agreeing to a conference, as they proposed, he only told them bluntly, that he would confer with them at Warsaw.(1)

Charles accordingly marched towards that capital, which opened its gates to him on the first summons. The Polish nobility had chiefly retired to their country seats, and the king to Cracow. While Augustus was there assembling his forces, the cardinal-primate, whose treachery was yet undiscovered, appeared among the few persons of distinction who still adhered to their sovereign, and intimated to him, that the king of Sweden was believed to be very well inclined to listen to terms of accommodation; and he humbly begged leave to wait on the terrible warrior for that purpose. His insidious offer was accepted, and he and count Leczinski had an audience of Charles in the neighbourhood of Warsaw. They found the Swedish monarch clad in a coat of coarse blue cloth, with brass buttons, large jack-boots, and buckskin gloves that reached to his elbows. After they had talked together, standing, for about a quarter of an hour, Charles put an end to the conference, by saying aloud, "I will never grant the Poles peace, till they have elected a new king!"(2) The primate, who expected such a declaration, ordered it to be notified to all the palatines; assuring them, that it gave him great concern, but representing, at the same time, the absolute necessity of complying with the request of the conquering Swede.

Augustus, on receiving this intelligence, saw that he must either relinquish his crown, or resolve to preserve it by force of arms: and he took the most vigorous measures for appealing to the decision of the sword. Having strengthened his Saxon guards, on which he placed his chief dependence, with the succours of the nobility of the palatinate of Cracow, who still remained faithful to him, and also with that body of Polish troops which bore the name of the army of the crown, he marched in quest of the king of Sweden. Nor was he long in meeting with his antagonist, that prince having already taken the field with the same hostile views, The contending kings met in a spacious plain near Glissaw, between Warsaw and Cracow. Augustus led about twenty-four thousand men, Charles little above half that number, yet he advanced to the charge with intrepidity; and although the king of Poland performed every thing that could be expected from a gallant prince fighting for his crown, he was defeated with great slaughter. Thrice did he rally his troops in person, and attempt to restore the battle, but in vain; all his efforts were fruitless. The Saxons only could be said to fight for him. The Poles, who formed his right wing, gave ground in the beginning of the engagement. Some fled through fear, others from disaffection. The valour and good fortune of Charles prevailed. He gained a complete victory, with all the honours that could attend it: he took possession of the enemy's camp; and their baggage, their cannon, and even the military chest of Augustus fell into his hands.(3)

The king of Sweden halted not a moment on the field of battle. He directed his march instantly to Cracow, which surrendered without firing a gun. Determined still to pursue Augustus, in order to prevent his assembling a new army, Charles quickly left that city: but his thigh-bone being broken soon after, in consequence of the fall of his horse, he was confined to his bed for six weeks. During this interval of repose, the king of Poland assembled a diet at Lublin; where, by his affability, engaging manner, and fine accomplishments, he in a great measure recovered the affections of his subjects. All the palatines swore that they would continue faithful to their sovereign. They agreed to maintain an army of fifty thousand men for his defence; and they resolved, that forty days should be allowed the king of Sweden finally to determine whether he was disposed to peace or war.(4)

Before the expiration of that term, Charles being able to go abroad, overturned all the resolutions of the diet at Lublin, by one assembled at Warsaw. Meanwhile, having received a strong reinforcement from Pomerania, he

(1) Voltaire, History of Charles XII.

(3) Parthenay, Hist. Polog. lib. iv. Voltaire, Hist. s XII.

(2) Id. ibid.
(4) Voltaire, ubi sup.

marched against the remains of the Saxon army, which he had defeated at Glissaw, and which had been collected and recruited during his confinement. He came up with the enemy on the first of May, 1703, at a place named Pultausk. General Stenau' commanded the Saxons, who amounted to ten thousand men. The Swedes consisted only of an equal number; yet so great was the terror struck by the arms of Charles, that one-half of the enemy fled at his approach, and the rest were soon routed and dispersed. Augustus himself retired to Thorn, an ancient city on the Vistula, in Polish Prussia. Charles followed him, and besieged the place, which surrendered within a month; but the king of Poland had found means, before it was regularly invested, to escape into Saxony.(1)

The diet at Warsaw, through the intrigues of the cardinal-primate, now declared, "That Augustus, elector of Saxony, was incapable of wearing the crown of Poland;" and all the members, with one voice, pronounced the throne to be vacant, on the 14th of February, 1704. It was the intention of the king of Sweden, and the wish of the diet, to raise to the throne James Sobieski, eldest son of the late king; but that prince being taken prisoner, together with his second brother, Constantine, while hunting in the neigh bourhood of Breslaw, in Silesia, by a party of the Saxon dragoons, the crown of Poland was offered to a younger brother, named Alexander, who rejected it with a generosity perhaps unexampled in history. Nothing, he said, should ever induce him to take advantage of the misfortune of his elder brothers; and he entreated Charles to employ his victorious arms, in restoring liberty to the unhappy captives.(2)

This refusal, and the misfortune which led to it, having disconcerted the measures of the Swedish monarch, his minister, count Piper, who was as great a politician as his master was a warrior, advised Charles to take the crown of Poland to himself. He represented how easy it would be to accomplish such a scheme, with a victorious army, and a powerful party in the heart of the kingdom, which was already subdued:-and he tempted him with the title of "Defender of the Evangelical Religion ;" an appellation which flattered the prejudices of the northern conqueror. What Gustavus Vasa had effected in Sweden, might be accomplished, the count affirmed, with the greatest facility in Poland; the establishment of the Lutheran religion, and the enfranchisement of the people, now held in the most abject slavery by the nobility and clergy. Charles acquiesced in the prudent proposal for a moment; but, blinded by the illusions of romantic glory, he afterward told his minister, that he had more pleasure in giving away, than in conquering kingdoms! He accordingly recommended to the choice of the Polish diet, assembled at Warsaw, Stanislaus Leczinski, palatine of Posnania, who was immediately raised to the throne.(3)

What time Charles XII. was thus imposing a king on the vanquished Poles, and the Danish monarch durst not presume to create him any disturbance; while the new king of Prussia courted his friendship, and his antagonist Augustus was forced to take refuge in his hereditary dominions, the czar Peter was growing every day more formidable. Though he had given the king of Poland but little immediate assistance, he had made a powerful diversion in Ingria; and was now not only become a good soldier himself, but had instructed his subjects in the art of war. He had able engineers, well served artillery, and experienced officers; discipline was established among his troops; and he had acquired the great secret of subsisting his armies. In consequence of these improvements, he took Narva by assault, on the 21st of August, 1704, after a regular siege, during which he had prevented it from receiving any succours, either by sea or land. Nor was this his only glory. The Russians were no sooner masters of the city, than they began to pillage it, and abandoned themselves to the most enormous barbarities. The czar flew from place to place, to stop the plunder and carnage; and having killed two soldiers who refused to obey his orders, he entered the town-house, and (2) Id. ibid.

(1) Parth. Hist. Polog. lib. v.

(3) Voltaire, Hist. Charles XII. liv. ii.

laying his sword, yet reeking with gore, upon the table, said to the magistrates, "This weapon is not stained with the blood of your fellow-citizens, but with that of my own people, which I have shed to save your lives.”(1)

Had Peter always paid the same attention to the rights of humanity, his character would have stood fairer in the annals of history; and for his honour it must be recorded, that at the same time he was thus saving one city from destruction, he was employed in erecting another, not far from Narva, in the heart of his new conquests; namely, Petersburg, which he afterward made the place of his residence, and the centre of his trade. That city is situated between Finland and Ingria, in a marshy island, around which the Neva divides itself into several branches, before it falls into the gulf of Finland.

This desert and uncultivated island, which, during the short summer in those regions, was only a heap of mud, and in winter a frozen pool, into which there was no entrance on the land side, but through pathless forests and deep morasses, and which had been the haunt of wolves and bears, was filled, in 1703, with above three hundred thousand men, whom the czar brought thither from other parts of his dominions. The peasants of Astracan, and those who dwelt on the frontiers of China, were transported to Petersburg: and the czar was obliged to clear forests, to make roads, to drain marshes, and to raise mounds before they could lay the foundations of his future capital. The whole was a violence upon nature. Peter was determined to people a country, that did not seem designed for the habitation of men; and neither the inundation that demolished his works, nor the sterility of the soil, nor the ignorance of the workmen, nor even the mortality which carried off near two hundred thousand men in the beginning of the undertaking, could divert him from his purpose. By a proper distribution of favours, he drew many strangers to the new city; bestowing lands upon some, houses upon others, and encouraging, by the most liberal rewards, artists of every description Above all, he rendered it proof against the utmost efforts of his enemies; so that the Swedish generals, who frequently beat his troops, as we shall have occasion to see, were never able to hurt this infant establishment. Petersburg remained in perfect security amid the destructive war by which it was surrounded.(2)

While the czar was employed in erecting a new capital, and in creating, as it were, a new people, he still held out a helping hand to the fugitive Augustus, who had again found his way into Poland; had retaken Warsaw, and been obliged a second time to abandon it. Peter invited him to Grodno, in order to concert measures for retrieving his affairs. To that place Augustus repaired in December, 1705; and being no longer afraid of exasperating the Poles, by the introduction of foreigners into their country, as they had already done their worst against him, it was resolved that sixty thousand Russians should attack the Swedes in their late conquests. This prodigious force soon entered Poland; and dividing into several bodies, laid waste with fire and sword the lands of all the palatines who had declared for Stanislaus. An army of Cossacks also entered the Polish territories, and spread desolation on every side, with all the fury of barbarians. And general Schullemberg, who had distinguished himself by the passage of the Oder, in sight of the king of Sweden, and by a retreat esteemed equal to a victory, even by Charles himself, was advancing with an army of Saxons.(3)

If success had depended upon numbers, the Swedish monarch must now have been crushed. But his usual good fortune, the effect of his active and enterprising spirit, still attended him. The Russian armies were attacked and defeated so fast, that the last was routed before it had heard of the disaster of the first. Nothing could stop the progress of the conquering Swedes, or equal their celerity. If a river interposed, they swam across it; and Charles, at the head of his cavalry, marched thirty leagues in twenty-four hours.(4)

(1) Voltaire, Hist. Russ. chap. xii. Hist. Charles XII. liv. iii. (3) Voltaire. Contin. Puffend. Parthenay,

(2) Id. ibid.

(4) Every soldier leading a horse in his hand to mount when his own was tired. Voltaire, Hist. Charles XII. liv. iii.

Struck with terror at such rapid movements, which to them appeared altogether miraculous, and reduced to a small number, by their various defeats, the Russians retired beyond the Boristhenes, leaving Augustus to his fate.(1) In the mean time, Schullemberg, having repassed the Oder, offered battle to mareschal Renchild, who was reckoned the king of Sweden's best general, and called the Parmenio of the Alexander of the North. These two great commanders met on the 13th of February, 1706, at a place called Travanstad. Renchild had only thirteen battalions, and twenty-two squadrons, making in all about ten thousand men; Schullemberg had more than double that number, yet was he defeated with great slaughter. Seven thousand-Russians and Saxons were killed on the spot; eight thousand were made prisoners; and all their artillery, baggage, ammunition, and provisions fell into the hands of the victors.(2) No quarter was granted to the Russians.

In order to put an end to the troubles of Poland, where, by reason of its desolate state, his army could no longer subsist, Charles now proposed to carry the war into the hereditary dominions of Augustus. He accordingly directed his march towards Silesia; passed the Oder; entered Saxony, with twenty-four thousand men; and, having laid the whole country under contribution, pitched his camp at Alt-Ranstadt, near the plains of Lutzen, rendered famous by the memorable victory and death of Gustavus Adolphus. Unable to contend with so powerful an adversary, already in the heart of his dominions, Augustus was under the necessity of suing for peace. He obtained it, but on the most humiliating terms; being forced to renounce for ever all pretensions to the crown of Poland, and to acknowledge Stanislaus lawful sovereign of that kingdom.(3) When his plenipotentiaries endeavoured to procure some mitigation of the rigour of these conditions, they were constantly answered by count Piper, "Such is the will of my master; and he never alters his resolution!"(4)

The march of the king of Sweden into Germany, his victories during the course of the war, and the arbitrary manner in which he had deposed Augustus, filled all Europe with hopes of his friendship, or apprehensions from his power. France courted his alliance with an ardour proportioned to the distressed state of her affairs. Offended at his gross violation of the privileges of the Germanic body, the diet at Ratisbon showed a disposition to declare him an enemy of the empire; but the emperor Joseph, dreading the effects of such a measure, employed all his influence to oppose it, at the same time that he endeavoured to soften any resentment which it might excite in the breast of the northern conqueror, by flattering his pride. Charles was pleased with these attentions, without being swayed by them. Wholly occupied with the great project of humbling his other antagonist, the czar Peter, and even of reducing him to the same abject condition into which he had already brought Augustus, he disregarded all the solicitations of France, and seemed to favour the views of the emperor, without having any attachment to his interest.

Lewis XIV., thus disappointed in his hopes of engaging the king of Sweden in his cause, and broken in spirit by misfortunes, began seriously to think of putting an end to a war which had brought accumulated disgrace upon his arms, and the deepest distress upon his subjects. Having privately made some ineffectual applications to the ministers of Holland, he resolved publicly to manifest his earnest desire of peace; and ordered, for that purpose, the elector of Bavaria to write letters to the duke of Marlborough and the fielddeputies of the states, proposing a general congress. As a proof of his sincerity, he mentioned at once the sacrifices he was willing to make. He offered all the Spanish dominions in Italy to the archduke Charles; to the states, a barrier in the Netherlands; and to the duke of Savoy, a compensation for the waste made by the war in his territories. In return for such liberal concessions, he demanded, that the electorate of Bavaria should be restored to its native prince, and that Philip V. should be allowed to possess

(1) Voltaire, Hist. Charles XII. liv. iii. (3) Voltaire, Hist. Charles XII. liv. iii.

(2) Hist. du Nord, tom. ii. Voltaire, ubi sup. (4) Id. ibid.

Spain and her American dominions;(1) or, in the lofty language of the proud Castilians, Spain and the Indies.(2)

The confederates, by concluding a peace on these terms, and others which they might have dietated, but especially the perpetual disunion of the crowns of France and Spain, would have obtained the chief objects of the grand alliance; yet was the offer, though surely a sufficient foundation for entering upon a negotiation, wantonly rejected, and Europe destined to remain, for many years longer, a scene of carnage, confusion, and distress, in order to gratify the passions of a few ambitious and selfish men. The duke of Marlborough was fond of the emoluments as well as the glory of war: prince Eugene, besides being under the influence of similar motives, was actuated by an implacable resentment against France; and the pensionary Heinsius, who led the councils of the states, yielded to his own interest, while he acted in subserviency to those two generals. These were the three great springs that now directed the grand alliance: and the motion communicated by their joint impulse was accelerated by the torrent of victory. The views of the allies extended with their successes. Having humbled France, they aspired at the conquest of Spain. It was accordingly resolved, that no peace should be made with the house of Bourbon, while a prince of that house continued to sit upon the Spanish throne.(3)

Thus, my dear Philip, were the objects of this confederacy in a great measure changed; and, in order to form a true judgment of the whole, you must consider very attentively the new plan, and compare it with the original plan of the grand alliance, relatively to the general interests of Europe, and the particular interests of your own country. You will then, I think, be of opinion, that the war was wise and just before this change, because necessary to maintain that equality among the powers of Europe on which their peace and common prosperity depend; but that it was unwise and unjust, after this change, because unnecessary to such end, and directed to other and contrary ends. After this change, it became a war of passion, of ambition, of avarice, and of private interest, to which the general interests of Europe were sacrificed so entirely, that if the terms insisted on by the confederates had been granted, such a new system of power would have been created, as must have exposed the balance of that power to deviations, not inferior to those which the war was originally intended to prevent. (4)

While we reprobate this ambitious scheme, considered in a general view, we find particular occasion to lament the fate of Great Britain in the midst (1) Burnet, book vii.

(2) This mode of speaking seems to have been introduced, when the Spaniards were in possession of the Portuguese settlements in India, where all other Europeans were long considered as intruders; and when Spain asserted an exclusive right to the whole American continent, as well as to the contiguous islands, to which she gave the name of the West Indies. Hence too, by a still more ridiculous vanity, the Spanish monarchs still assume the title of "king of the East and West Indies."

(3) "I do not remember," says my lord Bolingbroke, "any parliamentary declaration for continuing the war till Philip V. should be dethroned, before the year 1706 and then such a declaration was judged necessary to second the resolution of our ministers and our allies, in departing from the principles of the grand alliance, and in proposing, not only the reduction of the French, but the conquest of the Spanish monarchy, as the object of the war." (Sketch of the Hist. and State of Europe.) And, little faith as is placed in the historical testimony of Bolingbroke, he seems here to have truth on his side, notwithstanding what has been advanced to the contrary by lord Walpole: who endeavours to prove, that although the king of England, and the states-general of the United Provinces, had acknowledged Philip V. to be lawful king of Spain, in virtue of the will of his predecessor Charles II., the primary object of the grand alliance was to deprive him of the throne of that kingdom, and place upon it a prince of the house of Austria. (Answer to the latter part of Lord Bolingbroke's Letters on the Study of History.) That such was the aim of the imperial family is very certain; but England and Holland, as I have already had occasion to show (Let. XX.), refused to engage for so much. In afterward going that length, they consequently altered or enlarged their plan. What is farther necessary to be observed on this intricate subject, may be found in the reflections introductory to the negotiations at Utrecht. (Letter XXIII.) Though a well wisher to the cause of the confederates, I scorn to conceal their errors or inconsistencies. No stipulation was originally made, in any article of the grand alliance, that a prince of the house of Bourbon should not be allowed to sit on the throne of Spain, or not possess, together with that kingdom, the Spanish dominions in America. But on the accession of Savoy and Portugal to the grand alliance, the confederates began to extend their views; and in consequence of the successes of the war, from 1703 to 1706, was formed the resolution, which made these observations necessary.

(4) The emperor Joseph, who died a few years after, was then without male issue. And the union of the kingdoms of Spain and Hungary with the German and Italian dominions of the house of Austria, in the person of the archduke Charles, supported by the wealth of the American mines, would have been no less dangerous to the liberties of Europe, independent of the weight of the imperial crown, than the Aion of the French and Spanish monarchies under Philip V. or his descendants.