neighbourhood of Asoph, where he caused that harbour to be cleansed, new ships to be built, and the citadel of Taganroc to be repaired. Thus did he employ the time that passed between the battle of Lesnau and Pultowa, in preparing for the defence of his dominions. As soon as he heard the Swedes had laid siege to the town, he mustered all his forces the horse, dragoons, infantry, cossacks, and calmucks, advanced from different quarters. His army was well provided with necessaries of every kind; large cannon, field pieces, ammunition of all sorts, provisions, and even medicines for the sick this was another degree of superiority which he had acquired over his rival.

On the 15th day of June, 1709, he appeared before Pultowa, with an army of about sixty thousand effective men; the river Workslaw was between him and Charles. The besiegers were encamped on the north-west side of that river, the Russians on the south-east.

Peter ascends the river above the town, fixes his barges, marches over with his army, July 3. and draws a long line of intrenchments,

which were begun and completed in one night, in the face of the enemy. Charles might then judge, whether the person whom he had so much despised, and whom he thought of dethroning at Moscow, understood the art of war. This disposition being made, Peter posted his cavalry between two woods, and covered it with

several redoubts, lined with artillery. July 6. Having thus taken all the necessary measures, he went to reconnoitre the enemy's camp, in order to form the attack.

This battle was to decide the fate of Russia, Poland, and Sweden, and of two monarchs, on whom the eyes of all Europe were fixed. The greatest part of those nations, who were attentive to these important concerns, were equally ignorant of the place where these two princes where, and of their situation; but, knowing that Charles XII. had set out from Saxony, at the head of a victorious army, and that he was driving his enemy every where before him, they no longer doubted that he would at length entirely crush him; and that, as he had already given laws to Denmark, Poland, and Germany, he would now dictate conditions of peace in the Kremlin of Moscow, and make a new czar, after having already made a new king of Poland. I have seen letters from several public ministers to their respective courts, confirming this general opinion.

The risk was far from being equal between these two great rivals. If Charles lost a life, which he had so often and wantonly exposed, there would, after all, have been but one hero less in the world. The provinces of the Ukraine, the frontiers of Lithuania, and of Russia, would then rest from their calamities, and a stop would be put to the general devastation which had so long been their scourge. Poland would, together with her

54

tranquillity, recover her lawful prince, who had been lately reconciled to the czar, his benefactor; and Sweden, though exhausted of men and money, might find motives of consolation under her heavy losses.

But, if the czar perished, those immense labours, which had been of such utility to mankind, would be buried with him, and the most extensive empire in the world would again relapse into the chaos from whence it had been so lately taken.

There had already been some skirmishes be tween the detached parties of the Swedes and Russians, under the walls of the town.

In one of these rencounters Charles had June 27. been wounded by a musket ball, which had shattered the bones of his foot: he underwent several painful operations, which he bore with his usual fortitude, and had been confined to his bed for several days. In this condition he was informed that Peter intended to give him battle; his notions of honour would not suffer him to wait to be attacked in his intrenchments. Accordingly he gave orders for quitting them, and was carried himself in a litter. Peter the Great acknowledges that the Swedes attacked the redoubts, lined with artillery, that covered his cavalry, with such obstinate valour, that, notwithstanding the strongest resistance, supported by a continual fire, the enemy made themselves masters of two redoubts. Some writers say, that when the Swedish infantry found themselves in possession of the two redoubts, they thought the day their own, and began to cry out-Victory. The chaplain, Norberg, who was at some great distance from the field of battle, amongst the baggage (which was indeed his proper place) pretends, that this was a calumny; but, whether the Swedes cried victory or not, it is certain they were not victorious. The fire from the other redoubts was kept up without ceasing, and the resistance made by the Russians, in every part, was as firm as the attack of their enemies was vigorous. They did not make one irregular movement; the czar drew up his army without the intrenchments, in excellent order, and with surprising despatch.

The battle now became general. Peter acted as major-general; Baur commanded the right wing, Menzikoff the left, and Sheremeto the centre. The action lasted two hours: Charles, with a pistol in his hand, went from rank to rank, carried in a litter, on the shoulders of his drabans; one of which was killed by a cannon ball, and at the same time the litter was shattered in pieces. He then ordered his men to carry him upon their pikes ; for it would have been difficult, in so smart an action, let Norberg say as he pleases, to find a fresh litter ready made. Peter received several shots through his clothes and his hat; both princes were continually in the midst of the fire during the whole action. At length, after two hours desperate engagement, the Swedes were taken on all sides, and fell into confusion; so that Charles was obliged

to fly before him whom he had hitherto held in so much contempt. This very hero, who could not mount his saddle during the battle, now fled for his life on horseback: necessity lent him strength in his retreat: he suffered the most excruciating pain, which was increased by the mortifying reflection of being vanquished without resource. The Russians reckoned nine thousand two hundred and twenty-four Swedes left dead on the field of battle, and between two and three thousand made prisoners in the action, the chief of which were cavalry.

Charles XII. fled with the greatest precipitation, attended by the remains of his brave army, a few fieldpieces, and a very small quantity of provisions and ammunition. He directed his march southward, towards the Boristhenes, between the two rivers Worshaw and Psol, or Sol, in the country of the Zaporavians. Beyond the Boristhenes are vast deserts, which lead to the frontiers of Turkey. Norberg affirms, that the victors durst not pursue Charles; and yet he aknowledges that prince

Menzikoff appeared on the neighbourJuly 12. ing heights, with ten thousand horse

and a considerable train of artillery, while the king was passing the Boristhenes.

Fourteen thousand Swedes surrendered themselves prisoners of war to these ten thousand Russians; and Lewenhaupt, who commanded them, signed the fatal capitulation, by which he gave up those Zaporavians who had engaged in the service of his master, and were then in the fugitive army. The chief persons taken prisoners in the battle, and by the capitulation, were count Piper, the first minister, with two secretaries of state, and two of the cabinet; field-marshal Renschild, the generals Lewenhaupt, Slippenbac, Rozen, Stakelber, Creutz, and Hamilton, with three general aides-de-camp, the auditor-general of the army, fifty-nine staff-officers, five colonels, among whom was the prince of Wirtemberg; sixteen thousand nine hundred and forty-two private men and non-commissioned officers: in short, reckoning the king's own domestics, and others, the conqueror had no less than eighteen thousand seven hundred and forty-six prisoners in his power; to whom, if we add nine thousand two hundred and twenty-four slain in battle, and near two thousand that passed the Boristhenes with Charles, it appears plainly, that he had, on that memorable day, no less than twenty-seven thousand effective men under his command.*

Charles had begun his march from Saxony with forty-five thousand men, Lewenhaupt had brought upwards of sixteen thousand out of Livonia, and

*The Memoirs of Peter the Great, by the pretended boyard Iwan Nestesuranoy, printed at Amsterdam, in 1739, say, that the king of Sweden, before he passed the Boristhenes, sent a general officer with proposals of peace to the czar. The four volumes of these Memoirs are either a collection of untruths and absurdities, or compilations from common newspapers.

yet scarce a handful of men were left of all this powerful army; of a numerous train of artillery, part lost in his marches, and part buried in the morasses; he had now remaining only eighteen brass cannon, two haubitzers, and twelve mortars; and with this inconsiderable force he had undertaken the siege of Pultowa, and had attacked an army provided with a formidable artillery. Therefore he is, with justice, accused of having shown more courage than prudence, after his leaving Germany. On the side of the Russians, there were no more than fifty-two officers and one thousand two hundred and ninety-three private men killed; an undeniable proof that the disposition of the Russian troops was better than those of Charles, and that their fire was infinitely superior to that of the Swedes.

We find, in the memoirs of a foreign minister to the court of Russia, that Peter, being informed of Charles's design to take refuge in Turkey, wrote a friendly letter to him, intreating him not to take so desperate a resolution, but rather to trust himself in his hands than in those of the natural enemy to all Christian princes. He gave him, at the same time, his word of honour, not to detain him prisoner, but to terminate all their differences by a reasonable peace. This letter was sent by an express as far as the river Bug, which separates the deserts of the Ukraine from the grand seignior's dominions. As the messenger did not reach that place till Charles had entered Turkey, he brought back the letter to his master. The same minister adds further, that he had this account from the very person who was charged with the letter.* This anecdote is not altogether improbable; but I do not meet with it either in Peter's journals, or in any of the papers intrusted to my care. What is of greater importance, in relation to this battle, was its being the only one of the many that have stained the earth with blood, that, instead of producing only destruction, has proved beneficial to mankind, by enabling the czar to civilize so considerable a part of the world.

There have been more than two hundred pitched battles fought in Europe, from the commencement of this century to the present year. The most signal, and the most bloody victories, have produced no other consequences than the reduction of a few provinces, ceded afterwards by treaties, and retaken again by other battles. Armies of a hundred thousand men have frequently engaged each other in the field; but the greatest efforts have been attended with only slight and momentary successes; the most trivial causes have been productive of the greatest effects. There is no instance, in modern history, of any war that has compensated, by even a better good, for the many evils it has occasioned; but, from the battle of Pultowa, the greatest empire under the sun has derived its present happiness and prosperity.

*This fact is likewise found in a letter, printed before the Anecdotes of Russia, p. 23,

CHAPTER XIX.

Consequences of the battle of Pultowa-Charles XII. takes refuge among the Turks.--Augustus, whom he had dethroned, recovers his dominions.-Conquests of Peter the Great.

1709. THE chief prisoners of rank were now presented to the conqueror, who ordered their swords to be returned, and invited them to dinner. It is a well known fact, that, on drinking to the officers, he said, "To the health of my masters in the art of war." However, most of his masters, particularly the subaltern officers and all the private men, were soon afterwards sent into Siberia. There was no cartel established here for exchange of prisoners between the Russians and Swedes; the czar, indeed, had proposed one before the siege of Pultowa, but Charles rejected the offer, and his troops were, in every thing, the victims of his inflexible pride.

It was this unseasonable obstinacy that occasioned all the misfortunes of this prince in Turkey, and a series of adventures, more becoming a hero of romance than a wise or prudent king; for, as soon as he arrived at Bender, he was advised to write to the grand vizir, as is the custom among the Turks; but this he thought would be demeaning himself too far. The like obstinacy embroiled him with all the ministers of the Porte, one after another; in short, he knew not how to accommodate himself either to times or circumstances.*

The first news of the battle of Pultowa produced a general revolution in minds and affairs in Poland, Saxony, Sweden, and Silesia. Charles, while all powerful in those parts, had obliged the emperor Joseph to take an hundred and five churches from the Catholics in favour of the Silesians of the confession of Augsbourg. The catholics then no sooner received news of the defeat of Charles, than they repossessed themselves of all the Lutheran temples. The Saxons now thought of nothing but being revenged for the extortions of a conqueror, who had robbed them, according to their own account, of twenty-three millions of

crowns.

The king of Poland, their elector, immediately protested against the abdication that had been ex

torted from him, and being now reconAug. 8. ciled to the czar, he left no stone un

turned to reascend the Polish throne. Sweden, overwhelmed with consternation, thought her king for a long time dead, and in this uncertainty the senate knew not what to resolve.

Peter in the mean time determined to make the

La Motraye, in the relations of his travels, quotes a letter from Charles XII. to the grand vizir; but this letter is false, as are most of the relations of that mercenary writer, and Norberg himself acknowledges that the king of Sweden never could be prevailed on to write to the vizir.

best use of his victory, and therefore despatched marshal Sheremeto with an army into Livonia, on the frontiers of which province that general had so often signalized himself. Prince Menzikoff was sent in haste with a numerous body of cavalry to second the few troops left in Poland, to encourage the nobles who were in the interest of Augustus, to drive out his competitor, who was now considered as no better than a rebel, and to disperse a body of Swedes and troops that were still left in that kingdom under the command of the General Crassau.

The czar soon after sets out in person, marches through the province of Kiow and the palatinates of Chelm and Upper Volhinia, and at length arrives at Lublin, where he concerts measures with the general of Lithuania. He then reviews the crown troops, who all take the oath of allegiance to king Augustus, from thence he proceeds to Warsaw, and at Thera enjoyed the

most glorious of all triumphs, that of re- Sept. 18. ceiving the thanks of a king, whom he had reinstated in his dominions. There it was that he concluded a treaty against Sweden, with the kings of Denmark, Po- Octob. 7. land, and Prussia: in which he was resolved to recover from Charles all the conquests of Gustavus Adolphus. Peter revived the ancient pretensions of the czars to Livonia, Ingria, Carelia, and part of Finland; Denmark laid claim to Scania, and the king of Prussia to Pomerania.

Thus had Charles XII. by his unsuccessful valour, shook the noble edifice that had been erected by the prosperous bravery of his ancestor Gustavus Adolphus. The Polish nobility came in on all sides to renew their oaths to their king, or to ask pardon for having deserted him; and almost the whole kingdom acknowledged Peter for its protector.

To the victorious arms of the czar, to these new treaties, and to this sudden revolution, Stanislaus had nothing to oppose but a voluntary resignation: he published a writing called Universale, in which he declares himself ready to resign the crown, if the republic required it.

Peter, having concerted all the necessary measures with the king of Poland, and rectified the treaty with Denmark, set out directly to finish his negotiation with the king of Prussia. It was not then usual for sovereign princes to perform the function of their own ambassadors. Peter was the first who introduced this custom, which has been followed by very few. The elector of Brandenburg, the first king of Prussia, had a conference with the czar at Marenverder, a small town situated in the western part of Pomerania, and built by the old Teutonic knights, and included in the limits of Prussia, lately erected into a kingdom. This country indeed was poor, and of a small extent; but its new king, whenever he travelled, displayed the utmost magnificence; with great splendour he had received czar Peter at his

first passing through his dominions, when that prince quitted his empire to go in search of instructions among strangers. But he received the conqueror of Charles XII. in a still more Oct. 20. pompous manner. Peter for this time concluded only a defensive treaty with him, which afterwards, however, completed the ruin of Sweden.

Not an instant of time was lost. Peter having proceeded with the greatest despatch in his negotiations, which elsewhere are wont to take up so much time, goes and joins his army, then before

Riga, the capital of Livonia; he began Nov. 21. by bombarding the place, and fired off the three first bombs himself; then changed the siege into a blockade; and, when well assured that Riga could not escape him, he repaired to his city of Petersburg, to inspect and forward the works carrying on there, the new

buildings, and finishing of his fleet; and Dec. 3. having laid the keel of a ship of fiftyfour guns with his own hands, he returned to Moscow. Here he amused himself with assisting in the preparations for the triumphal entry which he exhibited in that capital. He directed every thing relating to that festival, and was himself the principal contriver and architect.

The year 1710, Jan. 1. He opened the year 1710 with this solemnity, so necessary to his subjects, whom it inspired with notions of grandeur, and was highly pleasing to every one who had been fearful of seeing those enter their walls as conquerors, over whom they now triumphed. Several magnificent arches were erected, under which passed in triumph, the artillery, standards, and colours, taken from the enemy, with their officers, generals, and ministers, who had been taken prisoners, all on foot, amidst the ringing of bells, the sound of trumpets, the discharge of a hundred pieces of cannon, and the acclamations of an innumerable concourse of people, whose voices rent the air as soon as the cannon ceased firing. The procession was closed by the victorious army, with the generals at its head; and Peter, who marched in his rank of major-general. At each triumphal arch stood the deputies of the several orders of the state; and at the last was a chosen band of young gentlemen, the sons of boyards, clad in Roman habits, who presented a crown of laurels to their victorious monarch.

This public festival was followed by another ceremony, which proved no less satisfactory than the former. In the year 1708 happened an accident the more disagreeable to Peter, as his arms were at that time unsuccessful. Mattheof, his ambassador to the court of London, having had his audience of leave of queen Anne, was arrested for debt, at the suit of some English merchants, and carried before a justice of peace to give security for the monies he owed there. The merchants insisted that the laws of commerce ought to prevail before the privileges of foreign ministers; the

czar's ambassador, and with him all the public ministers, protested against this proceeding, alleging that their persons ought to be always inviolable. The czar wrote to queen Anne, demanding satisfaction for the insult offered him in the person of his ambassador.

But the queen had it not in her power to gratify him; because, by the laws of England, tradesmen were allowed to prosecute their debtors, and there was no law that excepted public ministers from such prosecution.* The murder of Patkul, the czar's ambassador, who had been executed the year before by the orders of Charles XII. had encouraged the English to show so little regard to a character which had been so cruelly profaned. The other public ministers who were then at the court of London, were obliged to be bound for the czar's ambassador; and at length all the queen could do in his favour, was to prevail on her par

The czar, says the preface to lord Whitworth's account of Russia, who had been absolute enough to civilize savages, had no idea, could conceive none, of the privileges of a nation civilized in the only rational manner by laws and liberties. He demanded immediate and severe punishment of the offenders: he demanded it of a princess whom he thought interested to assert the sacredness of the persons of monarchs, even in their representatives; and he demanded it with threats of wreaking his vengeance on all English merchants and subjects established in his dominions. In this light the menaces were formidable; otherwise, happily, the rights of the whole people were more sacred here than the persons of foreign ministers. The czar's memorials urged the queen with the satisfaction which she herself had extorted, when only the boat and servants of the earl of Manchester had been insulted at Venice. That state had broken through the fundamental laws to content the queen of Great Britain. How noble a picture of government, when a monarch, that can force another nation to infringe its constitution, dare not violate his own? One may imagine with what difficulty our secretaries of state must have laboured through all the ambages of phrase in English, French, German, and Russ, to explain to Muscovite ears and Muscovite understandings, the meaning of indictments, pleadings, precedents, juries, and verdicts; and how impatiently Peter must have listened to promises of a hearing next term? With what astonishment must he have beheld a great queen, engaging to endeavour to prevail on her parliament to pass an act to prevent any such outrage for the future? What honour does it not reflect on the memory of that princess to own to an arbitrary emperor, that even to appease him she dare not put the meanest of her subjects to death uncondemned by law.-There are, says she, in one of her despatches to him, insuperable difficulties, with respect to the ancient and fundamental laws of the government of our people; which we fear do not permit so severe and rigorous a sentence to be given as your imperial majesty at first seemed to expect in this case; and we persuade ourself, that your imperial majesty, who are a prince famous for clemency and exact justice, will not require us, who are the guardian and protectress of the laws, to inflict a punishment upon our subjects which the law does not impower us to do. Words so venerable and heroic, that this broil ought to become history, and be exempted from the oblivion due to the silly squabbles of ambassadors and their privileges. If Anne deserved praise for her conduct on this occasion, it reflects still greater glory on Peter, that this ferocious man should listen to these details, and had moderation and justice enough to be persuaded by the reason of them.

Feb. 16.

*

liament to pass an act, by which no one for the future could arrest an ambassador for debt; but after the battle of Pultowa, the English court thought proper to give satisfaction to the czar. The queen made by a formal embassy an excuse for what had passed. Mr. Whitworth, the person charged with this commission, began his harangue with the following words-"Most high and mighty emperor." He told the czar that the person who had presumed to arrest his ambassador, had been imprisoned and rendered infamous. There was no truth in all this, but it was sufficient that he said so, and the title of emperor, which the queen had not given Peter before the battle of Pultowa, showed the consideration he had now acquired in Europe.

This title had been already granted him in Holland, not only by those who had been his fellow-workmen in the dockyards at Saardam, and seemed to interest themselves most in his glory, but likewise by the principal persons in the state, who unanimously styled him emperor, and made public rejoicings for his victory, even in the prosence of the Swedish minister.

The universal reputation which he had acquired by his victory of Pultowa, was still further increased by his not suffering a moment to pass without making some advantages of it. In the first place, he laid siege to Elbing, a Hans town of Regal Prussia in Poland, where the Swedes had still a garrison. The Russians scaled the walls, entered the town, and the garrison surren

dered prisoners of war. This was one Mar. 11. of the largest magazines belonging to Charles XII. The conquerors found therein one hundred and eighty-three brass cannon, and one hundred and fifty-seven April 2. mortars. Immediately after the reduction of Elbing, Peter re-marched from Moscow to Petersburg; as soon as he arrived at this latter place, he took shipping under his new fortress of Cronslot, coasted along the shore of Carelia, and notwithstanding a violent storm, brought his fleet safely before Wyburg, the capital of Carelia in Finland; while his land

forces advanced over the frozen morassJune 23. es, and in a short time the capital of

Livonia beheld itself closely block aded; and after a breach was made in the walls, Wyburg surrendered, and the garrison, consisting of four thousand men, capitulated, but did not receive the honours of war, being made prisoners notwithstanding the capitulation. Peter charged the enemy with several infractions of this kind, and promised to set these troops at liberty as soon as he should receive satisfaction from the Swedes for his complaints. On this occasion the king of Sweden was to be consulted, who continued as inflexible as ever; and those soldiers, whom, by * Afterwards created lord Whitworth by king George I.

a little concession, he might have delivered from their confinement, remained in captivity. Thus did king William III. in 1695, arrest marshal Boufflers, notwithstanding the capitulation of Namur. There have been several instances of such violations of treaties, but it is to be wished there never had been any.

After the taking of this capital, the blockade of Riga was soon changed into a regular siege, and pushed with vigour. They were obliged to break the ice on the river Dwina, which waters the walls of the city. An epidemical disorder, which had raged some time in those parts, now got amongst the besiegers, and carried off nine thousand; nevertheless, the siege was not in the least slackened; it lasted a considerable time, but at length the garrison capitulated, and were allowed the honours of war; but it was July 15. stipulated by the capitulation, that all the Livonian officers and soldiers should enter into the Russian service, as natives of a country that had been dismembered from that empire, and usurped by the ancestors of Charles XII. But the Livonians were restored to the privileges of which his father had stripped them, and all the officers entered into the czar's service: this was the most noble satisfaction that Peter could take for the murder of his ambassador, Patkul, a Livonian, who had been put to death for defending those privileges. The garrison consisted of near five thousand men. A short time afterwards the citadel of Pennamund was taken, and the besiegers found in the town and fort above eight hundred pieces of artillery of different kinds.

Nothing was now wanting to make Peter entirely master of the province of Carelia but the possession of the strong town of Kexholm, built on an island in the lake of Ladoga, and deemed impregnable it was bombarded soon after, and surrendered in a short time. The Island of Oesel in the sea, bordering on the Sep. 19. north of Livonia, was subdued with Sep. 23. the same rapidity.

Aug. 25

Sep. 10.

On the side of Esthonia, a province of Livonia, towards the north, and on the gulf of Finland, are the towns of Pernau and Revel: by the reduction of these Peter completed the conquest of all Livonia. Pernau surrendered after a siege of a few days, and Revel capitulated without waiting to have a single cannon fired against it; but the besieged found means to escape out of the hands of the conquerors at the very time that they were surrendering themselves prisoners of war: for some Swedish ships, having anchored in the road, under favour of the night, the garrison and most of the citizens embarked on board, and when the besiegers entered the town, they were surprised to find it deserted. When Charles XII. gained the victory of Narva, little did he expect that his troops would one day be driven to use such artifices.