real or supposed, of the cham and basha of 
 Bender. 
 
 In this memorial he accused the vizier and 
 other ministers of having received bribes from 
 the Russians, imposed upon the grand seignior, 
 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 
 Mussulmans, by which, in direct violation of the 
 laws of nations, and in a manner so unworthy 
 of a great emperor, they had attacked, with 
 twenty thousand men, a king who had none but 
 his domestics to defend him, and who relied up- 
 on the sacred word of the sultan. 
 
 When this memorial was drawn up, it was to 
 be translated into the Turkish language, and 
 written in a particular hand, and upon a certain 
 kind of paper, which is always used in addresses 
 to the sultan. 
 
 For this purpose they applied to several French 
 interpreters in the town ; but the affairs of the 
 king of Sweden were in such a desperate situa- 
 tion, and the vizier was so much his declared 
 enemy, that not a single interpreter would un- 
 dertake the task. At last they found a stranger, 
 whose hand was not known at the Porte, who, 
 having received a handsome gratuity, and being 
 fully assured of the most profound secrecy, tran- 
 slated the memorial into the Turkish tongue, 
 and wrote it upon the right kind of paper. Baron 
 d'Arvidson, a Swedish officer, counterfeited the 
 king's subscription. Fierville, who had the royal 
 Bignet, appended it to the writing, and the whole 
 was sealed with the arms of Sweden. Ville- 
 longue undertook to deliver it into the hands of 
 the grand seignior, as he went to the mosque, ac- 
 cording to his usual custom. The like methods 
 L 
 
S48 HISTORY OF 
 
 had been frequently employed for presenting 
 memorials to the sultan against his ministers; 
 but that very circumstance rendered the success 
 of this enterprise the more precarious, and th« 
 danger of the attempt the more imminent. 
 
 The vizier, who plainly foresaw that the 
 Swede would demand justice of the sultan, and 
 who, from the unhappy fate of his predecessors, 
 had but too many warnings to provide for his 
 own safety, had given peremptory orders to allow 
 no one to approach the grand seignior's person, 
 but to seize all such as should be about the mosque 
 with petitions in their hands. 
 
 Villelongue was well apprised of this order, 
 and at the same time knew, that, by breaking it, 
 he run the risk of losing his head. He there- 
 fore laid aside his Frank's dress, and put on a 
 Grecian habit ; and concealing the letter in his 
 bosom, repaired betimes to the neighbourhood of 
 the mosque, to which the grand seignior resorted. 
 He counterfeited the madman, and dancing 
 between two files of janissaries, through which 
 the sultan was to pass, he purposely let some 
 pieces of money drop from his pockets, as if by 
 chance, in order to amuse the guards. 
 
 When the sultan was drawing near, the guards 
 endeavoured to remove Villelongue out of the 
 way ; but he fell on his knees, and struggled with 
 the janissaries. At last his cap fell off, and he 
 was discovered by his long hair to be a Frank. 
 He received several blows, and was very roughly 
 handled. The grand seignior, who was at no 
 great distance, heard the scuffle, and asked the 
 cause of it. Villelongue cried out with all his 
 might, ^ffjwian/ Amman! Mercy! pulling the 
 letter at the same time out of his bosom. The 
 sultan ordered the guards to let him approach. 
 Villelongue instantly runs up to him, embraces 
 
CHARLES XII. 243 
 
 his stirrup, and presents the memorial, saying. 
 Sued crall dan, ' The king of Sweden gives i* 
 thee.' The sultan put the letter in his bosom, 
 and proceeded to the mosque. Meantime Ville- 
 longue was secured and imprisoned in one of the 
 exterior apartments of the seraglio. 
 
 The sultan, having read the letter upon his 
 leaving the mosque, resolved to examine the pri- 
 soner himself. This perhaps will appear some- 
 what incredible; nothing, however, is here ad- 
 vanced, but what ft vouched by the letters of 
 M. de Villelongue ; and surely, when so brave 
 an officer affirms any thing upon his honour, he 
 merits, at least, some credit. He assured me 
 then that the sultan laid aside his imperial garb 
 and turban, and disguised 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, as an interpreter. By 
 favour of this disguise, Villelongue enjoyed an 
 honour which no Christian ambassador ever ob- 
 tained. He had a privat-e conference with the 
 Turkish emperor for a quarter 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 ; and all this 
 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, notwith- 
 standing the darkness of the prison, that it was 
 no other than the grand seignior himself ; bat this 
 discovery only made him speak with the greater 
 boldness. The pretended officer of the janissaries 
 said to Villelongue ; ' Christian, be assured, that 
 the sultan, my master, has the soul of an em- 
 peror ; and that your king of Sweden, if he has 
 reason on his side, shall obtain justice.' Ville- 
 longue was soon set at liberty, and in a few weeks 
 
244 HISTORY OF 
 
 after, a sudden change took place in the seraglio, 
 owing, as the Swedes affirm, to this conference 
 alone. The mufti was deposed ; the cham of 
 Tartary was banished to Rhodes ; and the seras- 
 kier basha of Bender was confined in one of the 
 islands of the Archipelago. 
 
 The Ottoman Porte is so subject to these revo- 
 lutions, that it is hard to say, whether the sultan 
 really meant to gratify the king of Sweden by 
 these sacrifices. From tiie treatment which 
 tliat prince received, it cannot surely be inferred, 
 that the Porte had any great inclination to 
 oblige him. 
 
 The fttvourite, Ah Coumourgi, was suspected 
 of having brought about all these changes, in 
 order to serve his own particular views. The 
 cham of Tartary and the ser.askier of Bender 
 were said to have been banished for giving the 
 king the twelve hundred purses, in contradiction 
 to the express orders of the grand seignior. Cou- 
 mourgi raised to the throne of Tartary the brother 
 of the deposed cham, a young man of his ovm 
 age, who had little regard for his brother, and 
 upon whom the favourite depended greatly in 
 prosecuting the wars he had already planned. 
 With respect to the grand vizier Jussuf, he was 
 not deposed till some weeks after ; and the title 
 of prime vizier was bestowed on Soiiman basha. 
 
 Truth obliges me to declare, that M. de Ville- 
 longue and several Swedes assured me, that all 
 these great revolutions at the Porte were entirely 
 owing to the letter which was presented to the 
 sultan in the king's name ; whereas M. de Fier- 
 ville is of a qviite contrary opinion. I have some- 
 times found the like contradictions in such me- 
 morials as have been submitted to my perusal. 
 In all these cases, it is the duty of an historian 
 honestly to narrate the plain matter of fact, with- 
 
CHARLES Xn. 245 
 
 out endeavouring to dive into the motives ; and 
 to confine himself to the relation of what he does 
 know, instead of indulging his fancy in vain con- 
 iecture, about what he does not know. 
 
 JVIeanwhile Charles XII. was conducted to 
 the little castlj of Demirtash, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Adrianople. An innumerable mul- 
 titude of people had crowded to this place to 
 see the arrival of his majesty, who was car- 
 ried from his chariot to the castle on a sopha ; 
 but Charles, in order to conceal himself from 
 the view of the populace, put a cushion upon his 
 head. 
 
 The Porte was strongly solicited to allow him 
 to reside at Demotica, a little town six leagues 
 from Adrianople, and near the famous river 
 Hebrus, now called Merizza ; but it was not till 
 after several days that they granted his request. 
 * Go,' says Coumourgi to the grand vizier, So- 
 liman, ' and tell the icing of Sweden, that he 
 may stay at Demotica all his life long, if he 
 pleases ; but 1 will answer for him, that, in less 
 than a year, he will want to be gone of his own 
 accord ; take care, however, not to give him any 
 money.' 
 
 Thus was the king conveyed to the little town 
 of Demotica, where the Porte allotted him a 
 considerable quantity of provisions for himself 
 and his retinue. But all the money they would 
 grant him was five-and-twenty crowns a- day, to 
 buy pork and wine, two kinds of provisions which 
 the Turks never furnish to others. The allow- 
 ance of five hundred crowns a-day, which he 
 had enjoyed at Bender, was entirely withdrawn. 
 
 Hardly had he reached Demotica with his 
 little court, when the grand vizier, Soliman, was 
 deposed ; and his place filled by Ibrahim Molla, 
 a man of high spirit, of great courage, and unpo- 
 
246 HISTORY OF 
 
 lished manners. It may not be amiss to give a 
 short sketch of his history, that so the reader may 
 be the better 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 sultan, Achmet III. This emperor fre- 
 quently disguised himself in the habit of a private 
 man, of a priest, or a dervise ; and slipped in 
 the evening into the coffee-houses, and other 
 public places at Constantinople, to hear what the 
 people said of him, and what were their opinions 
 concerning the affairs of state. One day he over- 
 heard this Molla complaining that the Turkish 
 ships never took any prizes, and swearing, that 
 if he were captain of a ship, he would never enter 
 the port of Constantinople without bringing some 
 vessel of the infidels along with him. Next day 
 the grand seignior gave him the command of a 
 ship, and sent him on a cruize. The new captain 
 returned in a few days, with a Maltese bark and 
 a galley of Genoa. In two years time he was 
 appointed captain general of the navy, and at 
 last grand vizier. As soon as he had attained his 
 new post, he thought he could easily dispense 
 with the interest of the favourite. In order to 
 render himself the more necessary, he formed a 
 scheme for commencing a war against the Rus- 
 sians, and with this view pitched a tent not far 
 from the place where the king of Sweden resided. 
 
 He invited his majesty to come and see him, 
 with the new cham of Tartary, and the French 
 ambassador. The king, whose pride rose with 
 his misfortunes, considered it as a most intoler- 
 able affront for a subject to send him an invita- 
 tion. He ordered his chancellor, Mullern, to go 
 in his place ; and, lest the Turks should not pay 
 him that respect which was due to his royal per- 
 
CHARLES Xll. 247 . 
 
 son, or oblige him to condescend to any thing 
 beneath his dignity, Charles, who was ever in 
 extremes, took to his bed, which he resolved not 
 to leave during his abode in Demotica. This 
 resolution he kept up for ten months, under pre- 
 tence of sickness ; chancellor Mullem, GrotLu- 
 sen, and colonel Dubens, being the only persons 
 that were admitted to his table. They had none 
 of the conveniences with which the Franks are 
 usually provided : all these they had lost at 
 Bender ; consequently it could not be expected 
 that their meals were served with much pomp 
 or elegance. In effect, they were obliged to 
 serve themselves ; and, during the whole time, 
 chancellor Mullern was cook in ordinary. 
 
 While Charles XII. was thus passing his time 
 in bed, he received the disagreeable news of the 
 desolation of all his provinces, that lay without 
 the limits of Sweden. 
 
 General Steinbock, who had rendered himself 
 illustrious by chasing the Danes out of Scania, 
 and beating their best troops with a parcel of 
 peasants, still maintained the glory of the Swedish 
 arms. He defended Pomerania, Bremen, and 
 the king's possessions in Germany, as long as he 
 was able ; but could not hinder the combined 
 army 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 re- 
 duced to ashes ; and the garrison obliged to sur- 
 render at discretion, before Steinbock could come 
 to their assistance. 
 
 This general, who had about twelve thousand 
 men, of whom the 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 Gadcsbush, near a river of the 
 
t48 HISTORY OF 
 
 same name. It was on the 20th of December, 
 1712, that he came in sight of the Danes and 
 Saxons. He was separated from them by a 
 morass. The enemy were so posted as to have 
 this morass in front, and a wood in their rear : 
 they had the advantage of number and situa- 
 tion ; and their camp was utterly inaccessible^ 
 except across the morass, which the Swedes could 
 not pass without being exposed to the fire of the 
 enemy's artillery. 
 
 Notwithstanding these difficulties, Steinbock 
 passed the morass at the head of his troops, ad- 
 vanced against the enemy in order of battle, and 
 began one of the most desperate and bloody en- 
 gagements which ever happened between these 
 rival nations* After a sharp conflict for three hours> 
 the Danes and Saxons were entirely routed, and 
 obliged to quit the field of battle. 
 
 It was in this battle that a son of Augustus, by 
 the counte&s of Koningsmark, known by the 
 name of count Saxe, served his apprenticeship in 
 the art of war. This is the same count Saxe, wha 
 had afterwards the honour to. be chosen duke oi 
 Cotirland, and who wanted nothing but power to 
 put himself in possession of the most incontesta- 
 ble right which any man can have to sovereignty 
 — I mean the unanimous consent of the people. 
 In fine, this is the man who hath since acquired 
 a more solid glory by saving France at the battle 
 of Fontenoy, conquering Flanders, and meriting 
 the character of the greatest general of the age. 
 He commanded a regiment at Gadesbush, arid 
 bad a horse killed under him. I have heard him 
 say, that all the Swedes kept their ranks ; and 
 that, even after the victory was gained, and the 
 first lines of these brave troops saw their enemies 
 lying dead at their feet, there was not so much 
 as & single Swede that durst stoc^ to strip thena* 
 
CHARLES Xir. 249 
 
 till prayers had been read in the field of battle ; 
 to inflexibly did they adhere to thart strict disci- 
 pline which their king had taught them. 
 
 After the victory, Steinbeck, remembering that 
 the Danes had laid Stade in ashes, resolved to 
 retaliate on Altena, a town belonging to the king 
 of Denmark. Altena standa below Hamburg, 
 on the banks of the Elbe, which can convey ships 
 of considerable burthen into its harbour. The 
 king of Denmark had indulged this town with 
 many privileges, hoping to make it one day a 
 place of great trade : and indeed the industry of 
 the inhabitants, encouraged by the prudent mea- 
 sures of the king, had already laised them to 
 8ueh opulence, that Altena began to be reckoned 
 in the number of rich and commercial cities. 
 Hamburg grew jealous of this rival in trade, and 
 earnestly wished for its destruction. When Stein- 
 bock came in sight of Altena, he sent a trumpet 
 to acquaint the inhabitants, that they might re- 
 tire with as many of their eflfects as they could 
 carry off, for that he meant to raze their town to 
 the foundation. 
 
 The magistrates came and threw themselves 
 at his feet, and offered him a hundred thousand 
 crowns by way of ransom. Steinbeck demanded 
 two hundred thousand. The inhabitants begged 
 that they might ha.ve time, at least, to send to 
 their correspondents at Hamburg, assuring him, 
 that next day the money should be paid him ; 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. The town had no other 
 defence but a poor wooden gate, and a ditch al- 
 ready filled up. The wretched inhabitants were 
 therefore obliged to leave their houses at mid- 
 L2 
 
«50 HISTORY OF 
 
 night, on the 9th of January, 17 13. The Ttgoup 
 of the season, which was then excessive, wa» 
 still further increased by a strong north wind^ 
 which served at once to spread the fiames through 
 the town with greater violence, and to render the 
 miseries of the poor people, who were exposed 
 in the open fields, the more intolerable. Mea 
 and women» weeping and wailing, and bending 
 under their heavy loads, fled to the neighbouring 
 hills, which were covered with snow. The pal- 
 sied old m^n were transported on the shoulder* 
 of the young. Some women, newly delivered,, 
 fled with their teader babes in their arms, and 
 perished together on the naked roek, turning 
 their languishing ey^s towards their dear country^ 
 which was now wrapt in fiames. The Swedes 
 set fire to the town, before the inhabitants had 
 entirely left k. The conflagration continued from 
 midnight till ten in the morning. The houses,^ 
 being mostly of wood, were entirely consumed ;. 
 and the next day there was not the least vestige 
 of the town remaining. 
 
 The aged, the sick,^ and women of tender con- 
 stitutions, who had lodged on the sn&w while 
 their houses were in flames, at last made a shift 
 to crawl to the gates of Hamburg, where they 
 besought the inhabitants, to receive them within, 
 the walls, and thereby to save their lives. But 
 this favour was denied them, because some con- 
 tagious distempers were known lately to have 
 raged in Altena; and the Hamburgers had not 
 so great a regard for the inhabitants, as to run 
 the risk of having their own town infected by ad- 
 mitting such dangerous guests. Thus the greatest 
 part of these unhappy people expired under the 
 walls of Hamburg, calling on Heaven to witness 
 the barbarity of the Swedes, and the still greateff 
 inhumanity of the Ham.burgeBs» 
 
CHARLES XIT. 25t 
 
 Al! Germany exclaimed against this outrage. 
 The ministers and generals of Poland and I)en- 
 snark wrote to count Steinbock, reproaching him 
 with an act of cruelty, committed without neces- 
 sity and incapable of any excuse, which could 
 not fail to provoke heaven and earth against him, 
 
 Steinbock replied, that he never would have 
 pushed matters to such extremities, had it not 
 been with a view to teach the enemies of the 
 ting his master not to make war, for the future, 
 like barbarians, but to pay some regard to tlie 
 laws of nations ; that they had ifilled Pomerania 
 •with their cruelties, laid waste that beautiful ppo- 
 vince, and sold near a hundred thousand of its 
 inhabitants to the Turks ; and that the torches 
 which had laid Altena in ashes, were no more 
 than just reprisals for the red-hot bullets which 
 had destroyed Stade. 
 
 Such was the implacable resentment with 
 which the Swedes and their enemies carried on 
 the war. Had Charles appeared in Pomerania 
 at this time, he might possibly have retrieved his 
 ruined fortune. His armies, though removed at 
 so great a distance from his person, were still 
 animated by his spirit; but the absence of a 
 prince is always prejudicial to his aftairs, and 
 hinders his subjects from making the proper use 
 of their victories. Steinbock lost by piece-meal 
 what he had gained by those signal actions, which 
 at a happier juncture would have been decisive. 
 
 Victorious as he was, he could not prevent the 
 junction of the Russians, Danes, and Saxons. 
 The combined army of these allies seised xj^n 
 his quarters. He lost some troops in several 
 little skirmishes. Two thousand of his men were 
 drowned in passing the Eider, as they were going 
 to their winter quarters in Holstein ; and all 
 these lotises, in a country surrounded on every 
 
252 HISTORY OF 
 
 side by powerful enemi*;s, were utterly irre- 
 parable. 
 
 He endeavoured to deend the duchy of Hol- 
 stein against the Danes; but, notwithstanding 
 all his prudent measures and vigorous efforts, 
 the country was lost, his whole army ruined, and 
 himself taken prisoner. 
 
 Pomerania, all but Stralsund, the Isle of 
 Rugen, and some neighbouring places, being left 
 defenceless, became a prey to the allies, and was 
 sequestered in the hands of the king of Prussia. 
 Bremen was filled with Danish garrisons. At 
 the same time, the Russians over-ran Finland, 
 beat the Swedes, who, being now dispersed and 
 inferior in point of number began to lose that su- 
 periority over their enemies, which they had pos- 
 sessed at the commencement of the war. 
 
 To complete the misfortunes of Sweden, the 
 king resolved to stay at Demotica, and still flat- 
 tered himself with the delusive hopes of obtain- 
 ing assistance from the Turks, in whom he ought 
 no longer to have reposed any confidence. 
 
 Ibrahim Molla, that bold vizier, who had been 
 so obstinately bent on a war with the Russians, 
 in opposition to the favourite, was strangled in 
 one of the passages of the seraglio. 
 
 The place of vizier was become so dangerous, 
 that no one would venture to accept of it ; and 
 of consequence it continued vacant for six months. 
 At last the favouri«te, Ali Co.umourgi, assumed 
 the title of grand vizier. This measure gave a 
 fatal blow to all the hopes of the king of Sweden, 
 who knew Coumourgi so much the better, that he 
 had really been obliged to him for some friendly 
 offices, when the interest of the favourite and that 
 of his majesty happened to coincide. 
 
 Charles had now been eleven months at De- 
 motica, buried in sloth and oblivion. This ex« 
 
CHARLES XII. 253 
 
 trerae indolence succeeding so suddenly to the 
 most violent exercises, had at last given him the 
 disease which he had formerly feigned. The re- 
 port of his death was spread over all Europe. 
 The council of regency, which he had established 
 at Stockholm, when he left his capital, no longer 
 received any dispatches from him. The senate 
 came in a body to the princess Ulrica Eleonora, 
 the king's sister, and entreated her to take the 
 regency into her own hands, during her brother's 
 absence. She accepted the proposal : but, finding 
 that the senate intended to force her to make a 
 peace with the czar and the king of Denmark, 
 and well knowing that her brother would never 
 approve of such a measure, she resigned the 
 regency, and wrote a full and circumstantial 
 account of the whole matter to the king in 
 Turkey. 
 
 Charles received his sister's packet at Demo- 
 tica. The arbitrary principles which he had 
 sucked in with his mother's milk, made him for- 
 get that Sweden had formerly been a free state, 
 and that, in ancient times, the management of 
 public affairs was conducted by the king and 
 senate, in conjunction. He considered that re- 
 spectable body as no better than a parcel of 
 menial servants, who wanted to usurp the com- 
 mand of the house in their master's absence. He 
 wrote to them, that if they pretended 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 attempts (as he 
 thought them) upon his authority in Sweden, 
 and to defend his kingdom now in the last 
 extremity, deprived of all hopes of assistance 
 from the Ottoman Porte, and relying on himself 
 alone, he signified to the grand vizier his desire 
 
254 HISTORY OF 
 
 of departing, and returning by the way of Ger- 
 many. 
 
 M. Desaleurs, the French ambassador, who 
 was charged with the affairs of Sweden, made 
 the proposal. ' Well,* said the vizier to count 
 Desaleurs, * did not I tell you, that in less than 
 a year the king of Sweden would beg it as a fa- 
 vour to be allowed to depart ? Tell him he may 
 either go or stay as he pleases ; but let him come 
 to a fixed resolution, and appoint the day of hia 
 departure, that he may not again bring us into 
 Buch another scrape as that of Bender.* 
 
 Count Desaleurs softened the harshness of this 
 answer, when he reported it to the king. The 
 day was accordingly fixed ; but, before he would 
 quit Turkey, Charles resolved to display the 
 pomp of a great king, though involved in all the 
 difficulties of a fugitive prince. He gave Gro» 
 thusen the title of his ambassador extraordinary, 
 and sent him with a retinue of eighty persons, 
 all richly dressed, to take his leave in form at the 
 Porte. 
 
 The splendour of this embassy was only ex- 
 ceeded by the meanness of the shifts which the 
 king was obliged to employ, in order to collect a 
 sum of money sufficient to defray the expense 
 of it. 
 
 M. Desaleurs lent him forty thousand crowns. 
 Grothusen 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 merchant, and a 
 thousand livres of a Turk. 
 
 By these means they procured wherewithal to 
 enable them to act the splendid farce of the 
 Swedish embassy before the divan. Grothusen 
 received at the Porte all the honours that are 
 usually paid to ambassadors extraordinary on the 
 
CHARLES XII. «55 
 
 day of their audience The design of all this 
 parade was only to obtain money from the grand 
 vizier ; but that minister was inexorable. 
 
 Grothnsen made a proposal for borrowing a 
 million from the Porte. The vizier answered 
 coldly, that his master knew how to give, when 
 he thought proper, but that it was beneath his 
 dignity to lend ; that the king should be sup- 
 plied with plenty of every thing necessary for 
 his journey, in a manner worthy of the person 
 that sent him back ; and that the Porte, per- 
 haps, might even make him a present in gold 
 bullion, though he would not have him depend 
 upon it for certain. 
 
 At last, on the Ist day of October, 1714, the 
 king of Sweden set out on his journey. A capigi 
 basha, with six chiaoux, came to attend him 
 from the castle of Demirtash, where he had re- 
 sided for some days past. The basha presented 
 him, in t'he name of the grand seignior, with a 
 large tent of scarlet, embroidered with gold ; a 
 sabre, whose handle was set with jewels ; and 
 eight beautiful Arabian horses, with fine saddles, 
 and stirrups of massy gold. It is not beneath 
 the dignity of history to observe, that the Arabian 
 groom who took care of the horses gave the king 
 an account of their genealogy ; a custom which 
 hath long prevailed among these people, who 
 seem to be more attentive totlie nobility of horses 
 than of men ; which after all, perhaps, is not so 
 unreasonable, as these animals, if the breed is 
 kept free from intermixture, are never known to 
 degenerate. 
 
 The convoy consisted of sixty loaded waggons, 
 and three hundred horse. 1 he capigi basha, 
 being informed tliat several Turks had lent 
 money to the king of Sweden's attendants at an 
 immoderate interest, told his majesty that usury 
 
956 HISTORY OF 
 
 was forbidden by the Mahometan law; he there- 
 fore entreated him to liquidate all these debts, 
 and to order his resident at Constantinople to pay 
 no more than the capital. ' No,' says the king, 
 * if any of my servants have given bills for aa 
 hundred crowns, I will pay them, though they 
 should not even have received ten.' 
 
 He made a proposal to his creditors to follow 
 him, assuring them, at the same time, that he 
 would not only pay their debts, but likewise in- 
 demnify them for the expense of the journey. 
 Several of them went to Sweden, and Grothusen 
 was commissioned to see them paid. 
 
 In order to shew the greater deference to their 
 royal guest, the Turks made him travel by very 
 short stages : but this slow and respectful mo- 
 tion 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 chiaoux, and began to 
 march in the dark. The Turkish gravity was 
 affronted with this new manner of travelling ; 
 but Charles took pleasure in making them uneasy, ' 
 and said, that he should at least be a little re- 
 venged on them, for their behaviour to him at 
 Bender. 
 
 About the time that Charles reached the fron- 
 tiers of Turkey, Stanislaus was leaving them, 
 though by a different road, and going into Ger- 
 many, with a view of retiring into the duchy of 
 Deux-Ponts, a province bordering on the palati- 
 nate of Alsace and the Rhine, and which has be- 
 longed to the kings of Sweden ever since Charles 
 X. the successor of Christina, united it to his 
 crown. Charles assigned Stanislaus the revenue 
 of this duchy, which was then valued at about 
 seventy thousand crowns. Such was the final 
 
CHARLES XII. 257 
 
 result of so many projects, wars, and expecta- 
 tions ! Stanislaus both could and would have 
 concluded an advantageous treaty with Augustus, 
 had not the inflexible obstinacy of Charles made 
 him lose his lands and real estate in Poland, ia 
 order to preserve the empty title of king. 
 
 This prince continued to reside in the duchy 
 of Deux- Fonts till the death of Charles Xll. 
 when that province returning to a prince of the 
 palatinate family, he chose to retire to VVissem- 
 burg, a place belonging to the French in Alsace. 
 M. Sum, Augustus's envoy, entered a complaint 
 on this head to the duke of Orleans, regent of 
 France. The duke made him this remarkable 
 answer : ' Sir, let the king your master know, 
 that France hach never refused an asylum to 
 kings in distress.' 
 
 VVhen the king of Sweden arrived on the fron- 
 tiers of Germany, he had the pleasure to hear, that 
 the emperor had given strict o'ders to receive 
 him in every part of his dominions with abecoming 
 magnificence. The towns and villages, through 
 which the quarter-masters had previously fixed 
 his route, made great preparations for receiving 
 him : every one burned with impatience to see 
 this extraordinary man, whose victories and mis- 
 fortunes, whose most trifling actions, and even 
 his keeping his bed, had made so great a noise 
 in Europe and Asia ; but Charles had no incli- 
 nation to bear the fatigue of all this pomp and 
 pageantry, or to exhibit as a public spectacle the 
 prisoner of Bender. On the contrary, he had 
 resolved never to re-enter Stockholm, until he 
 should have repaired his losses by a change of 
 fortune. 
 
 As soon as he arrived at Targowitz, on the 
 confines of Transylvania, he took leave of his 
 Turkish convoy ; and then assembling his attend- 
 
258 HISTORY OF 
 
 ants in a barn, he told them not to give them- 
 selves any concern about him, but to proceed 
 with all possible expedition to Stralsund in Po- 
 merania, on the. coast of the Baltic, distant from 
 Targowitz about three hundred leagues. 
 
 He took nobody Avith him bur, two officers, 
 Rosen and During, and parted cheerfully with 
 the rest of his attendants, who were filled with 
 astonishment, sorrow, and apprehension. Byway 
 of disguise, he put on a black wig, concealing his 
 own hair, which he always wore underneath it, a 
 gold laced hat, a grey toat, and blue cloak ; and, 
 assuming the name of a German officer, rode post 
 with his two fellow-travellers. 
 
 He shunned, as much as possible, the territo- 
 ries of his secret or declared enemies, taking the 
 road through Hungary, Moravia, Austria. Bava- 
 ria, Wirtemberg, the Palatinate, Westphalia, 
 and Mecklenburg ; by which means he almost 
 made the complete tour of Germany, and length- 
 ened his journey by one half. Having rode the 
 whole first day, without intermission, young 
 During, who was not so much inured to these ex- 
 cessive fatigues, fainted away as he was dismount- 
 ing. The king, who was determined not to halt 
 a moment by the road, asked During, as soon 
 as he had recovered, how much money he had? 
 • About a thousand crowns in gold,' replies Dur- 
 ing. ' Then give me one half of it.' says the 
 ling : * I see you are not able to follow me — 1 
 shall finish the journey by myself.' During 
 begged ha would be so good as to tarry but for 
 three hours, assuring him, that by that time he 
 should be able to remount his horse and attend 
 his majesty, and entreated him to reflect on the 
 imminent dangers to which he would expose him- 
 self by travelling alone. The king was inexora- 
 ble. He made him give him the five hundred 
 
CHARLES XII. 259 
 
 crowns, and called for horses. During, startled 
 at this resolution, bethought himself of an inno- 
 cent stratagem- He took the post- master aside, 
 and pointing to the king — ' This gentleman,' says 
 he, ' is my cousin : we are going together upon 
 the same business : he sees that i am indisposed, 
 and yet he will not wait for me but for three 
 hours : pray give him the worst horse in jour 
 stable, and let me have a chariot, or post-chaise.* 
 
 He slipped two ducats into the post-master's 
 hand, who punctually obeyed his orders. The 
 king had a lame and restive horse, upon which 
 he set out alone at ten at night, amidst darkness, 
 snow, wind, and rain. His fellow traveller, after 
 having slept a few hours, began to follow him in 
 a chariot, with good horses. He had not rode 
 many miles, when, at day-break, he overtook the 
 king, who not being able to make his beast move 
 on, was travelling on foot to the next stage. 
 
 Charles was obliged to get into During's 
 chaise, where he slept upon the straw. Thus they 
 continued the journey without intermission, by day 
 on horseback, and sleeping by night in a chaise. 
 
 Having travelled for sixteen days, during 
 which they had more than once been in danger 
 of beings y»ken, they arrived at last, on the 21st 
 of November, 1714, at the gates of Stralsund, 
 about one in the morning. 
 
 The king called out to the centinel, and told 
 him that he was a courier dispatched from Turkey 
 by the king of Sweden, and that he must im- 
 mediately speak with general Uucker, the go- 
 vernor. The centinel said 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 importance, and that, if they did not instantly 
 go and awaken the governor, they should all be 
 
260 HISTORY OF 
 
 punished next morning. At last a Serjeant went 
 and called up the governor. Ducker imagined 
 that it might possibly be oue of the king's gene- 
 rals ; the gates were opened, and the courier in- 
 troduced into the governor's chamber. 
 
 Ducker, who was still half asleep, asked him, 
 * What news of the king of Sweden?' The king, 
 taking him by the arm, 'What,' says he to Ducker, 
 'have my most faithful subjects forgot me V The 
 governor recollected the king, though he could 
 not believe his own eyes ; and, jumping out of 
 bed, em-braced his master's kt.ees with tears of 
 icy. The nev/s of this happy event were spread 
 through the town in a moment. Every body got 
 up. Ihe soldiers flocked about the governor's 
 house. The streets were crowded with people, 
 asking each other whether the king was really 
 come. All the windows were illuminated ; and 
 the conduits ran with wine, amidst the blaze of 
 a thousand flambeaus, and the repeated dis- 
 charges of the artillery. 
 
 Meanwhile the king was put to bed, which was 
 more than he had been for sixteen days before. 
 His legs were so much swollen with the great 
 fatigue be had undergone, that, instead of pull- 
 ing, they were obliged to cut off his boots. As 
 he had neither linen nor clothes, they imme- 
 diately furnished him with such a wardrobe as 
 the town could afford. After he had slept a few 
 hours, he rose and went directly to review his 
 troops, and visit his fortifications ; and that very 
 day he dispatched orders into all parts for renew- 
 ing the war against his enemies with greater 
 vigour than ever. All these particulars which are 
 Eo consistent with the extraordinary character of 
 Charles XII. were first communicated to me by 
 M. Fabricius, and afterwards confirmed by count 
 Croissy, ambassador to the king of Sweden. 
 
CHARLES XII. 261 
 
 Europe was now in a condition very different 
 from that in which it was when Charles left it, 
 in 1709. 
 
 The war, which had so long raged in the south, 
 that is, in Germany, Kngland, Holland, France, 
 Spain, Portugnl and Italy, was now at an end. 
 The general peace which succeeded was owing 
 to some private intrigues in the court of England. 
 The earl of Oxford, an able minister, and lord 
 Bolingbroke, one of the greatest geniuses, and 
 one of the most eloquent orators of the age, had 
 got the better of the duke of Marlborough, and 
 prevailed upon the queen to make a peace with 
 Lewis XIV. France, being no longer at war 
 with England, soon obliged the other powers to 
 come to an accommodation. 
 
 Philip V. the grandson of Lewis XIV. began 
 to reign in peace over the ruins of the Spanish 
 monarchy. The emperor of Germany, now be- 
 come master of Naples and Flanders, was firmly 
 established in his vast dominions : and Lewis 
 XIV. seemed to aim at nothing higher than to 
 finish his long career of glory by a peaceable end. 
 
 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 being in Eng- 
 land at that time to claim the succession, which 
 new laws would have conferred upon him, if his 
 party could have prevailed ; George L elector 
 of Hanover was unanimously acknowledged 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. 
 
 George, advanced in years when he was called 
 to reign over a people whose language he did not 
 
268 HISTORY OF 
 
 understand, and to whom he was an 
 stranger, he considered himself rather as elector 
 of Hanover than king of England. All his am- 
 bition was to aggrandize bis German dominions. 
 He commonly went once a year to visit his here- 
 ditary subjects, by whom he was adored. In 
 other respects, he took more pleasure in living 
 like a private man, than like a mighty sovereign. 
 The pomp of royalty appeared to him an insup- 
 portable burden. He passed his time with a few 
 old courtiers, with whom he lived in great fami- 
 liarity. 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 knew how to enjoy on a throne 
 the pleasures of friendship and private life. Such 
 were the principal n)onarchs, and such the situa- 
 tion of the south of Europe - 
 
 The revolutions that happened in the North 
 were of another nature. The kings in that part 
 of the world were engaged in war, and leagued 
 together against the king of Sweden. 
 
 Augustus had been long restored to the throne 
 of Poland by the assistance of the czar, and with 
 the joint consent of the emperor of Germany, of 
 Anne of England, and of the states-general, who, 
 though guarantees of the treaty of Altranstad, 
 when Charles Xll. was able to impose laws, 
 thought themselves absolved from that obligation, 
 when they had nothing more to fear from him. 
 
 But Augustus did not enjoy an undisturbed 
 authority. No sooner was he restored to the 
 throne, than the people's apprehensions of arbi- 
 trary power began to revive. 'I'he whole natiou 
 was in arms to oblige him to conform to the pacta 
 conveiita, a sacred contract between the king and 
 people, who seemed to have recalled their sove- 
 reign for no other purpose than to declare war 
 
CHARLES XII. 263 
 
 against hira. In the beginning of these troubles, 
 the name of Stanislaus was not once mentioned : 
 his party seemed to be annihilated ; and the 
 Poles retained no other remembrance of the 
 king of Sweden than as of a torrent, which, in 
 in the violence of its course, had occasioned a 
 temporary change in the face of nature. 
 
 Pultowa and the absence of Charles XII. had 
 occasioned the fall not onlj of Stanislaus, but 
 also of the ihike of Molstein, Charles's nephew, 
 who had lately been despoiled of his dominions 
 by the king of Denmark. The king of Swedea 
 had a sincere regard for the father, and, of con- 
 sequence, could not fail to be deeply aflfected 
 with the misfortunes of the son : the rather, as, 
 glory being the end ot all his actions, the fall of 
 those, piinces, whom he had either made or re- 
 stored, gave him as much pain as the loss of his 
 own provinces. 
 
 Every one was at liberty to enrich himself with 
 the rums of Charles's forttipe. Frederick Wil- 
 liam the new king of Prussia, who seemed to be 
 as fond of war as his father had been of peace, 
 was the first who put in for his share of the spoils. 
 He seized Stetin and part of Pomerania, as an 
 equivalent for four hundred thousand crowns 
 which he had advanced to the czar and the king 
 of Denmark. George, elector of Hanover, now 
 become king of England, had likewise sequestered 
 into his hands the duchy of Bremen and Verden, 
 which the king of Denmark had assigned to him 
 as a deposit for sixty thousand pistoles.* la 
 
 * The English parliament afterwards granted a sum 
 of money to complete the purchase ; and thaa Bremen 
 and Verden were secured to the Honse of Hanover. This 
 acqaisition may be considered as the first link of that 
 political chain, by which Great Britain hath been dragged 
 back and fast bound to the continent. 
 
264 HISTORY OF 
 
 this manner were divided the spoils of Charles 
 XII. and whoever possessed any of his domi- 
 nioES as pledges, became iroiii iheir selfish and 
 interested views, as duiigerous enemies as those 
 who had taken ihem from liim. 
 
 With regard to the czar, he was doubtless the 
 most formidable of all his enemies. His former 
 losses, his victories, his very faults, his unremitted 
 perseverance in acquiring knowledge, and in 
 communicating that knowledge to his subjects, 
 and his incessant labours, had justly entitled him 
 to the character of a great man. Kiga was al- 
 ready taken ; Livonia, Ingria, Carelia, half of 
 Finland, and all the provinces that had been con- 
 quered by Charles's ancestors, were now sub- 
 jected to the Russian yoke. 
 
 Peter Alexiowitz, who, twenty years before.had 
 not a single vessel in the Baltic, now saw himself 
 master of those seas with a fleet of thirty ships 
 of the line. 
 
 One of these ships had.been built by his own 
 Lands. He was the best carpenter, the best ad- 
 miral, and the best pilot in the North. There 
 was not a difficult passage from tbe gulf of Both- 
 nia to the Ocean, which he had not sounded ; 
 and, having thus joined the labours of the common 
 sailor to the curious experiments of a philosopher, 
 and the grand designs of an emperor, he arrived, 
 by degrees and a course of victories, to the rank 
 of admiral, in the same manner as he had be- 
 come a general in the land service. 
 
 While prince Galitzin, a general formed under 
 his auspices, and one of those who seconded his 
 enterprises with the greatest vigour,completedthe 
 reduction of Finland, took the town of Vasa, and 
 beat the Swedes, the emperor put to sea, in order 
 to attempt the con(iuest of Aland, an island in the 
 Baltic, about twelve leagues from Stockholm, 
 
CHARLES Xir. 265 
 
 He set out on this expedition in the be^nning 
 of July, 1714, while his rival Charles Xll. was 
 keeping his bed at Demotica. He embarked at 
 Crouslot, an harbour which lie had built a few 
 years before, about four miles from Petersburg. 
 The new harbour, the fleet, 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. 
 
 On the 15th of July, the Russian fleet, con- 
 sisting of thirty ships of the line, eighty galleys, 
 and a hundred half-galleys, reached the coast 
 of Aland. On board of these ships were twenty 
 thousand soldiers : admiral Apraxin was com- 
 mander-in-chief; and the Kussian emperor 
 served as rear-admiral. On the 16th the Swedish 
 fleet, commanded by vice-admiral Erinchild.came 
 ap with the enemy ; and, though weaker than 
 them by two- thirds, maintained a fight for the 
 space of three hours. The czar attacked the 
 admiral's ship, and took her after a sharp en- 
 gagement. 
 
 The same day he landed sixteen thousand men 
 on the isle of Aland ; and having taken a num- 
 ber of Swedish soldiers, that had not been able 
 to get on board of Erinchild's fleet, he carried 
 them off in his own ships. He returned to his 
 harbour of Cronslot, with Erinchild's large ship, 
 three others of a less size, one frigate, and six 
 galleys, all of which he had taken in this en- 
 gagement. 
 
 From Cronslot he set sail for Petersburg, fol- 
 lowed by his own victorious fleet, and the ships 
 he had taken from the enemy. On his arrival 
 at Petersburg, he was saluted by a triple dis- 
 charge of a hundred and fifty pieces of cannon. 
 He then made a triumphant entry, which flattered 
 M 
 
266 HISTORY OF 
 
 his vanity still more than that at Moscow, as he 
 received these honours in his favourite city, a 
 place where but ten years before there was not a 
 single hut, and where now there were thirty-four 
 thousand five hundred houses ; in a word, as he 
 saw himself at the head not only of a victorious 
 navy but what is more, of the first Russian fleet 
 that had ever appeared in the Baltic, and amidst 
 the acclamations of a people, to whom, before 
 his time, the very name of a fleet was not so 
 much as known. 
 
 The entry into Petersburg was accompanied 
 with much the same ceremonies as that into 
 Moscow. The Swedish vice-admiral was the 
 chief ornament of this new trium ph. Peter Alex- 
 iowitz appeared in the procession as rear-ad- 
 miral. A Russian nobleman, called Romano- 
 dowsky, who commonl, represented the czar 
 on these solemn occasions, was seated on a 
 throne, surrounded with senators. To this noble- 
 man, the rear-admiral presented an account of 
 his victory ; and, in reward of his services, was 
 declared vice-admiral. An odd ceremony, but 
 extremely necessary in a country where mili- 
 tary subordination was one of the novelties which 
 the czar wanted to introduce. 
 
 The emperor of Russia, now victorious over 
 the Swedes by sea and land, and having assisted 
 in expelling them from Pol:ind, began to domi- 
 neer there in his turn. He acted as 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 share of the czar, who, 
 it must be owned, made a better use of these ad- 
 vantages ; for all his successes were so managed, 
 as to contribute to ihe interest of his country. 
 If he took a town, the best artizans in it carried 
 
CHARLES XII. 267 
 
 their familieg and their industry to Petersburg. 
 The manufactures, the arts and sciences of the 
 provinces which he conquered fronn Sweden, were 
 transported into Muscovy. Thus were his do- 
 minions enriched by his victories ; a circum- 
 stance that makes him the most excusable of all 
 conquerors. 
 
 Sweden, on the contrary, despoiled of almost 
 all her foreign provinces, had neither commerce, 
 money, nor credit. Her veteran troops, which 
 were formerly so formidable, bad either fallen in 
 battle, or perished with hunger. Upwards of a 
 hundred thousand Swedes were slaves in the vast 
 dominions of the czar ; and near the same num- 
 ber had been sold to the Turks and Tartars. The 
 human species seemed visibly to decline in the 
 country ; but the kinj- s arrival at Stralsund in- 
 spired them with fresh hopes. 
 
 The respect and admiration which they had 
 formerly entertained for his sacred person, were 
 still so strongly rivetted in the minds of his sub- 
 jects, that the youth came from the country iu 
 crowds, and voluntarily offered to enlist, though 
 there was not a sufficient number of hands left to 
 cultivate the lands. 
 
 BOOK VIII. 
 
 Charles gives his sister in marriage to the prince of Hesse, 
 is besieged in Stralsund, and escapes to Sweden. 
 Schenaes of baron de Gortz liis prime minister. Plan 
 of a reconciliation with the czar, and of a descent upon 
 England. Charles besieges Fiedericshall, in Norway; 
 is killed ; his character. Gortz is beheaded. 
 
 TN the midst of these preparations, the king 
 
 gave his only surviving sister, Ulrica Eleonora, 
 
 in marriage to Frederic, prince of Hesse-Cassel. 
 
 The queen-dowager, grandmother of Charles XII. 
 
268 HISTORY OF 
 
 and the princess, and then in the eightieth year 
 of her age, did the honours of the table at this 
 solemnity, which was celebrated on the 4th of 
 April, 1715, in the palace of Stockholm ; where 
 she died soon after. 
 
 The marriage was not honoured with the pre- 
 sence of the king, who was then employed in 
 finishing the fortifications of Stralsund, a place 
 of great importance, and threatened with a siege 
 by the kings of Prussia and Denmark. Never- 
 theless he made his brother in-law generalissimo 
 of all his foices in Sweden. 'Jliis 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 pro- 
 cure him the sister of Charles XII. in marriage. 
 Charles's misfortunes now came as thick upon 
 him as his victories had formerly done. In the 
 month of June, 1715, the German troops of the 
 king of England, with those of Denmark, invested 
 the strong town of Wismar, while the combined 
 army of the Danes and Saxons, amounting to 
 thirty- six thousand men, marched towards Stral- 
 sund, to form the siege of that place. The kings 
 of Prussia and Denmark sunk five Swedish ships 
 a little off 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 threatened a 
 descent upon Sweden ; one while approaching 
 the coast of Helsimburg, and at another appear- 
 ing before Stockholm. Ail Sweden was in arms 
 upon the coasts, and every moment expected an 
 invasion. At the same time the czar's land forces 
 drove the Swedes from post to post, until they 
 had dispossessed them of all the places they held 
 in Finland, towards the gulf of Bothnia. But 
 Peter pushed his conquests no farther. 
 
CHARLES XII. 269 
 
 At the mouth of the Oder, a river that divides 
 Pomerania in two, and after washing the walls 
 of Stetin falls into the Baltic, lies the little isle 
 of Usedoni, a place of great importance on ac- 
 count of its situation, commanding the Oder both 
 on the right and left; so that whoever is master 
 of the island is likewise master of the navigatioa 
 of the river. The king of Prussia had dislodged 
 the Swedes from this place, and taken possession 
 of it as well as of Stetin, which he kept seques- 
 tered, and all, as he pretended, ' For the sake of 
 peace.' The Swedes had retaken L^sedom in 
 May, 1715. They had two forts in the island ; 
 one of which was the fort of Suine, upon the 
 branch of the Oder, that bore the same name ; 
 the other, a place of greater consequence, was 
 called Pennamonder, and situated upon another 
 branch of that river. To defend these two forts, 
 and indeed the whole island, there were only 
 two hundred and fifty Pomeranians, under the 
 command of an old Swedish officer, called'Kuze 
 Slerp, a man whose name deserves to be immor- 
 talized. 
 
 On the 4th of August, the king of Prussia sent 
 fifteen hundred foot and eight hundred dragoons 
 to make a descent upon the island. They came 
 and landed without opposition near the fort of 
 Suine, which being the least important of the 
 two, the Swedish commander abandoned it to the 
 enemy ; and as he could not safely divide his 
 men, he retired with his little company to the 
 castle of Pennamonder, determined to bold out 
 to the last extremity. 
 
 There was therefore a necessity of besieging it 
 in form ; for which jmrpose a train of artillery 
 was embarked at Stetin, and the Prussian troops 
 were reinforced witii a thousand foot and four 
 hundred horse. On the eighteenth the trenches 
 
270 HISTORY OF 
 
 were opened in two places, and the foTt was 
 briskly battered with cannon and mortars. Dur- 
 ing the siege, a Swedish soldier, who was sent 
 privately with a letter from Charles XII. found 
 means to land on the island, and to slip into the 
 fort. The letter he delivered to the commander. 
 The purport was as follows : — ' Do not fire till 
 the enemy come to the brink of the fosse. De- 
 fend the place to the last extremity. I commend 
 you to your good fortune. Charles.' 
 
 Slerp, having read the note, resolvea to obey, 
 and to lay down his life, as he was ordered, for 
 the service of his master. On the 22d at day- 
 break the assault was given. The besieged, 
 having kept in their fire till they saw the enemy 
 on the brink of the fosse, killed an immense num- 
 ber of them. But the ditch was full, the breach 
 large, and the assailants too numerous ; so that 
 they entered the castle at two different places at 
 once. The commander now thought of nothing 
 but oftselling his life dear, and obeying his mas- 
 ter's orders. He abandoned the breaches through 
 which the enemy entered ;. intrenched his little 
 company, who had all ihe courage and fidelity 
 to follow him behind a bastion, and posted them 
 in such a manner that they could not be sur- 
 rounded. The enemy came up to him, and were 
 greatly surprised that he did not ask for quarter. 
 He fought for a complete hour ; and, after having 
 lost the half of his men, was at last killed him- 
 self, together with his lieutenant and major. 
 Upon this the surviving few, amounting to a hun- 
 dred soldiers, and one officer, begged their lives, 
 and were made prisoners of war. Charles's let- 
 ter was found in the commander's pocket, and 
 carried to the king of Prussia. 
 
 At the time that Charles lost Usedom, and the 
 neighbouring isles, which were quickly taken ; 
 
CHARLES XII. 271 
 
 while Wismar was ready to surrender, and 
 Sweden, destitute of a fleet, was daily threatened 
 with an invasion, he himself was in Stralsund, 
 besieged with an army of thirty six thousandmen. 
 
 Stralsund, a town famous over all Europe for 
 the siege which the king of Sweden sustained 
 there, is the strongest place in Pomerania ; and 
 is situated between the Baltic and the lake of 
 Franken, near the streights of Gella. It is inac- 
 cessible by land, except by a narrow causeway, 
 defended by a citadel, and by fortifications which 
 were thought to be impregnable. There was in 
 it a garrison of about nine thousand men, and 
 what was more than all, the king of Sweden him- 
 self. The kings of Prussia and Denmark under- 
 took 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 opened the trenches in the 
 night between the 19th and !^Oth of October, 
 1715. The king of Sweden declared, at the be- 
 ginning of the siege, that, for his own part, he 
 could not comprehend, how a place well fortified, 
 and provided with a sufficient garrison, could 
 possibly 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 carried all before it : besides, 
 he never judged of other people by himself ; but 
 always entertained too low an opinion of his 
 enemies. 'Jhe besiegers carried on their works 
 with surprising vigour and resolution, and were 
 greatly assisted by a very singular accident. 
 
 It is well known that the Baltic Sea neither 
 ebbs nor flows. The fortifications which covered 
 the town, and which were defended on the west 
 
272 HISTORY OF 
 
 by an impassable morass, and by the sea on tbe 
 east, seemed to be secure from any assault. It 
 bad hitherto escaped the observation of every 
 one, that when the west wind blows strong, the 
 waves of the Baltic are driven back in such a 
 manner as to leave but three feet depth of water 
 under the fortifications, which had always been 
 supposed to be washed by a branch of the sea, 
 so deep as to be utterly impassable. A soldier, 
 having fallen from the top of the fortifications 
 into the sea, was surprised to find a bottom ; 
 and, thinking that this discovery might make his 
 fortune, he deserted, and went to the quarters of 
 count Wackerbath, the Saxon general, to inform 
 him that the sea was fordable, and that he might 
 easily penetrate to the Swedish fortifications. It 
 was not long before the king of Prussia availed 
 himself of this piece of intelligence. 
 
 Next night, about twelve o'clock, the west wind 
 still continuing to blow, lieutenant colonel Kop- 
 pen entered ihe water with eighteen hundred 
 men. At the same time two thousand advanced 
 upon the causeway that led to the fort ; all the 
 Prussian artillery fired, and the Danes and Prus- 
 sians gave an alarm on the other side. 
 
 The Swedes thought they could easily repulse 
 the two thousand men whom they saw advancing 
 with so much apparent rashness upon the cause- 
 way; but all of a sudden, Koppen, with his 
 eighteen hundred men, entered the fort on the 
 side towards the sea. The Swedes, surrounded 
 and surprised, could make no resistance ; and the 
 post was carried after a terrible slaughter. Some 
 of the Swedes fled to 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 
 
CHARLES XII. 273 
 
 men were taken, and the town saved for that 
 time. 
 
 There were found in the fort twenty-four pieces 
 ofcannon, which were immediately turned against 
 Stralsund. The siege was pushed with such vi- 
 gour and resolution as this success could not fail 
 to inspire. The town was cannonaded and bom- 
 barded without intermission. 
 
 Opposite to Stralsund, in the Baltic Sea, lies 
 the isle of Rugen, which serves as a bulwark to 
 that place, and into which the garrison and citi- 
 zens might have retired, could they have found 
 boats to transport them thither. This island was 
 of the last importance to Chacles. He plainly 
 perceived, that should it fall into the hands of the 
 enemy, he would be immediately besieged both 
 by sea and land, and perhaps reduced to so great 
 extremities, that he must either bury himself in 
 the ruins of iStralsund, or else become a prisoner 
 to those very enemies whom he had so long de- 
 spised, and upon whom he had imposed the most 
 severe and rigorous terms. But, notwithstanding 
 these gloomy prospects, such was the wretched 
 situation of his affairs, that he had not been able 
 to place a sufficient garrison in Rugen, where, in 
 effect, there were no more than two thousand men. 
 
 His enemies had been employed for three 
 months past in making all the necessary prepa- 
 rations for a desct nt upon this island ; and hav- 
 ing at last finished a great number of boats, the 
 prince of Anhalt, favoured by the goodness of 
 the weather, landed twelve thousand men upon 
 Rugen. on the loth of November. The king, 
 who seemed to be every where present, was then 
 in the island, having lately joined his two thoU' 
 sand men, who were intrenched near a small 
 harbour, three leagues from the place where the 
 oiemy had landed. He put himself at the head 
 M 2 
 
874 HISTORY OF 
 
 of this little troop, and, observing the most pro- 
 found silence, advanced at midnight towards the 
 foe. The prince of Anhalt had already intrenched 
 his forces, a precaution which seemed altogether 
 unnecessary. The inferior officers never dreamed 
 of being attacked the very first night, as they 
 imagined Charles to be at Stralsund; but the 
 prince of Anhalt, who well knew what incredible 
 things Charles was capable of attempting, had 
 caused a deep fosse to be sunk, fenced with che- 
 vaux de frise ; and indeed took all his measures 
 with as much circumspection, as if he had had 
 a superior army to contend with. 
 
 At two in the morning Charles reached the 
 enemy's camp without making the least noise. 
 His soldiers said to each other— 'Come, let U3 
 pull up the chevaux de frise.' These words being 
 overheard by the centinels, the alarm was in- 
 stantly given in the camp, and the enemy stood 
 to their arms. The king, taking up the chevaux 
 de frise, perceived a deep ditch before him. ' Ah 1* 
 says he, ' is it possible 1 this is more than I ex- 
 pected.' However, this unexpected event did not 
 disconcert him. He was alike ignorant of the 
 number of the enemy, and they of his. The dark- 
 ness of the night seemed, to favour the boldness 
 of the attempt. He formed his resolution in a 
 moment, and jumped into the ditch, accompanied 
 by the bravest of his men, and instantly followed 
 by all the rest. The chevaux de frise, which were 
 presently 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 sol- 
 diers, mounted upon the shoulders of others, as in 
 an assault. The fight began in the enemy's camp. 
 The irresistible impetuosity of the Swedes soon 
 
CHARLES XII. 275 
 
 threw the Danes and Prussians into confusion j 
 but the numbers were too unequally matched. 
 After a keen diipute for a quarter of an hour, the 
 Swedes were repulsed, and obliged to repass the 
 fosse. The prince of Anhalt pursued them into 
 the plain, liclle thinking it was Charles XII, that 
 fled before him. The unhappy monarch rallied 
 bis troops in the open field, and the battle was re- 
 newed with equal fury on both sides. Groihusen, 
 the king's favourite, and general DardofF, fell 
 dead at his feet. In the heat of ihe fight Charles 
 passed over the body of the latter, who was still 
 breathing ; and During, who had accompanied 
 bim in his journey from Turkey to Stralsund, was 
 killed before his face. 
 
 In the midst of the fray, a Danish lieutenant, 
 •whose name I have not been able to learn, knew 
 the king ; and seizing his sword with one hand, 
 and with the other dragging him by the hair — ■ 
 * Surrender yourself,' said he, ' or you are a dead 
 man.' The king drew a pistol from his belt, and, 
 with his left hand, fired at the 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 received a musket 
 shot below his left breast. The wound, which he 
 called a contusion, was two fingers deep. Charles 
 was on foot, and in the most imminent danger of 
 being killed or taken prisoner. At that critical 
 moment count Pouiatowsky fought near his ma- 
 jesty'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, by putting him on his horse. 
 
 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 passed 
 over to Stralsund, obliged to abandon bis brave 
 
976 HISTORY OF 
 
 troops who had so courageously assisted him in 
 this daring enterprise, and who two days after 
 were all made prisoners of wa-r. 
 
 Among the prisoners was that unhappy French 
 regiment, composed of the shattered remains of 
 the battle of Hochstet, which had entered into the 
 service of Augustus, and afterwards into that of 
 the king of Sweden. Most of the soldiers were 
 now incorporated in anew regiment, commanded 
 by the prince of Anhalt's son, who was their 
 fourth master. 
 
 The commander of this wandering regiment ia 
 the isle of Rugen, was the same count de Ville- 
 longue who had so nobly exposed his life at Adri- 
 anople to serve king Charles XII. He was taken 
 prisoner with his men, and but poorly rewarded 
 in the sequel for all his services, labours, and suf- 
 ferings. 
 
 After all these prodigies of valour, which tend- 
 ed only to weaken his forces, the king, shut up ia 
 Stralsuud, which was every moment in danger of 
 being stormed, behaved in much the same man- 
 ner as he had done at Bender. Unappalled by so 
 many surrounding dangers, he emplo}'ed the day 
 in making ditches and intrenchments behind the 
 walls, and by night he sallied out upon the enemy. 
 Meanwhile Siralsund was battered m breach : ths 
 bombs fell thick as hail upon the houses, and half 
 the town was reduced to ashes. The citizens were 
 80 far from complaining, that, filled with the high- 
 est veneration for their royal master, whose vigi- 
 lance, temperance, and courage, they could not 
 sufficiently admire, they were all become soldiers 
 under him. They accompanied him in all his sal- 
 lies, and served him in place of a second garrison. 
 
 One day as the king was dictating some letters 
 to his secretary that were to be sent to Sweden, a 
 bomb fell ou the house, pierced the roof, and 
 
CHARLES XII. 277 
 
 burst near the royal apartment. One half of the 
 floor was shattered to pieces ; but the closet in 
 which the king was, being partly surrounded by 
 a thick wall, received no damage ; and, what was 
 remarkably fortunate, none of the splinters that 
 flew about in the air, came in at the closet door, 
 which happened to be open. The report of the 
 bomb, and the crashing noise it occasioned in the 
 house, which seemed ready to tumble about their 
 ears, made the secretary drop his pen. — ' What 
 is the reason,' says the king, with great composure, 
 ' that you do not write V 1 he poor secretary could 
 only bring out with a faultering voice, ' The bomb, 
 sir.' — ' Well,' replies the king, ' and what Las 
 the bomb to do with the letter I am dictating 1 
 Go on.' 
 
 There was, at that time, an ambassador of 
 France shut up with Charles in Stralsund. This 
 was one Colbert, count de Croissy, a lieutenant- 
 general in the French army, brother to the mar- 
 quis de Torcy, the famous minister of state, and 
 a relation of the celebrated Colbert, whose name 
 ought never to be forgotten in France. To send 
 a man on an embassy to Charles XII. or into 
 trenches, was much the same. The king would 
 talk with Croissy for hours together in places of 
 the greatest danger, while the soldiers were fall- 
 ing on every side of them by the fire of the bombs 
 and cannon : Charles, in all appearance insensible 
 of the risk he run, and the ambassador not choos- 
 ing to give his majesty so much as a hint that there 
 •were more places to talk of business. This mi- 
 nister exerted his utmost efforts, before the siege 
 commenced, to effect an accommodation between 
 the kings of Sweden and Prussia ; but the de- 
 mands of the latter were too high, and the former 
 would make no concessions. So that the count 
 de Crobsy derived no other advantage from his 
 
278 HISTORY OF 
 
 embassy to Charles XII. tlian the pleasure of being 
 intimately acquainted with that extraordinary 
 man. He frequently lay by his majesty upon the 
 same cloak ; and, by sharing with him in all his 
 dangers and fatigues, had acquired a right of talk- 
 ing to him with greater freedom. Charles en- 
 couraged this boldness in those he loved ; and 
 would sometimes say to the count de Croissy, 
 Veni, maledicamns de rege: 'Come, now let us 
 make a little free with the character of Charles 
 XII.' This account I had from the ambassador 
 himself. 
 
 Croissy continued in the town till the 13th of 
 November, when, having obtained from the enemy 
 a passport for himself and his baggage, he took 
 his leave of the king, who still remain^'d amidst 
 the ruins of Stralsund, with a garrison diminished 
 by one half, but firmly resolved to stand an assault. 
 
 And two days after, an assault was actually 
 made upon the horn-work. Twice did the enemy 
 take it, and twice were they repulsed. In this 
 rencounter the king fought amidst his grenadiers j 
 but at last superior numbers prevailed, and the 
 enemy remained masters of the place. Charles 
 continued in the town two days after this, expect- 
 ing 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. 
 Next day the principal officers conjured him to 
 quit a place which he could no longer defend : but 
 to retreat was now become as dangerous as to stay. 
 The Baltic was covered with Russian and Danish 
 ships. There were no vessels in the harbour of 
 Stralsund, but one small bark with sails and oars. 
 The great danger which rendered this retreat so 
 glorious, was the very thing that prompted Charles 
 to attempt it. He embarked at midnight on the 
 20th of December^ 1715, accompanied by ten 
 
CHARLES XTI. 279 
 
 persons only. They were obliged to break the 
 ice with which the water of the harbour was 
 covered ; a hard and laborious task, which they 
 were forced to continue for several hours before 
 the bark could sail freely. The enemy's admirals 
 had strict orders not to allow Charles to escape 
 from Straisund, but to take him, dead or alive. 
 Happily for him they were under wind and could 
 not come near him. He ran a still greater risk in 
 passing by a place called la Babetie, 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 and plyed every 
 oar in order to get clear of the enemy : but two 
 men were killed at the king's side by one cannon 
 ball, and the ship's mast was shattered by another. 
 Through all these dangers, however, did the king 
 escape unhurt, and at last came up with two of 
 his own ships that were cruising in the Baltic. 
 Next day Straisund was surrendered, and the 
 garrison made prisoners of war. Charles landed 
 at Isled in Scania, and forthwith repaired to 
 Carlscroon, in a condition very different from 
 what he was in, when, about fifteen years be- 
 fore, he set sail from that harbour in a ship of a 
 hundred and twenty guns, to give laws to the 
 North. 
 
 As he was so near his capital, it was expected 
 that, after so long an absence, he would pay it a 
 visit ; but he was determined not to enter it agaia 
 till he had obtained some signal victory. Besides, 
 he could not bear the thoughts of revisiting a peo- 
 ple by whom he was beloved, and whom never- 
 theless he was obliged to oppress, in order to 
 enable him to make head against his enemies. He 
 wanted only to see his sister, with whom he ap- 
 pointed an interview on the banks of the lake 
 Weter, in Ostrogothia, Thither he rode post» 
 
280 HISTORY OF 
 
 attended only by one servant ; and, after having 
 spent a day with her, returned to Carlscroon. 
 
 From this place, where he passed the winter, he 
 issued out orders for raising recruits through the 
 whole kingdom. He thought that his subjects 
 were born for no other purpose than to follow him 
 to the field of battle, and he had actually accus- 
 tomed them to entertain the same opinion. Some 
 were enlisted who were not above fifteen years 
 of age. In several villages there were none left 
 but old men, women, and children ; and in many 
 places the women were obliged to plough the 
 land alone. 
 
 It was still more difficult to procure a fleet. In 
 order to supply that defect as well as possible, 
 commissions were granted to the owners of pri- 
 vateers, who, upon obtaining certain privileges, 
 unreasonable in themselves, and destructive to 
 the community, equipped a few ships ; and these 
 poor efforts were the last that the declining state 
 of Sweden was now capable of making. To de- 
 fray the expenses of all these preparations, there 
 was a necessity for encroaching upon the pro- 
 perty of the subject ; and every kind of extortion 
 was practised under the specious name of taxes 
 and duties. Strict search was made into every 
 house, and one half of the provisions that were 
 found in them was conveyed to the king's maga- 
 zines. All the iron in the kingdom was bought 
 up for his use : this the government paid for in 
 paper, and sold it out for ready money. A tax 
 was laid on all such as had any mixture of silk 
 in their clothes, or wore periwigs or gilded swords ; 
 and the duty of hearth-money was immoderately 
 high. 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 
 
CHARLES XII. 281 
 
 frugal than himself : so that every one submitted 
 cheerfully to those hardships which the king waa 
 the lirst to suffer. 
 
 All sense of private misfortunes was swallowed 
 up in the apprehension of public danger. The 
 Swedes expected every moment to see their 
 country invaded by the Russians, the Danes, the 
 Prussians, the Saxons, and even by the English ; 
 and the fear of this hostile visit was so strong 
 and prevalent, that those who had money or 
 valuable effects, took care to bury them in the 
 earth. 
 
 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 in the spring of 1716, the 
 Russians should join the Danes, in order to 
 make a descent upon Sweden. 
 
 But how great was the astonishment of all 
 Europe, ever attentive to the fortune of Charles 
 XIL, when instead of defending his own country, 
 which was threatened with an invasion by so 
 many princes, they saw him, in the month of 
 March, 1716, passing over into Norway, with 
 twenty thousand men. 
 
 From the time of Hannibal to that of Charles 
 XII. the world had never seen any general who, 
 unable to make head against his enemies at 
 home, had boldly carried the war into the heart 
 of their own dominions. 
 
 The prince of Hesse, his brother-in-law, at- 
 tended him in this expedition. 
 
 There is no travelling from Sweden to Norway 
 but through the most dangerous by-ways ; and, 
 when these are past, one meets with so many 
 flashes of water formed by the sea amongst the 
 rocks, that there is a necessity for making bridges 
 every day. A handful of Danes might have 
 
982 HISTORY OF 
 
 stopped the progress of the whole Swedish army; 
 but this sudden invasion had not been foreseen, 
 Europe was still more astonished to see the czar, 
 amidst all these mighty events, remaining in- 
 active, and not making a descent upon Sweden, 
 as had formerly been stipulated between him 
 and his allies. 
 
 This inactivity was owing to one of the greatest 
 and roost difficult schemes that ever was formed 
 bj the mind of man. 
 
 Henry de Gortz, a native of Franconia, and 
 Baron of the empire, having done sevesal good 
 offices to the king of Sweden, during that mon- 
 arch's abode at Bender, was now become his 
 favourite, and first minister. 
 
 Never man was at once so bold and so artful 9 
 so full of expedients amidst misfortunes ; so un- 
 bounded in his designs, or so active in the pro- 
 secution of them. No project too great for his 
 daring genius to attempt ; no means 100 difficult 
 for his sagacity and penetration to discover ; in 
 pursuing his favourite schemes he was equally- 
 prodigal of presents and promises, of oaths, of 
 truth and of falsehood. 
 
 From Sweden he went to France, England, and 
 Holland, to examine those secret springs which 
 he afterwards meant to put in motion. He was 
 capable of throwing all Europe into combustion; 
 and his inclination was equal to his power. What 
 his master was at the head of an army, that was 
 de Gortz in the cabinet ; by which means he 
 had acquired a greater ascendant over Charles 
 Xn. than any minister before him had ever pos- 
 sessed. 
 
 Charles, who at twenty years of age had pre- 
 scribed orders to count Piper, was now content 
 to receive instructions from baron de Gortz, re- 
 signing himself to the direction of that minister 
 
CHARLES XII. 283 
 
 •vith so mucb the less reserve, as his misfortunes 
 obliged him to listen to the advice of others, and 
 as Gortz never gave him any but such as was 
 suitable to his undaunted courage. He observed, 
 that of all the sovereigns united against Sweden, 
 George, elector of Hanover, and king of England, 
 was the prince against whom Charles was most 
 highly incensed ; because he was the only one to 
 whom he had ever done the least injury ; and be» 
 cause George had engaged in the quarrel under 
 the pretext of compromising matters, but in re- 
 ality with a view of preserving Bremen and Ver- 
 den, to which he seemed to have no other right 
 than that of having bought them for a trifle from 
 the king of Denmark, to whom after all, they did 
 not belong. 
 
 Nor was it long before he discovered that the 
 czar was secretly dissatisfied with his allies, who 
 bad all conspired to hinder him from acquiring 
 any possessions in Germany, where that monarch, 
 already become too formidable, wanted only to 
 obtain a footing. Wismar, the only town that 
 stili remained to the Swedes on the frontiers of 
 Germany, was, on the 14th of February, 1716, 
 surrendered to the Danes and Prussians, who 
 would not so much as allow the Russian troops 
 that were in Mecklenburgh to be present at the 
 siege. Such repeated marks of jealousy for two 
 years together, had alienated the czar's mind from 
 thecommon cause, and perhaps prevented the ruin 
 of Sweden. There are many instances of several 
 states in alliance being conquered by a single 
 power ; but hardly any of a great empire subdued 
 by several allies. If it should happen to be 
 bumbled by their joint efforts, their intestine 
 divisions soon allow it to retrieve its former 
 grandeur. 
 
 Ever since the year 1714, the czar had had it 
 
«84 HISTORY OF 
 
 in his power to make a descent upon Swedes^ 
 but whether it was that he could not perfectly 
 agree with the kings of Poland, England, Den- 
 mark, and Prussia, allies justly jealous of hia 
 growing power, or that he did not as yet think 
 his troops sufficiently disciplined to attack in 
 their own territories a people whose very peasants 
 had beat the flower of the Danish forces, he still 
 put off the execution of the enterprise. 
 
 But what had chiefly interrupted the progress 
 of his arms was the want of money. The czar^ 
 though one of the most powerful monarchs in the 
 universe, was far from being one of the richest , 
 his revenues, at that time, not exceeding twenty- 
 four millions of livres. He had discovered in- 
 deed some mines of gold, silver, copper, and iron j 
 but the profits arising from these was still un- 
 certain, and the expense of the working them 
 was intolerably greats He had likewise estab- 
 lished an extensive commerce ; but that in its 
 infancy rather filled him with the agreeable hopes 
 of what it might one day prove, than was really 
 productive of any present advantage : nor did the 
 provinces which he had lately conquered increase 
 his revenues, in the same proportion as they 
 augmented his power and glory. It required a 
 Jong 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' con- 
 tinuance, destitute of inhabitants, and as yet 
 chargeable to the conqueror. His finances were 
 further drained by the large fleets he maintained, 
 and by the new enterprises which he was daily 
 undertaking. He had ever been reduced to the 
 wretched expedient of raising the value of money, 
 a remedy that can never cure the evils of a state, 
 and is in a particular manner prejudicial to a 
 country, whose exports fall short of their in^ports. 
 
CHARLES XII. 285 
 
 Such was the foundation upon which de Gortz 
 had built his scheme of a revolution. He ven- 
 tured to advise the king of Sweden to purchase 
 a peace from the Russian emperor at any price, 
 intimating to him, at the same time, that the 
 czar was highly incensed at the kings of Poland 
 and England, and assuring him that he and Peter 
 Alexiowitz, when joined together, would be able 
 to strike terror into the rest of Europe. 
 
 There was no possibility of making a peace 
 with the czar, without giving up a great many of 
 those provinc-38 which lie to the east and north 
 of the Baltic Sea. But Gortz entreated the king 
 to consider, that by yelding up these provinces, 
 which t'he czar already possessed, and which 
 Charles at present was unable to recover, he 
 miglit have the honour of restoring Stanislaus to 
 Hie throne of Poland, of replacing the sgn of 
 James II. on that of England, and of re-esta- 
 blishing the duke of Holsteia in the peaceable 
 possession of his dominions. 
 
 Charles, pleased with these mighty projects, 
 upon which, however, he laid no great stress, 
 gave carte blanche to his minister. Gortz set 
 out from Sweden furnished with full powers to 
 act without control, and to treat as his master's 
 plenipotentiary with all those princes with whom 
 he should think proper to negotiate. The first 
 step was to sound the court of Moscow, which 
 he did by means of a Scotchman, called Areskine, 
 first physician to the czar, and strongly attached 
 to the pretender's interest, as indeed most of the 
 Scots were, except siich as subsisted upon favours 
 from the court of London.* 
 
 • The Scottiah nation will not thank M. de Voltaire 
 for this assertion, which is by no means coDBistent with 
 troth. Were it necessary it might be easily proved, that 
 
286 HISTORY OF 
 
 This physician represented to prince Menzikoff 
 the greatness and importance of the scheme, with 
 all the warmth of a man who was so much in- 
 terested in its success. Prince MenzikofF relished 
 the proposal, and the czar approved of it. In- 
 stead of making a descent upon Sweden, as had 
 been stipulated between him and his allies, he 
 sent his troops to winter in Mecklenburgh, whitheir 
 he soon after repaired himself. This he did un- 
 der the specious pretext of terminating some 
 disputes that had lately arisen between the duke 
 and his nobility ; but in reality with a view t© 
 prosecute his favourite scheme of obtaining a 
 principality in Germany, and hoping he should 
 be able to persuade the duke of Mecklenburgh to 
 sell him his sovereignty. 
 
 The allies were highly provoked at these pro- 
 ceedings : and the more so, as they did not 
 choose to have such a formidable neighbour as 
 Peter Alexiowitz, who, could he onee obtain any 
 footing in Germany, might one day procure him- 
 self to be elected emperor ,^ to the great oppression 
 of all the princes of the empire. But the more 
 they were provoked, the more was the grand 
 scheme of de Gortz forwarded. This minister, 
 the better to cenceal bis secret intrigues, affect- 
 ed to negotiate with the confederate princes^ 
 who were likewise amused witbvain hopes from 
 the czar. 
 
 Charles XII. and his brother-in-law, the prmc© 
 of Hesse, were all this while in Norway, at the 
 head of twenty thousand men. The country wa» 
 defended by no more than eleven thousand Danes^ 
 divided into several detached parties, who were 
 all put to the sword by the king and the prince of 
 Hesse. 
 
 the whig party has greatly preponderated in Scotland^ 
 ever since the union. 
 
CHARLES XII. 287 
 
 Charles advanced towards Christiana, the 
 capital of the kingdom ; and fortune began once 
 more to smile upon him in this part of the globe. 
 But he never took sufficient care to provide for 
 the subsistence of his troops. A Danish fleet 
 and army were coming to the relief 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. 
 
 The execution of the scheme required at once 
 inviolable secrecy, and vast preparations — two 
 things almost incompatible. Gortz even ran- 
 sacked the Asiatic seas for an assistance, which, 
 however odious in appearance, would neverthe- 
 less have been extremely proper for making a 
 descent upon Scotland, and for furnishing Swe- 
 den with ships, men, and money. 
 
 The pirates of all nations, and especially those 
 of England, having entered into a mutual associ- 
 ation, had long infested the seas of Europe and 
 America. Driven at last from their wonted 
 haunts, and having no hopes of obtaining any 
 quarter, they had lately retired to the coast of 
 Madagascar, a large island on the east of Africa. 
 These men were all desperadoes, and most of 
 them famous for actions which wanted nothing 
 but justice to render them truly heroic. They 
 were endeavouring to find out a prince that would 
 receive them under his protection ; but the laws 
 of nations shut all the harbours in the world 
 against them. 
 
 No sooner were they informed that Charles 
 XII. was returned to Sweden, than they began 
 to flatter themselves with the agreeable hopes, 
 that that prince, passionately fond of war, obliged 
 at present to be engaged in it, and in great want 
 as well of ships as soldiers, would be glad to 
 make an agreement with them upon reasonable 
 
288 HISTORY OF 
 
 terms. With this view they sent a deputy to 
 Europe oa board of a Dutch vessel, to make a 
 proposal to baron de Gortz, that if they were 
 sure of meeting with a favourable reception ia 
 the port of Gottenburg, they would instantly re- 
 pair there with sixty ships loaded with riches.* 
 
 The baron prevailed upon the king to agree to 
 the proposal ; and next year Cromston and Men- 
 dal, two Swedish gentlemen, were sent to finish 
 the treaty with the corsairs of Madagascar. 
 
 But a more honourable and a more powerful 
 support was soon after found in cardinal Alberoni, 
 a man of an extraordinary genius, who governed 
 Spain long enough for his own glory, but tooshort 
 a time for the grandeur and happiness of the 
 kingdom. 
 
 He readily embraced the proposal of placing 
 the son of James II. on the throne of England. 
 Nevertheless, as he was but just entered into the 
 ministry, and had the affairs of Spain to regulate 
 before he could think of throwing other kingdoms 
 into confusion, it was not likely that he would 
 be able for a considerable time to put this grand 
 machine in motion. But in less than two years 
 he changed the face of affairs in Spain, restored 
 that kingdom to her former degree of credit 
 among the other powers of Europe, prevailed 
 upon the Turks, as is commonly supposed, to at- 
 tack the emperor of Germany, and attempted, at 
 one and the same time, to deprive the duke of 
 
 • This has so much the air of a fable, that we know not 
 how to believe it. True it is., a few pirates fixed their ha- 
 bitation on the island of Madagascar; but they lived 
 miserably, single, and separate, like wild beasts in a state 
 of nature, without plan, subordination, or society, with- 
 out force or shipping ; for what ships they had taken 
 either perished, rotted, or were broken up by their ovm 
 himds. 
 
CHARLES Xn. 289 
 
 Orieains of the regency of France, and king 
 George of the crown of England. So dangerous 
 may one single man prove, when he is vested 
 with absolute authority in a powerful state, and 
 is endowed with courage and greatnua's of soul. 
 
 Gortz having thus scattered in the conrts of 
 Muscovy and Spain the first sparks of that riame 
 which he intended to kindle, went privately to 
 France, and from thence to Holland, where he 
 had an interview with some of the pretender's 
 adherents. 
 
 He informed himself more particularly of the 
 strength, the number, and disposition of the mal- 
 contents in England, of the money they could 
 furnish, and the troops they could raise. The 
 malcontents required only a reinforcement of ten 
 thous3»<H men, with whose assistance, they said, 
 thej should be fully able to effectuate a revolution. 
 
 Count Gillembourg, the Swedish ambassador 
 in England, being furnished with proper instruc- 
 tions by baron de Gortz, had several conferences 
 at London with the chiefs of the disaffected 
 party. He encouraged them with the most flatter- 
 ing hopes of success, and readily promised them 
 whatever they could wish to obtain ; and they, 
 on their part, were so forward as to furnish con- 
 siderable sums of money, which Gortz received 
 iu Holland. He treated about the purchase of 
 some ships, and bought six in Britain, with alt 
 kinds 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 considerable addition to his 
 fortune, had lately offered his service to the king 
 of Sweden : not so much from any interested 
 views, as from a desire of serving under a king 
 of such a ijlorious reputation. Folard likewisa 
 N 
 
290 HISTORY OF 
 
 hoped to recommend to that prince the improve- 
 ment he had made in the art of war, which he 
 always studied as a philosopher ; and he has 
 eince published his discoveries in his commen- 
 tary on Polybius. Charles XII. who had made 
 war himself in a manner entirely new, and was 
 never guided by custom in any thing, was pleas- 
 ed with his notions, and resolved to employ him 
 in his projected invasion of Scotland. The secret 
 orders of baron de Gortz were faithfully execut- 
 ed in France, by the chevalier de Folard. A 
 great number of French, and a still greater num- 
 ber of Irish officers engaged in this uncommon 
 conspiracy, which was hatching at one and the 
 same time in England, France, and Muscovy, 
 and the branches of which were secretly extend- 
 ed from one end of Europe to the other. 
 
 These preparations, however great, were only 
 a sample of what de Gortz intended to do ; 
 though it was a matter of no small consequence 
 to have thus set the scheme a going. But the 
 point of the greatest importance, and without 
 which nothing could succeed, was to bring about 
 a peace between the czar and Charles ; to accom- 
 plish which, many difficulties were to be lemoved. 
 Baron Osterman, minister of state in Muscovy, 
 refused at first to come into de Gortz's measures : 
 the former was as cautious and circumspect as 
 the latter was bold and enterprising. The one 
 slow and regular in his politics, was for allowing 
 every thing time to ripen ; the other of a daring 
 genius, and impatient spirit, had no sooner sown 
 the seed than he was presently for reaping the 
 harvest. Osterman fearing that the emperor, his 
 master, dazzled with the splendour of this en- 
 terprise, would grant the Swedes a too advan- 
 tageous peace, delayed the conclusion of it by a 
 variety of obstacles and procastinations. 
 
CHARLES XII. 291 
 
 Happily for baron de Gortz, the cirfir himself 
 came to Holland in the beginning of the year 
 1717. His intention was to go from thence into 
 France. He was desirous of seeing that famous 
 nation, which, for more than a hundred years 
 past, hath been censured, envied, and imitated by 
 all its neighbours. He wanted to gratify his in- 
 satiable curiosity of seeing and learning every 
 thing, and, at the same time, to exercise his 
 politics. 
 
 Gortz had two interviews with him at the 
 Hague ; and in these 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 to be covered 
 under the veil of impenetrable secrecy ; and he 
 flattered himself that Europe would know them 
 only by their being carried into execution. Mean- 
 while he talked of nothing but peace .it the 
 Hague, he openly declared that he would always 
 consider the king of England as the pacifier of 
 the North ; and he even pressed (in appearance 
 at least) the holding a congress at Brunswick, in 
 which the jarring interests of Sweden and her 
 enemies, might be amicably adjusted. 
 
 These intrigues were first discovered by the 
 duke of Orleans, regent of France, who had spies 
 in every part of Europe. Men of this character, 
 who made a trade of selling the secrets of their 
 friends, and get their livelihood by being infor- 
 mers, and frequently by inventing and propagat- 
 ing the grosest lies and calumnies, were so much 
 increased in France under his government, that 
 one half of the nation were become spies upon 
 the other. The duke of Orleans, who was con- 
 nected with the king of England by personal ties, 
 acquainted him with the secret plot that was 
 hatching against him. 
 
292 HISTORY OF 
 
 At the same time the Dutch, who began to 
 take umbrage at the behaviour of Gortz, comma- 
 nicated their suspicions to the English minister 
 Gortz and Gillembourg were prosecuting their 
 Bchemes with great vigour, when they were both 
 arrested ; the one at Daventer, in Guelderland, 
 and the other at London. 
 
 As Gillembourg, the Swedish ambassador, had 
 violated the law of nations, by conspiring against 
 the prince to whom he was sent in a public cha- 
 racter, the English made no scruple to violate 
 the same law by arresting his person. But all 
 the world was surprised to see the states-general 
 imprison baron de Gortz, in order to gratify the 
 king of England, an instance of complaisance 
 hardly to be paralleled in history. They even 
 appointed the count de Welderen to examine him. 
 This formality was only an aggravation of their 
 former insult, which being rendered entirely 
 abortive, produced no other effect than to cover 
 them with confusion. ' Do you know me V says 
 Gortz to the count de Welderen. ' Yls, Sir;* 
 replies the Dutchman. * Well, then,' says de 
 Gortz, * if you do know, you must be sensible 
 that I will not speak one word more than I 
 please.' The examination was carried no far- 
 ther. All the foreign ministers, and especially 
 the marquis de Montelon, the Spanish ambassa- 
 dor in England, protested against the violence 
 offered to the persons of Gortz and Gillembourg. 
 The Dutch were inexcusable. 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 in 
 direct opposition to the spirit of that inestimable 
 liberty, which hath drawn so many foreigners 
 into their country, and is the foundation of all 
 their greatness. 
 
CHARLES XII. 293 
 
 With regard to the king of England, he had 
 acted consistently with the strictest principles of 
 justice, in imprisoning his enemy. He published, 
 in Ids own vindication, the letters of Gortz and 
 Gillembourg. which were found among the papers 
 of the latter. The king of Sweden was in Scania, 
 when he received these printed letters, together 
 with the news of the two ministers being impri- 
 soned. He asked with a smile, if they had not 
 likewise printed his letters ; and gave immediate 
 orders for arresting the English resident at Stock- 
 holm, with all his family and domestics. The 
 Dutch resident was forbid the court, and strictly 
 watched in all his motions. Charles, meanwhile, 
 neither avowed nor disclaimed the proceedings 
 of de Gortz. Too proud to deny a scheme which 
 he had once approved, and too wise to acknow- 
 ledge a plot which had thus been stifled in its 
 birth, he maintained a disdainful silence towards 
 England and Holland. 
 
 The czar took a very different course. As his 
 name was not expressly mentioned, but only ob- 
 scurely hinted at in the papers of Gortz and Gil- 
 lembourg, he wrote a long letter to the king of 
 England, complimenting him upon the discovery 
 of the plot, and assuring him of the most invio- 
 lable friendship ; and king George received his 
 protestations without believing them, though he 
 thought it the most prudent in the present case 
 to pretend that he did. A plot contrived by 
 private men is annihilated the moment it is dis- 
 covered ; but a conspiracy formed by kings, the 
 more it is known the stronger it grows. 
 
 The czar arrived at Paris in the month of 
 May, 1717, to view the beauties of art and na- 
 ture ; but to visit the academies, public libraries, 
 the cabinets of the curious, and the royal palaces, 
 were not the only ends of his journey. He made a 
 
49-1 HISTORY OF 
 
 proposal to the duke of Orleans for concluding 
 a treaty, which, had it taken place, would have 
 completed the greatness of iMuscovy. His design 
 was to compromise matters with the king of 
 Sweden, who would yield to him some large pro- 
 vinces, to deprive the Danes of the empire of 
 the Baltic Sea, to weaken the English by a civil 
 war, and to make all the trade of the North to 
 centre in Russia. He had even some thoughts 
 of setting up Stanislaus afresh against Augustus, 
 that so the lire being every where kindled, he 
 might have it in his power either to quench or 
 blow it up, as should be most conducive to his 
 interest. With this view he proposed to the re- 
 gent of France to act as mediator between Sweden 
 and Muscovy, and to make a league offensive 
 and defensive with these two crowns, and that of 
 Spain. This treaty, seemingly so natural, and 
 80 advantageous to the several nations concerned, 
 •which would have put the balance of power in 
 Europe into their hands, was nevertheless re- 
 jected by the duke of Orleans. Nay. at that 
 very time, he entered into engagements of a quite 
 opposite nature. He made a league with the 
 emperor of Germany, and with George, king of 
 England. The reasons of stale had so much al- 
 tered the views and inclinations 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, in order to oblige the Germans and the 
 English, was going to make war upon the grand- 
 son of Lewis XIV. after having so long supported 
 him against these very enemies, at a prodigious 
 expense of blood and treasure. All that the czar 
 could obtain by these indirect measures, was to 
 prevail upon the regent to interpose his good 
 offices to procure the enlargement of Gortz and 
 
CHARLES XII. 295 
 
 Gillembourg. He returned to his own dominions 
 about the end of June, after having shewn the 
 French a sight they had never seen before, an em- 
 peror travelling for instruction. But the gene- 
 rality of that people were only struck with his 
 rude unpolished manners, the result of his bad 
 educaiion ; while the legislator, the great man, 
 and the creator of a new nation, entirely escaped 
 the notice of these superficial observers. 
 
 What the czar sought for in the duke of Or- 
 leans, he soon found in cardinal Alberoni, who 
 now governed the Spanish councils with unli- 
 mited sway. Alberoni desired nothing so much 
 as the restoration of the pretender. This he did 
 both as he was minister of Spain, which had been 
 so ill treated by the English ; as he was a per- 
 sonal enemy to the duke of Orleans, who was 
 leagued with England against Spain ; and, in 
 fine, as he was a priest of that church, for the 
 sake of which the pretender's father had so fool-^ 
 ishly lost his crown. 
 
 The duke of Orraond, as much beloved in Eng- 
 land as the duke of Marlborough was admired, 
 had left his country at the accession of king 
 George, and retired to Madrid. This nobleman 
 was now vested with full powers by the king of 
 Spain and the pretender ; and, accompanied by 
 one Irnegan, another native of England, a man 
 of fine address, and an enterprising spirit, he 
 went to meet the czar in his way to Mittau in Cour- 
 land. He demanded the princess, Anna Petrow- 
 na, the czar's daughter, in marriage for the son 
 of James II.* hoping that this alliance would the 
 
 • The truth of all these particulars is confirmed by 
 cardinal Alberoni himself, in a letter of thanks which he 
 *TOte to the author. M. Norberg, whose ignorance of 
 the affairs of Europe can only be equalled by the poverty 
 of Itis genius, alleges that the duke of Ormond left £ng- 
 
296 HISTORY OF 
 
 more strongly attach the czar to the interests of 
 that unhappy prince. But this proposal, instead 
 of forwarding, retarded, at least for some time, 
 the progress of the negotiations. Baron de Gorte, 
 among his other projects, had long set apart this 
 princess for the duke of Holstein, to whom in 
 effect she was soon after married. The moment 
 he was informed of the duke of Ormond's pro- 
 posal, he became jealous of its success, and em- 
 ployed every art to render it abortive. He, as 
 well as count Gillembourg, was set at liberty 
 in the month of August, the king of Sweden not 
 even deigning to offer the least apology to the 
 king of England, nor to express the slightest dis- 
 approbation 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 Gillembourg had been at London. 
 
 Gortz, being now at liberty, behaved like an 
 implacable enemy, prompted not only by the 
 powerful motives by which he had been formerly 
 actuated, but instigated by a spirit of revenge, on 
 account of his late imprisonment. He instantly- 
 posted away to the czar, and, by his artful insi- 
 nuations, obtained a greater ascendant over that 
 prince than ever. He assured him, that in less 
 than three months, he would, in conjunction with 
 a single plenipotentiary from Russia, remove 
 every obstacle that retarded the conclusion of a 
 peace with Sweden. Taking a map in his hand, 
 which had been drawn by the czar himself, and 
 making a line from Wibourg, all the way to the 
 Frozen Sea, running along the lake Ladoga, he 
 undertook to persuade his master to give up all 
 
 land not upon the accession of George I. but immediately 
 after the death of queen Anne ; as if, forsooth, George I, 
 had cot been the immediate successor of that queen. 
 
CHARLES XII. 297 
 
 the country lying to the eastward of that line, 
 as well as Carelia, Ingria, and Livonia. He 
 then hinted at a proposal of marriage between 
 his czarish majesty's daughter and the duke of 
 Holstein, flattering the czar with the agreeable 
 hopes, that the duke might possibly be prevailed 
 upon to yield him up his dominions for an equi- 
 valent, by which acquisition he would become a 
 member of the empire, and that either himself or 
 some of his descendants might one day obtain 
 the imperial crown. By these means he gratified 
 the ambitious views of the Russian monarch, and 
 deprived the pretender of all hopes of marrying 
 the czarinian princess, at the same time that he 
 opened to him a more tempting project in Eng- 
 land, and thus accomplished all his own projects 
 at once. 
 
 The czar named the isle of Aland for holding 
 the conference between Osterman, his minister 
 of state, and baron de Gortz. He desired the 
 duke of Ormond to return to Spain, that he might 
 not give too great cause of offence to the English, 
 with whom he had no intention of coming to an 
 open rupture, till he should be ready to make the 
 projected invasion. But Irnegan, the duke's con- 
 fidant, was allowed to stay at Petersburg, where 
 he lived with so much privacy and caution, that 
 he never came abroad in the day-time, nor ever 
 conversed with any of the czar's ministers, except 
 in the disguise of a peasant or Tartar. 
 
 Immediately after the duke of Ormond's de- 
 parture, the czar acquainted the king of England 
 with the high compliment he had paid him in 
 dismissing the greatest man in the pretender's 
 faction ; and baron Gortz returned to Sweden, 
 flushed with hopes of success. 
 
 Gortz found his master at the head of thirty- 
 <ive thousand regular troops, and all the coasts 
 N 2 
 
298 HISTORY OF 
 
 guarded by tne militia. Tbe king wanted nothing 
 but money. But the public credit, as well at 
 home as abroad, was entirely exhausted. France, 
 which had furnished him with some supplies, 
 during the last years of Lewis XIV. refused to 
 contri'bute any more under the regency of the duke 
 of Orleans, who pursued a course very different 
 from that of Lewis. Spain promised him some 
 remittances : but was not yet in a condition to 
 afford any thing considerable. 
 
 De Gortz therefore carried a scheme into exe< 
 cution which he had tried before his journey to 
 France and Holland. This was to give to cop- 
 per the value of silver ; so that a piece of the for- 
 mer metal, whose intrinsic value was only a half- 
 penny, should, when stamped with the king's 
 mark, pass for forty pence ; as the governors of 
 besieged towns frequently pay the soldiers and 
 citizens in leathern money, in expectation of 
 being one day able to reimburse them in real coin. 
 This fictitious kind of money, which owes its 
 birth to necessity, and can only be rendered cur- 
 rent by its being punctually paid in real specie, 
 is like bills of exchange, the imaginary value of 
 which may easily exceed the solid funds that are 
 in a nation. 
 
 These expedients are of great use in a free 
 country. They have often saved a republic, but 
 seldom, or never, fail to ruin a monarchy ; for, 
 as the people soon begin to grow suspicious, the 
 minister is obliged to break his word ; the ideal 
 money multiplies apace ; private men bury their 
 money in the earth ; and the whole machine of 
 government falls into a confusion, which is often 
 productive of the most pernicious consequences, 
 as was but too plainly exemplified in the fate of 
 Sweden. 
 
 At first the baron de Gortz issued out his new 
 
CHARLES Xir. 299 
 
 coin with equal discretion and reserve : but, by 
 the rapidity of a motion which he could not re- 
 strain, he was soon hurried beyond the limits 
 which he had originally prescribed to himself. 
 All kinds of goods and provisions having risen to 
 an immoderate price, he was obliged to increase 
 the quantity of his copper coin. But the more 
 it was increased, the less was its value ; and 
 Sweden, deluged as it were by this false money, 
 set up a general cry against baron de Gortz, 
 The people, who always regarded their sovereign 
 with a kind of veneration, could not find in their 
 hearts to hate him, and therefore made the weight 
 of their resentment to fall on a minister, who, 
 both as a foreigner and chief director of the 
 finances, was doubly exposed to the public odium. 
 
 But what entirely completed his ruin was a 
 tax he attempted to impose on the clergy. The 
 clergy, who are too apt to join their own cause 
 to tbat of the Supreme Being, called him an 
 atheist, because he demanded their money. Some 
 of the new copper coin being stamped with the 
 figures of the heathen gods, they thence took oc- 
 casion to call those pieces the gods of baron de 
 Gortz. 
 
 To this public odium under which he laboured, 
 was added the jealousy of the ministers ; the more 
 implacable in their resentment as their power 
 was the less. The king's sister, and the prince, 
 her husband, dreaded him, as a man attached 
 from his birth to the duke of Holstein, and might 
 one day be able to place the crown of Sweden on 
 his head. In a word, he had incurred the hatred 
 of the whole nation, Charles alone excepted ; but 
 this general aversion served only to ensure to him 
 the friendship of the king, whose maxim it al- 
 vavs was, to be the more inflexible the more he 
 was contradicted. Accordingly, he now relied 
 
SOO HISTORY OF 
 
 upon the baron with an almost implicit confi- 
 dence ; gave him an absolute power in the inte- 
 rior government of the kingdom ; and committed 
 to his care whatever related to the negotiations 
 with the czar, pressing him above all things to 
 hasten the conference that was to be held in the 
 island of Aland. 
 
 And, indeed, Gortz had no sooner regulated 
 the finances (a work which had hitherto detained 
 him at Stockholm) than he set out on his journey 
 for the place appointed, in order to finish with 
 the czar's minister, the grand scheme he had 
 projected. 
 
 The preliminary articles of that alliance, which 
 was wholly to have changed the face of aiFairs in 
 Europe, were found among de Gortz's papers 
 after his death, and were as follow : — 
 
 The czar was<|to keep the whole of Livonia, 
 and part of Ingria and Carelia to himself, and 
 to restore the rest to Sweden. He was to join 
 his eflPorts with those of Charles XII. in order to 
 restore Stanislaus to the throne of Poland, and 
 to enter that country with eighty thousand Rus- 
 sians, to dethrone the very king, in whose de- 
 fence he had waged a war of ten years' continu- 
 ance. He was to furnish the king of Sweden 
 with a number of ships sufficient to transport ten 
 thousand Swedes to England, and thirty thousand 
 to Germany. The united forces of Peter and 
 Charles were to attack the king of England ia 
 his German dominions, especially in Bremen and 
 Verden ; and were likewise to be employed in 
 re-establishing the duke of Holstein, and com- 
 pelling the king of Prussia to agree to a treaty, 
 bj which he would have been deprived of part 
 of those territories which he had seized. From 
 tlie time that this alliance was made, Charles as- 
 sumed such lofty airs, as if his victorious troops. 
 
CHARLES XII. SOI 
 
 reinforced by those of the czar, had already car- 
 ried all his schemes into execution. He required 
 the emperor of Germany, in a peremptory man- 
 ner, to fulfil the treaty of Altranstad. but the 
 court of Vienna would hardly deign to give an 
 answer to the proposal of a prince from whom 
 she had nothing to fear. 
 
 The king of Poland did not enjoy the same 
 tranquillity ; but saw the clouds gathering all 
 around him. The Polish nobility had formed a 
 confederacy against him ; and, ever since his re- 
 storation, be had perpetually been engaged either 
 in wars or treaties with his subjects. The czar, 
 ■who was now become a dangerous mediator, had 
 a hundred galleys near Dantzic. and forty thou- 
 sand men on the frontiers of Poland. All the 
 North was filled with jealousy and apprehension, 
 Flemming, of all men in the world the most apt 
 to distrust, and himself the most to be distrusted, 
 was the first who suspected the designs of the 
 czar and the king of Sweden in favour of Stanis- 
 laus. He therefore resolved to have this prince 
 seized in the duchy of Deux-Ponts, as James 
 Sobieski had formerly been in Silesia. Saissan, 
 a Frenchman, one of those restless and enterpris- 
 ing 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 im- 
 parted a project to Flemming, by which he under- 
 took, with the assisiance of thirty French oflicers, 
 to seize Stanislaus in his own ppJace, and carry 
 him a prisoner to Dresden. The project was 
 approved. Enterprises of that nature were not 
 then uncommon. Some of those desperate fel- 
 lows, who are called bravos in Italy, had per- 
 formed the like achievements in the Milanese,, 
 dvuing the last war between France and Ger- 
 
SO^ HISTORY OF 
 
 many : and, even since that time, several Frencli 
 refugees in Holland had ventured to penetrate to 
 Versailles, in order to carry off the Dauphin, and 
 actually had seized the person of the first equerry, 
 almost, under the windows of the castle, where 
 Lewis XIV. resided. 
 
 Accordingly, Saissan disposed his men and 
 post-horses in the best manner he could contrive, 
 in order to seize and carry off Stanislaus. But 
 the enterprise was discovered the night before it 
 was to have been carried into execution. Several 
 of the desperadoes saved themselves by flight, 
 and the rest were taken prisoners. They had no 
 right to expect to be treated as prisoners of war, 
 but rather as common robbers. Stanislaus, in- 
 stead of punishing them as their crime deserved, 
 contented himself with reproaching them with 
 their baseness, and even that he did with the 
 greatest politeness and humanity. Nay, what 
 is more, he gave them money to defray the ex- 
 penses of their return to Poland, and, by that act 
 of generosity, plainly shewed, that his rival Au- 
 gustus had but too much reason to fear him.* 
 
 Meanwhile Charles set out on a second expe- 
 dition to Norway, in the month of October, 1718. 
 He had taken all his measures with so much pru- 
 dence and precaution, that he hoped he should 
 be able, in the space of six months, to make him- 
 self 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 
 
 • Here M. Norberg accuses the aathor of treating 
 crowned heads with too little respect ; as if this faithful 
 account contained in it any thing injurious, or as if \re 
 were obliged to relate ought but truth of departed kings. 
 What ! does he imagine, that history should resemble a 
 s«rmon preached before a sovereign, in which the flatter- 
 ing orator loads his royal hearer with unmerited praises ? 
 
CHARLES XII. 303 
 
 in Sweden, where the cold is less severe, than to 
 recover his beautiful provinces in Germany. 
 These he expected he should soon be able to re- 
 take in consequence of his alliance with the czar , 
 and, in any event, it was a much more tempting 
 object of ambition to wrest a kingdom from his 
 victorious foe. 
 
 At the mouth of the river Tistendall, near the 
 bay of Denmark, and between the towns of Ba- 
 hus and Anslo, stands Fredericshall, a place of 
 great strength and importance, and considered 
 as the key of the kingdom : to this town Charles 
 laid siege in the month of December. The sol- 
 diers, benumbed with cold, were hardly able to 
 break the ground, which was so much hardened 
 by the frost, tliat it was almost as difiBcult to 
 pierce it, as if they had been opening trenches in 
 a rock. But nothing could resist the resolution 
 and perseverance of the Swedes, while they saw 
 their king at their head, and sharing in all their 
 labours. Never, indeed, did Charles undergo 
 greater fatigues. His constitution, strengthened 
 by eighteen years of severe labour, was hardened 
 to such a degree, that he slept in the open field 
 in Norway in the midst of winter, covered only 
 with a cloak, and without doing the least preju- 
 dice to his health. Several of the soldiers on 
 duty dropt down dead with cold ; and though 
 the rest were almost frozen to death, yet as they 
 saw their king partaking in all their hardships, 
 they durst not utter a single word of complaint. 
 Having heard, a little before this expedition, of 
 a certain woman in Scania, called Joan Dotter, 
 who had lived for several months without any 
 other nourishment than water ; he, who had all 
 his life studied to inure himself to the worst ex- 
 tremes that human nature can support, resolved 
 to try how long he could fast without fainting. 
 
304 HISTORY OF 
 
 Accordingly, he fasted five whole days, without 
 either 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 disorder, either from his long fast of five 
 days, or from the plentiful meal which now sue 
 ceeded.* 
 
 With such a body of iron, inspired by a soul 
 alike enterprising and inflexible in every condi- 
 tion, he could not fail to be formidable to alibis 
 neighbours. 
 
 On the eleventh of December, being St. 
 Andrew's day, he went at nine in the evening to 
 view the trenches ; and, not finding the parallel 
 so far advanced as be expected, he could not 
 help expressing his surprise and displeasure. M. 
 Megret, a French engineer, who conducted the 
 siege, assured him that the place would be taken 
 in eight days. ' Well ! we shall see,' says 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. He kneeled on the inner talus, and rest- 
 ing his elbow on the parapet, continued for some 
 time to view the men, who were carrying ou the 
 trenches by star-light. 
 
 Circumstances, in their own nature trivial, be- 
 come important when they relate to the death of 
 such a man as Charles XII. I must therefore 
 take upon me to say, that the whole of the con- 
 versation, reported by so many writers to have 
 passed between the king and Megret, the engi- 
 neer, is absolutely false. The following account 
 
 • Norberg alleges, that it was to cure a pain in his 
 breast that Charles submitted to this long abstinence. Con- 
 fesaor Korberg is surely a most wretched pbvsicain. 
 
CHARLES XII. 305 
 
 I can affirm, upon the best authority, to be the 
 real truth of the matter. 
 
 The king stood with almost the half his body 
 exposed to a battery of cannon pointed directly 
 against the angle where he was. He was attend- 
 ed by two Frenchmen only ; 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 was particularly attached to the 
 prince of Hesse ; the other was this engineer. 
 The cannon lired upon them with grape-shot, to 
 which the king, as he stood behind them, was 
 most exposed. A little behind them was count 
 Swerin, who commanded the trenches. While 
 Sweriu was giving orders to count Posse, a cap- 
 tain of the guards and to one Culber, his aid- 
 de-camp, Siquier and Megret, saw the king fall 
 upon the parapet with a deep sigh. They ran to 
 him ; but he was already dead. A ball of half a 
 pound had struck him on the right temple, and 
 made a hole sufficient to receive three fingers at 
 once. His head reclined upon the parapet ; his 
 left eye beat in, and the right one entirely beat 
 out of the socket. Though he expired the mo- 
 ment he received the wound, yet, by a kind of 
 instinctive motion, he had grasped the hilt of his 
 sword in his hand, and still lay in that posture. 
 At sight of this shocking spectacle, Megret, a 
 man of a singular turn of mind, and of great in- 
 difference of temper, said, 'Come, gentlemen, 
 the farce is ended, let us now go to supper.* 
 Siquier ran immediately and informed count Swe- 
 rin of what had happened. They all agreed to 
 conceal the news of his death from the soldiers, 
 till such time as the prince of Hesse should be 
 acquainted with it. The body was wrapped up 
 in a grey cloak. Siquier put his hat and wig on 
 the king's head ; and in this condition Charles 
 
306 HISTORY OF 
 
 was carried, under the name of one captain 
 Carlsberg, through the midst of his troops, who 
 thus saw their dead king pass them, v/ithoiit ever 
 dreaming that it was liis majesty. 
 
 The prince gave instani orders that no one 
 should stir out of the camp, and that all the passes 
 to Sweden should be strictly guarded, that so 
 he migbt have time to take the necessary mea- 
 sures for placing the crown on his wife's head, 
 and to exclude the duke of Holsteiu, who might 
 lay claim to it. 
 
 Thus fell Charles XII. king of Sweden, at the 
 age of thirty-six years and a half, after having 
 experienced all the grandeur of prosperity, and 
 all the hardships of adversity, without being 
 either softened by the one, or the least disturbed 
 by the other. Almost all his actions, even hose 
 of his private life, border on the marvellous. 
 Perhaps he was the only man. most certainly he 
 was the only king, that ever lived without failings. 
 He carried all the virtues of the hero to such an 
 excess as render them no less dangerous than 
 the opposite vices. His resolution, hardened 
 into obstinacy, occasioned his misfortunes in the 
 Ukraine, and detained him five years in i'urkey. 
 His liberality, degenerating into profusion, ruin- 
 ed Sweden. His courage, pushed the length of 
 temerity, was the cause of his death : and, during 
 the last years of his reign, the means he em- 
 ployed to support his authority differed little from 
 tyranny. His great qualities, any one of which 
 would have been sufficient to immortalize another 
 prince, proved pernicious to his country. He 
 never was the aggressor ; but, in taking ven- 
 geance on those who had injured him, his resent- 
 ment got the better of his prudence. He was 
 the first man who ever aspired to the title of 
 conqueror, without the least desire of enlarging 
 
CHARLES XII. 307 
 
 bis dominions. His only end in subduing king- 
 doms was to have tlie pleasure of giving them 
 away. His passion for glory, for war, and re- 
 venge, prevented him from being a good poli- 
 tician i a quality, without which the world had 
 never before seen any one a conqueror. Before 
 a battle, and after a victory, he was modest and 
 humble ; and after a defeat firm and undaunted. 
 Severe to himself as well as to others, he too 
 little regarded either his own life and labours, 
 or those of his subjects ; an extraordinary rather 
 than a great man, and more worthy to be ad- 
 mired than imitated. From the history of his life, 
 however, succeeding kings may learn, that a quiet 
 and happy government is infinitely preferable to 
 so much glory. 
 
 Charles XII. was of a tall stature and portly 
 figure; he had a fine forehead, large blue eyes, 
 full of sweetness, and a handsome nose. But 
 the lower part of his face was disagreeable, and 
 too often disfigured by a frequent laugh, which 
 scarce opened his lips ; and as to hair and beard, 
 he had hardly any at all. A profound silence 
 reigned at his table. Notwithstanding the in- 
 flexible obstinacy of his temper, he always re- 
 tained that basbfulness, which goes by the name 
 of false modesty. 
 
 He was but little qualified to make a figure in 
 cenversation, because, having addicted himself 
 entirely to war and action, he was utterly un- 
 acquainted with the pleasures of society. Till 
 the time of his residence among the Turks, 
 which furnished him with a good deal of leisure, 
 he had read nothing but Ceesar's Commentaries, 
 and the History of Alexander. It is true he had 
 wrote some remarks on the art of war, and par- 
 ticularly on his own campaigns from 1700 to 
 1709. This he owned to the che 7alier de Folard, 
 
308 HISTORY OF 
 
 but said that the manuscript had been lost in the 
 unfortunate battle of Pultowa. Some people 
 would make us believe that Charles was a good 
 mathematician. That he was possessed of great 
 depth and penetration of thought, cannot be de- 
 nied ; but the arguments they produce to prove 
 his knowledge in mathematics are by no means 
 conclusive. He wanted to alter the method of 
 counting by tens, and to substitute in its place 
 the number of sixty-four, because that number 
 contains both a square and a cube, and being di- 
 vided by two is reducible to an unit. This, if it 
 proves any thing, only shews that he always de- 
 lighted in what was difficult and extraordinary. 
 
 With regard to his religion, though the senti- 
 ments of a prince ought to have no influence oa 
 other men, and though the opinion of a monarch 
 so illiterate as Charles, is of little consequence 
 in these matters, yet in this, as well as in other 
 particulars, we must gratify the curiosity of man- 
 kind, who are anxious to know whatever relates 
 to a prince of his character. I am informed, by 
 the gentleman who hath furnished me with the 
 greatest part of the materials which compose this 
 history, that Charles XII. was a serious Lu- 
 theran till the year 1707. Happening then to 
 be in Leipsic, hje there met with a famous philo- 
 sopher, M. Leibnitz, a man who thought and 
 spoke with equal freedom, and had already in- 
 stilled his notions into more princes than one. I 
 cannot believe what is commonly reported, that 
 Charles Xll. conceived an indifference for Lu- 
 theranism from the conversation of this philoso- 
 pher, who never had the honour to talk with him 
 above a quarter of an hour ; but I have been told 
 by M. Fabricius, who lived with him in great fa- 
 miliarity for seven years successively, that hav- 
 ing seen, during his abode among the Turks, such 
 
CHARLES XII. 309 
 
 an infinite varietj of religions, he became more 
 lax in his principles. This fact is likewise con- 
 firmed by Motraye in his voyages. The same 
 too is the opinion of the count de Croissy, who 
 hath often told me, that of all his old principles, 
 Charles retained none but that of absolute pre- 
 destination, .a doctrine that favoured his courage, 
 and justified his temerity. The czar was of much 
 the same way of thinking, with regard to fate 
 and religion ; but talked of these subjects more 
 frequently, as indeed he did of every thing else 
 with his favourites, in a very familiar manner ; 
 for he had this advantage over Charles, that he 
 was a good philosopher and an eloquent speaker. 
 
 Here I cannot help taking notice of a most un 
 charitable suspicion, too readily embraced by the 
 •weak and credulous, and too industriously pro- 
 pagated by the malicious and ill-natured, to wit, 
 that the death of princes is al ways owing to poison 
 or assassination. It was then the current report 
 in Germany, that M. Siquier was the man who 
 killed the king of Sweden. That brave officer 
 was long grieved at this injurious aspersion ; 
 end, Jif he wns one day talking to me on the sub- 
 ject : •! might have killed the king of Sweden,' 
 said he, ' but, had I been capable of forming such 
 a barbarous resolution, so great was my venera- 
 tion for that illustrious hero, that I could not have 
 had the courage to carry it into execution.' 
 
 I know, indeed, that Siquier himself gave oc- 
 •jasion to this heavy charge, which, even to this 
 day, many of the Swedes believe to be well 
 founded. He told me, that being seized with a 
 violent fever at Stockholm, he cried out that he 
 Dad killed the king of Sweden ; and that, in the 
 height of his frenzy, he even opened the windoinr, 
 and publicly begged pardon for the regicide. 
 When he was informed, in the course of his re- 
 
SIO HISTORY OF 
 
 covery, of what he had said in his illness, he was 
 almost ready to die with grief. This anecdote 
 I did not choose to publish during his lifetime. I 
 saw him a little before he expired, and think I 
 can safely affirm, that, far from killing Charles 
 XII. he would have suffered a thousand deaths 
 to save the life of that hero. Had he actually 
 committed such a horrid crime, it mast have 
 been to serve some prince, who, no doubt, would 
 have liberally rewarded him for such a piece of 
 treachery ; but he died in France so extremely 
 poor, that he even stood in need of my assist- 
 ance. If these reasons are not thought sufficient 
 to vindicate his memory, let it be considered, that 
 the ball by which Charles fell could not come 
 from a pistol, and yet that Siquier had no other 
 way to give the fatal blow, than by a pistol con- 
 cealed under his garments. 
 
 The king was no sooner dead, than the siege 
 of Fredericshall was raised, and a total change 
 took place in the governmcnc The Swedes, who 
 considered the glory of their sovereign rather as 
 a burden than an advantage, applied their whole 
 attention towards concluding a peace with their 
 enemies, and suppressing that absolute power, 
 which baron de Gortz had so much abused to 
 their ruin. The states, by a free and voluntary 
 choice, elected the sister of Charles XII. for their 
 queen, and obliged her, by a solemn act, to re- 
 nounce all hereditary right to the crown, that so 
 she might hold it by the suffrages of the people. 
 She bound herself by the most sacred oaths never 
 to attempt the re-establishment of arbitrary 
 power ; and at last, sacrificing the love of royalty 
 to conjugal affection, yielded the crown to her 
 husband, who was chosen king by the states, and 
 mounted the throne on the same conditions with 
 his royal consort. 
 
CHARLES XII. 311 
 
 The baron de Gortz was taken Into custody 
 immediately after the death of Charles, and 
 condemned by the senate of Stockholm to lose his 
 head, at the foot of the common gallows ; an act 
 of revenge, perhaps, rather than of justice, and 
 a cruel insult to the memory of a king whom 
 Sweden still admires.