intrenchments in front. He accordingly led on a body of fresh troops; entered the enemy's line, flanked a regiment of French guards, and obliged them to fly. Mareschal Villars, in hastening to support his centre, was wounded, and carried off the field. But Boufflers, notwithstanding this misfortune, continued obstinately to maintain the fight; and when he found he could no longer sustain the united efforts of prince Eugene and the duke of Marlborough, who showed that they were determined to conquer or perish, he made an excellent retreat.(1)

The confederates, after all their exertions, gained little besides the field of battle; and that they purchased with the lives of twenty thousand men. The French did not lose above half the number. But so imposing is the name of victory, that the allies were suffered to invest Mons, and to carry on their operations without the smallest disturbance. The surrender of that important place put an end to the business of the campaign in Flanders.(2) The confederates were less successful in other quarters. The elector of Brunswick, who commanded the army of the empire on the Upper Rhine, formed some important schemes, but found the imperial troops in no condition to second his views; and count de Merci, whom he had detached with a considerable body of forces into Upper Alsace, was defeated by the count de Bourg, and forced to repass the Rhine.(3) Certain disputes between the emperor and the duke of Savoy, relating to some territories in the dutchy of Milan, rendered the campaign altogether inactive on the side of Dauphiny.(4) In Spain, the chevalier d'Asfeld took the castle of Alicant, which was gallantly defended by two English regiments; and the English and Portuguese army, under the earl of Galway, was routed by the marquis de Bay, in the province of Estramadura. On the other hand, count Staremberg, who commanded the forces of Charles III. in Catalonia, having endeavoured in vain to bring the mareschal de Bezons to an engagement, took Balaguier in his presence, and closed the campaign with that successful enterprise.(5) Nothing memorable happened at sea.

Though the misfortunes of France, during this campaign, were by no means so depressing as she had reason to apprehend, Lewis XIV. renewed his applications for peace, as soon as the season of action was over; and conferences were appointed at Gertruydenberg, early in the spring, in order to adjust the terms. But it will be proper, before we enter into the particulars of that negotiation, to carry forward the story of Charles XII., and his antagonist Peter the Great.

The king of Sweden, after having acted in the imperious manner already related, quitted Saxony, in September, 1707, and returned, at the head of forty-three thousand men, to Poland; where the czar had attempted, though ineffectually, to retrieve the affairs of Augustus, during the absence of Charles. Peter, who was still in Lithuania, retired on the approach of the conquering Swede, and directed his march towards the Boristhenes, or Nieper. But Charles was determined that he should not escape without hazarding a battle before he reached his own dominions. Having entered Grodno on the same day that the czar left it, he therefore endeavoured, by forced marches, at that severe season in a northern climate, through a country covered with morasses, deserts, and immense forests, to come up with the enemy. Peter, however, safely passed the Boristhenes, notwithstanding this romantic pursuit; Charles having only the satisfaction of defeating, after an obstinate engagement, an army of thirty thousand Russians strongly intrenched, in order to obstruct his progress, and which partly effected its purpose.(6)

But the czar, though now in his own dominions, was not without apprehensions, in regard to the issue of the contest in which he was engaged; he, therefore, sent serious proposals of peace to Charles. "I will treat at Moscow!" said the Swedish monarch. "My brother Charles," replied Peter,

(1) Mem. de Fouquieres. Kane's Campaigns.

(2) Duke of Berwick's Mem. vol. ii. Voltaire, Siècle, chap. xx. State of Europe, 1709

(3) Burnet, book vii.

(5) Mem. de Noailles, tom. iii. State of Europe, 1709.

(6) Contin. Puffend. lib, vii. Voltaire, Hist. Ch. XII. lib. iv.

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(4) Id. ibid.

when informed of this haughty answer, "always affects to play the Alexander; but he will not, I hope, find in me a Darius."(1) This anecdote strongly marks the characters of these two extraordinary men. Charles, as brave and confident as Alexander, but utterly void of foresight, attempted, without concerting any regular plan of operations, to march to Moscow; and the czar took care to prevent him from reaching it, in the direct line, by destroying the roads and desolating the country.

Thus thwarted in his favourite project of marching directly to the ancient capital of Russia, and with his army much diminished by famine, fatigue, and partial engagements, the king of Sweden was induced to attempt a passage thither through the Ukraine, on the invitation of Mazeppa, chief of the Cossacks; who had taken a disgust at the czar, and promised not only to supply the Swedes with provisions on their march, but to furnish them with a reinforcement of thirty thousand men. These were to join the Swedish monarch on the banks of the Duna; where he expected also to be joined by general Lewenhaupt, whom he had ordered to march from Livonia, with a reinforcement of fifteen thousand Swedes, and a large supply of ammunition and provisions. Not once suspecting but every thing would correspond to his wish, the northern conqueror entered the Ukraine in the month of September, and advanced to the place of rendezvous, in spite of every obstacle, which nature or the enemy could throw in his way.

But fortune, at length tired of seconding the wild and inconsiderate enterprises of the foolhardy Charles, was now resolved to punish him severely for his contempt of her former favours. When he reached the Duna, he found nothing but frightful deserts, instead of magazines; and, instead of reinforcements, he saw a body of Russians on the opposite bank, ready to dispute his passage. Though his army was exhausted with hunger and fatigue, though ignorant of the fate of Lewenhaupt, and uncertain of the fidelity of Mazeppa, he determined to cross the river in the face of the enemy, and effected his purpose with little loss. Advancing still farther into that desolate country, he was at last joined by Mazeppa, who appeared rather as a fugitive prince, come to take refuge in his camp, than a powerful ally, from whom he expected succours. In place of thirty, he was only accompanied by about three thousand men. The czar, having received information of his intrigues, had ordered his principal friends to be apprehended, and broken upon the wheel. His towns were reduced to ashes, his treasure seized, and his troops dispersed.(2)

This disappointment was esteemed but a slight misfortune by the king of Sweden, who confidently expected the safe arrival of Lewenhaupt and his convoy. Lewenhaupt arrived, but in a condition no less deplorable than that of Mazeppa. After three successive engagements with the Russians, in which he distinguished himself equally by his courage and conduct, he had been obliged to set fire to his wagons, in order to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy, and was happy to escape with four thousand men; the wretched remnant of his gallant army, exhausted with fatigue, and ready to perish of hunger. Charles, who was now in no condition to relieve their necessities, was earnestly pressed by his minister, count Piper, to pass at least the depth of winter in a small town of the Ukraine, named Romana, and depend on the friendship of Mazeppa and the Cossacks for provisions; or to repass, without delay, the Duna and the Boristhenes, and return to Poland, where his presence was much wanted, and where his army might be conveniently put into winter quarters. He rejected both these proposals; and notwithstanding the rigour of the season, and although his army was in a great measure destitute of shoes and even of clothing, he determined to ceed. In this mad march, he had the mortification to see two thousand of his troops perish of hunger and cold. Yet he still pressed forward; and, after a variety of obstructions and delays, occasioned by the hovering parties of the enemy, and the most intense frosts ever known in those norther

(1) Voltaire, ubi sup

(2) Hist. Russ. chap. xvii. Hist. Charles XII, liv. iv,

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regions, he arrived in the neighbourhood of Pultowa, a small Russian town, situated on the river Worsklaw, at the eastern extremity of the Ukraine.(1) But of whatever extravagance Charles may be accused, in marching thus far, through a rugged and impracticable country, in a remarkably severe season, he cannot be blamed for endeavouring to make himself master of Pultowa. It was one of the magazines of the czar, and well stored with provisions and other necessaries, of which the king of Sweden was in great want. But besides being naturally strong, it was defended by a garrison of nine thousand men; and Peter lay, at no great distance, with an army of seventy thousand, ready to attempt its relief. These unfavourable circumstances might have staggered the resolution of a Cæsar or a Marlborough; but to Charles, whose desire of encountering danger was even stronger than his passion for conquest, they were only so many incentives to undertake the enterprise. He accordingly invested Pultowa with his half-famished army, now reduced to twenty-seven thousand men, eighteen thousand of whom only were Swedes; and yet with this small force, insufficient to cut off the communication between the garrison and the Russian army, he hoped not only to take the town, but to defeat and even to dethrone the czar, although his other disadvantages were many.

As Charles had been under the necessity of leaving the greater part of his heavy cannon in the morasses and defiles through which he passed, the regular progress of the siege was slow. The garrison bravely repelled all attempts to carry the place by assault; and the king of Sweden was dangerously wounded in the heel in viewing the works. Meanwhile, the czar, having collected his forces, advanced to the relief of Pultowa, and made such a disposition of his army as showed that he was no novice in the art of war. Charles, though greatly indisposed by his wound, was fired at the approach of an enemy whom he despised. Betrayed by a false idea of honour, he could not bear the thought of waiting for battle in his intrenchments. Having ap pointed eight thousand men to guard the lines before the town, he therefore ordered his army to march out, and attack the Russian camp, he himself being carried in a litter. The Swedes charged with incredible fury, and broke the Russian cavalry. But the horse rallied behind the foot, which remained firm; and the czar's artillery made such havock among the ranks of the assailants, that after a desperate combat of two hours, the Swedish army was utterly routed and dispersed. Nine thousand of the vanquished were left dead on the field, and about six thousand taken, together with the king's military chest, containing the spoils of Poland and Saxony. The remains of the Flemish army, to the number of twelve thousand, were obliged to surrender on the banks of the Boristhenes, for want of boats to carry them over the river; Charles himself, accompanied by three hundred of his guards, with difficulty escaping to Bender, a Turkish town in Moldavia. (2)

No victory was ever attended with more important consequences than that gained at Pultowa by Peter the Great. The king of Sweden lost, in one day, the fruits of nine years of successful war; and that veteran army, which had spread terror over Europe, was totally annihilated. The czar was not only relieved from all apprehensions inspired by a powerful antagonist, in the heart of his dominions, who threatened to deprive him of his throne, and to overthrow that grand scheme which he had formed for the civilization of his extensive empire, but enabled to forward his plan of improvement by means of the industry and ingenuity of his Swedish prisoners, whom necessity obliged to exert their talents in the most remote parts of Siberia. The elector of Saxony, hearing of the defeat of his conqueror, protested again. t the treaty of Alt-Ranstadt, as extorted from him by force, and re-entered Poland. His patron, the czar, followed him. Stanislaus was forced to relin quish his authority, and Augustus found himself once more in possession of the Polish throne. Peter revived the ancient pretensions of the czars to Livonia, Ingria, Carelia, and part of Finland; Denmark laid claim to Scania,

(1) Hist. Russ. ubi sup.

(2) Voltaire, ubi sup. Hist. du Nord. tom. ii. Contin. of Puffendorf. lib. vil.

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the king of Prussia to Pomerania; and had not the emperor and the maritime powers interposed, the Swedish monarchy would have been rent to pieces.

During these transactions Charles XII. remained at Bender; where, through his intrigues, conducted by Poniatowsky, a Polish nobleman who shared his misfortunes, he endeavoured to engage the Turks in a war with Russia. In the prosecution of those intrigues we must leave him, and the czar in the more laudable employment of civilizing his subjects, till we have terminated the memorable war between the confederates and the house of Bourbon, in regard to the Spanish succession.

LETTER XXIII.

The general View of Europe carried forward, from the Opening of the Conferences at Gertruydenberg, to the Treaties of Utrecht and Rastadt.

THOUGH the king of Sweden, during his prosperity, showed no inclination to interfere in the dispute between France and the confederates, Lewis XIV. had still expectations of being able to engage him in his cause. These expectations were considerably heightened by the keen indignation which Charles expressed at the emperor's open violation of the treaty of Alt-Ranstadt, as soon as he recovered from the terror of the Swedish arms. The allies were, therefore, relieved from no small degree of anxiety, by the total ruin of that prince's affairs, and Lewis was deprived of the last hope of desponding ambition. He accordingly offered the most advantageous terms of peace, in the preliminaries that were made the foundation of the conferences at Gertruydenberg.

As the principal sacrifices in these preliminaries were the same with those proffered in 1709, it will be unnecessary to repeat them here; more especially as they were not accepted. Lewis made additions to his concessions, after the commencement of the negotiation. He agreed not only to give up, as far as in his power, the Spanish monarchy, without any equivalent, and to acknowledge Charles III. lawful king of Spain, but to pay a subsidy of a million of livres a month, till his grandson Philip V. should be expelled. He relinquished even Alsace to the emperor; and as a security for the performance of the articles of the treaty, he engaged to deliver the fortified towns of French Flanders, yet in his possession, into the hands of the allies. But the haughtiness of the states, to whom prince Eugene and the duke of Marlborough, secure of the controlling influence of the pensionary Heinsius, had induced the emperor and the queen of England to commit the whole management of the negotiation, encouraged their deputies, Buys and Vander Dussen, to rise in their demands, in proportion as the plenipotentiaries of France advanced in their concessions. These insolent republicans went so far as to insist, that Lewis XIV., instead of paying a subsidy towards the war against Philip V., should assist the confederates, with all his forces, to drive his grandson from the Spanish throne. (1)

It was impossible for the French monarch to submit to so humiliating a requisition; and yet he was unwilling to break off the treaty. The conferences at Gertruydenberg were, therefore, idly protracted, while the armies, on both sides, took the field. At length, the mareschal d'Uxelles and the abbé de Polignac, the plenipotentiaries of Lewis, returned to Versailles, after having sent a letter to the pensionary Heinsius, declaring the demands of the deputies of the states unjust and unreasonable.(2)

In the mean time, the confederates were making rapid progress in Flanders. The duke of Marlborough and prince Eugene, having assembled the allied army more early than was expected, entered the French lines without

(1) De Torey, tom. fi.

(2) Id. ibid.

resistance, and sat down before Douay. This city, strong in its situation, but ill-fortified, was defended by a garrison of eight thousand men. Mareschal Villars, who had now joined the French army, which he was destined to command, determined to attempt the relief of the place. He accordingly crossed the Scarpe, and advanced within cannon-shot of the allies; but finding them strongly intrenched, and being sensible that the loss of one battle might endanger the very existence of the French monarchy, he thought proper to abandon Douay to its fate.(1) It surrendered after a siege of three weeks. Villars observed the same prudent conduct during the remainder of the campaign, which was concluded with the taking of Bethune, St. Venant, and Aire; places of great importance, but which were not acquired by the confederates without a vast expense of blood.

No memorable event happened in Germany during the summer, nor any thing of consequence on the side of Piedmont; where the vigilance of the duke of Berwick defeated all the attempts of the allies to penetrate into Dauphiny, notwithstanding their superior force. The campaign was more fruitful of incidents in Spain.

The two competitors for the crown of that kingdom took the field in person, and seemed determined to put all to the hazard of a battle. They accordingly met near Almanara. There general Stanhope, who commanded the British troops, slew with his own hand the Spanish general, Amessaga, and routed the cavalry of Philip V., while the count de Staremberg put the infantry to flight. The Spaniards were again defeated, in a more bloody engagement, at Saragossa. And in this victory, which threatened to decide the fate of the Spanish monarchy, the British troops, under general Stanhope, had also the chief share.

Charles III., instead of securing Pampaluna, the only pass by which French troops could enter Spain, marched directly to Madrid, at the head of his victorious army, and Philip V., who had retired thither, was obliged to quit his capital a second time. The aspect of things there, however, was little flattering to his rival. All the grandees had left the city; and the Castilians, in general, seemed resolved to shed the last drop of their blood, rather than have a king imposed upon them by heretics.(2)

Meantime, the duke de Vendome, whose reputation was still high, notwithstanding his unfortunate campaign in Flanders, having assumed at the request of Philip V., the chief command of the forces of the house of Bourbon in Spain, its affairs soon began to wear a new face. The Castilian nobles crowded, with their followers, round the standard of a general in whose conduct they could confide. And Vendome's army, strengthened by these brave volunteers, was farther reinforced by thirty-four battalions of French foot, and thirty-one squadrons of horse, detached by the duke of Berwick from Dauphiny. Another body of French troops assembled in Roussillon, was preparing to enter Catalonia, under the duke de Noailles; so that the generals of the allies, neglected by the courts of Vienna and Great Britain, as well as by the states-general, and at variance among themselves, were forced once more to abandon Madrid.

The confederates now directed their march towards Catalonia, whither Charles III. had already retired, in order to protect that warlike province; and, for the benefit of subsistence, they divided their army into two bodies. Staremberg, with the main body, marched in front, and Stanhope, with five thousand British troops, brought up the rear. Not reflecting that hope as well as fear gives wings to soldiers, the English general allowed himself to be surrounded by Vendome, in the village of Brihuega. He defended himself with great spirit; but the place being utterly destitute of fortifications, he was obliged to surrender at discretion, after a short but vigorous resistance.(3) Nor was this all.

Staremberg, apprized of Stanhope's danger, had marched, though reluctantly, to his relief, with the principal army. And this unwilling aid had

(1) Duke of Berwick's Mem. vol. ii. (2) Burnet, book vii. Hist. d'Espagne, tom. ii. (3) Id. ibid.