the common weal, and that no exception could be made in favor of Livonia. The measure was unjust, and-if written charters and royal signatures mean anything-illegal; a brutal and irritated governor-general carried it out with unnecessary harshness. The Landrath Budberg and Captain Patkul were sent to Stockholm to explain and defend the privileges of the Livonian nobility, and did it with such eloquence that the King was moved, touched Patkul on the shoulder, and said: "You have spoken like an honest man for your fatherland. I thank

But evil counselors prevailed, several high nobles were arrested, and Patkul was condemned to death on the charge of high treason. He succeeded in escaping from Stockholm, and passed several years in wandering over Europe, devoting himself to study, and, among other things, translating into French the book of Puffendorf on the duties of a man and a citizen. But he was watching for an opportunity to revenge himself, and do what he could for his native country. This opportunity he thought had come on the death of King Charles XI., when Sweden was left to the rule of a boy. Patkul was a singularly able and brilliant man, but we cannot at once admit his patriotism. He defended only the rights of his class, which included his own. That there existed in Livonia any other class besides the nobility whose rights were worth respecting, seems not to have entered his

mind any more than the mind of many nobles nowadays in the Baltic provinces, who claim an exclusive regard to their rights and privileges over the general welfare of the community. In the protest to the Swedish Government, there was no discussion of the point whether the "reduction" was or was not better for the mass of the population. All that was claimed was that it infringed on the rights of the nobility. Patkul knew that it would be impossible for the small province of Livonia to become an independent state, and if it threw off the Swedish yoke it must immediately take upon itself that of some other power. Poland was a republic of nobles, and under such rule the nobility could be sure of keeping its rights. The King, too, was a German prince who could sympathize with Germans.

6

It seemed to him that the misery and distress inflicted on the population by a war were of far less moment than that the nobility should be reduced from wealth to comparative poverty. Indeed, the address of the Diet at Wenden, which was drawn up by | Patkul, had said this very thing, "that Livonia was reduced by the reduction' to such despair that if it pleased God to give them the choice of a devastating invasion. of an enemy or the unendurable persecution which they were now undergoing, they would unquestionably choose the former rather than the latter misfortune." Apart from the natural feelings which make a military nobility stand up for its rights and

the Porte if he should promise the Catholic missionaries permission to travel freely through his dominions to China, and that in this way he would also get the good will of Venice and of the Pope, and especially of the influential College of the Propaganda at Rome. In making an arrangement with Russia, it was desirable that an agreement should be made for the Tsar to assist the King both with money and with troops, especially infantry, "who would be most serviceable for working in the trenches, and for receiving the enemy's shots; while the troops of the King could be preserved and used for covering the approaches." It would also be absolutely necessary "to bind the hands of the Tsar in such a way that he should not eat before our eyes the piece roasted for us, that is, should not get hold of Livonia, and should restrict himself to Ingermanland and Karelia. He should not even be allowed to attack Narva, for in that case he could threaten the center of Livonia, and take Dorpat, Reval, and the whole of Esthonia almost before it could be known at Warsaw." As to other countries, Austria had too much to avenge for what she had suffered during the Thirty Years' War, and at the peace of Westphalia, to do anything to the advantage of Sweden. France would have enough on her hands, in view of the approach of a war for the Spanish succesAlthough England and Holland would "doubtless make loud cries about

sion.

they would probably not do anything. In any case, it would be best to assure them that all the hindrances to commerce which had existed in Livonia under the Swedish rule would be done away with. As further inducements, Patkul assured the King of the easy conquest of Livonia, gave him exact accounts of the fortifications of Riga, and showed him from letters that he had already formed a conspiracy in Riga itself, and was only waiting for the proper moment to act.

The King entered into Patkul's views, and agreed to the coalition and to the war. In order to cover up the secret negotiations with Denmark, he sent the Senator Galecky as embassador to Charles XII. The greatest difficulty in the way of Augustus, was how to induce the Polish Diet to agree to the war. If the matter were discussed before the Diet, there would be great delay, and Sweden would take the alarm, and there might even be opposition and a refusal to engage in the war. If the matter were not presented to the Diet, there might be jealousy on the part of the

Augustus, and united itself forever to the Republic of Poland, preserving its internal administration, laws, and institutions. In a secret article, which was not shown to the Cardinal, the Livonian nobility agreed to recognize the sovereignty of Augustus and his successors, and to send the taxes directly to them, even in case they were no longer Kings of Poland.

To secure the entrance of Russia into the alliance, General Carlowitz, who had previously accompanied Peter from Poland on his journey home, and was much liked by him, was sent as special envoy to make a secret treaty. He was accompanied by Patkul, disguised under the name of Kindler. To prevent any rumors or any suspicions, Carlowitz took with him twelve Saxon mining engineers who had been engaged for the Russian service.

CHAPTER XI.

RUSSIA JOINS THE LEAGUE.

AFTER King Charles XII. had been declared of age and the government of Sweden had been handed over to him by his grandmother, Hedwiga Eleanora, he sent word to Moscow that he would speedily send an embassy to confirm the treaty of Cardis, as was customary on the accession of a new ruler. Knipercrona, the Swedish Resident at Moscow, was informed that the embassy would be received with pleasure if it should arrive before the end of the Carnival, because after that the Tsar was going to the south of Russia for a prolonged absence. Nothing, however, was heard of the embassy during the winter, and it was only in the middle of June, 1699, when the Tsar was with his fleet at Azof, that the Swedish embassadors appeared on the frontier. Although Apráxin, the Voievode of Novgorod, gave them all facilities, they were still two months on their way to Moscow. Leo Naryshkin received them politely, but expressed his inability to understand why they should have chosen that time to come, when they must have known that the Tsar was absent, if his message had been properly delivered by the Swedish Resident. He added that the Tsar was so far off that it was impossible for them to go to him, and that they had better deliver their letters of credence to the ministry, as other envoys had done. As they were not envoys, but embassadors come to ratify the

treaty of Cardis, and could deliver their letters to no one except His Majesty, there was nothing for them to do but to wait, and Peter did not arrive at Moscow until the 7th of October. He found there two embassies waiting for him-that of the Swedes to confirm the treaty of peace, and that of King Augustus, asking him to make war on Sweden. The Tsar was glad of the proposition of Augustus, and was perfectly ready to join in the alliance of Poland and Denmark, but on condition that he should have no open rupture with Sweden before the conclusion of peace with the Turks. He had already made a treaty of alliance and mutual aid with Denmark, but it was general in its terms and not particularly directed against Sweden. The negotiations with the Swedes went on openly at the foreign office; that with the Poles was carried on secretly at Preobrazhensky, and none besides Peter and Carlowitz, except Golovín, the Danish minister Heins,. and Shafírof, who acted as interpreter, were admitted to the secret. It was known that negotiations of some sort were going on with Carlowitz, but it was thought that they were for the purpose of concluding a treaty between the King and the Tsar in consequence of the rumored intentions of Augustus to overthrow the republic and establish an absolute monarchy in Poland. Some strength was perhaps given to this belief by the oft-repeated expression of Peter, that he loved the King of Poland as a brother, but that the Poles were good for nothing, even to the devil. The Swedes themselves apparently suspected nothing. They were received with great honor at the palace, where they gave up the presents they had brought, including, among others, a full-length portrait of King Charles XII.* In the absence of news from Turkey, it was necessary to go through the form of confirming the previous treaties with Sweden, but it was a little salve to the conscience of the Tsar that he could avoid taking an oath on the Gospels to keep them. This oath was insisted upon by the embassadors, but was refused by the Tsar on the ground that he had already taken it when he first came to the throne, and that it was neither necessary nor customary to repeat it. In proof of this, the Russians adduced the journal of the proceedings on the occasion of the accession of Queen Christina,

*This portrait was burnt, in 1706, by a fire that destroyed the house of Prince Menshikóf.