not a little elated with his victory. "The battle of Liesna," he says in his Journal, " is the true foundation of all the following successes of Russia, and our first essay in the art of war; it was the mother of the victory of Pultava, gained nine months later." 41 His joy was increased by the news which he soon after received of the miscarriage of an attempt of the Swedish general Lübecker to penetrate, with 12,000 men, from Finnland to the Neva, and to destroy St. Petersburg and Kronstadt.42 After a difficult march through the almost impassable forests of Severia, Charles arrived in November in the Ukraine. At Gorki, to his exceeding surprise and discouragement, he was met by Mazeppa, not as an ally with the 30,000 men whom he had promised, but as a fugitive and suppliant with some forty or fifty attendants! The Hetman had succeeded in inducing only about 5000 Cossacks to join his standard, and by these he had been deserted on the third day!43 Baturin, Mazeppa's capital, was taken by assault by Menschikoff, Nov. 14th. Charles took up his winter-quarters at the Cossack town of Gaditsch; where he lost several thousands of his men through the intensity of the cold and continual skirmishes. In the spring of 1709 he somewhat recruited his numbers by an alliance with the Saporogue Cossacks," whom Mazeppa persuaded to join the Swedes. But the army was in a miserable state. The men's clothes were worn out and sufficed not to protect them from the weather, and many hundreds were without shoes. Mazeppa, as well as Piper, counselled a retreat into Poland; but Charles listened in preference to Rhenskiöld and his new allies the Saporogues, who were for besieging Pultava. The Swedes sat down before that place April 4th. The siege had lasted more than two months with little effect, when an army of 60,000 Russians, under Scheremeteff, Menschikoff and Bauer, the Czar himself serving as colonel of the guards, was announced to be approaching to its relief. Although Charles's army numbered only about 20,000 men, nearly half of whom were Cossacks and Wallachians, he resolved to give battle. A wound in the foot, received " Tagebuch, B. i. S. 219. 42 Ibid. p. 223. 43 Hermann, Gesch. Russlands, B. iv. S. 242. Some writers, however, represent Mazeppa as bringing 4000 or 5000 men. 54 These hordes were so called from their inhabiting the islands beneath the waterfalls (sa parogi, Russ.) of the Dniepr, some 300 miles beyond Kiev. This singular people, a sort of male Amazons, who lived chiefly by plunder, professed to repudiate the commerce of women, and were recruited by renegades from all nations. Nevertheless their numbers seem also to have been kept up in the natural way, though their wives were domiciled in distant places, and were not allowed to be seen in the Setschj, or capital of the men; a sort of town or village of mud huts surrounded with an earthen rampart. See Engel, Gesch. der Kosaken, S. 43 (Allgem. Welthistorie, Halle, 1796); Lundblad, Th. ii. S. 95 f. 240 BATTLE OF PULTAVA. [Book V. a few days before while reconnoitring, obliged the Swedish King to relinquish the command in chief on this important day to Rhenskiöld, although he himself was present on the field in a litter. It is said that the movements of the Swedes were not conducted with their usual firmness; it is certain that they were short of ammunition, and without cannon; and though they made several desperate charges with the bayonet, and displayed all their usual valour, they were at length compelled to yield to superior numbers. Of the Swedish army, 9000 men were left on the field and about 3000 were made prisoners; among whom were Rhenskiöld himself, the Prince of Würtemberg, Count Piper, and several other distinguished personages. Charles, whose litter was found on the field shattered to pieces by balls, escaped with difficulty in a carriage. Peter distinguished himself by his activity and courage on this eventful day. Mounted on a little Turkish horse presented to him by the Sultan, he flew through the ranks encouraging his men to do their duty. A bullet pierced his cap; another lodged in his saddle. After the battle, he entertained the captured generals at his table, presented Rhenskiöld with his own sword, and caused that of the Prince of Würtemberg to be restored to him.45 The VICTORY OF PULTAVA, achieved July 8th 1709, may be said to form an epoch in European history as well as in the Swedish and Russian annals. It put an end to the preponderance of Sweden in Northern Europe, occasioned the Grand Alliance to be renewed against her, and ultimately caused her to lose the conquests of Gustavus Adolphus and Charles X. Russia, on the other hand, now began to step forward as a great European Power. The penetrating mind of Peter saw at a glance the importance of his victory, which he commanded to be annually celebrated. In a letter addressed to Admiral Apraxin at St. Petersburg only a few hours after the battle, he observes: "Our enemy has encountered the fate of Phaeton, and the foundation stone of our city on the Neva is at length firmly laid." 46 The annihilation of the remnant of the Swedish army was speedily achieved. Of the 54,000 Swedes that had quitted Saxony, and the reinforcement of 16,000 led by Löwenhaupt, only 9000 remained; the rest had perished in the steppes of Russia. With this small force Charles was disposed again to try his fortune against the enemy; but he was at length persuaded by his generals to cross the Dniepr with an escort of a few hundred 45 Peter now assumed, at the request of his ministers, generals, officers and soldiers, the title of Lieut.-General in the army, and Rear-Admiral at sea. Tagebuch, B. i. S. 271. 46 Halem, Leben Peters d. Gr., B. i. S. 270 (Leipzig, 1803). men, and accompanied by Mazeppa, to seek a refuge at Bender, in Bessarabia, where he was honourably received by the Turkish commandant. Before he took his departure, he intrusted the command of the army to Löwenhaupt, and he had some hopes that that general would be able to effect his escape into Tartary; but on the approach of a Russian division under Menschikoff, Löwenhaupt surrendered on capitulation (July 11th). Thus was annihilated an army which a few months before had been deemed invincible; and Sweden was unable to furnish another. The misfortunes of Charles XII. occasioned the renewal of the Grand Alliance against Sweden. Frederick IV. of Denmark concluded a treaty with Augustus at Dresden, June 28th 1709, by which he engaged to invade Sweden so soon as the Czar should have acceded to the alliance. Thus the false step which Charles had made in marching to the Ukraine was already plain to standers by before the battle of Pultava. After that event, Lubomirski, with several other Polish nobles, proceeded to Dresden to invite Augustus to resume the crown of Poland; and that prince, declaring that the Peace of Altranstädt had been imposed upon him by force, marched to Thorn with an army of 13,000 men; the Confederation of Sandomir was renewed, Stanislaus, deserted by most of his adherents, retired into Pomerania, and Augustus II. was again generally recognised. The Czar Peter, who had proceeded to Warsaw in September, was congratulated by the Diet on his victory at Pultava, which, they said, had preserved their liberties and restored to them their legitimate king!18 Early in October Peter had an interview with Augustus at Thorn, when a reconciliation took place between them and their former alliance was renewed. Augustus renounced the pretensions of the Polish Republic to Livonia, and Peter promised him a corps of 1000 men. The King of Denmark was received into the alliance, and a league offensive and defensive was concluded at Copenhagen between him and the Czar, Oct. 22nd.49 Frederick I. of Prussia entered into defensive treaties with the allies, and promised to aid them so far as might be compatible with the neutrality which he had assumed. In consequence of this renewal of the Grand Alliance, Frederick IV. declared war against Sweden, Nov. 9th 1709, and in the course of that month a Danish army of 18,000 men landed in Schonen, 47 The Porte had made proposals for an alliance to Charles after he had dethroned Augustus, and he appears to have reckoned on the support of the Khan of VOL. III. R Tartary on arriving in the Ukraine. Von 242 SWEDISH REVERSES IN GERMANY. [Book V. took Helsingborg, and laid siege to Landscrona and Malmö. But they were defeated by Stenbock, March 10th 1710, and compelled to reembark. In the course of this year (1710) the Emperor of Germany, Great Britain, and the States-General concluded two treaties (March and August 50) guaranteeing the neutrality of all the states of the Empire, including the Swedish and Danish; to the latter of which treaties the King of Prussia and several other German princes acceded. But Charles XII. having protested from his retirement at Bender against these treaties, and declared that he should regard the parties to them as his enemies, the northern allies considered themselves absolved from their obligation of neutrality towards his German possessions; and in August 1711, a combined army of Saxons, Poles, and Russians crossed the Oder, occupied Anclam and Greiswald, and blocked Stralsund. In the following year siege was laid to Stettin, while the Danes, having crossed the Elbe, took Stade and occupied the duchies of Bremen and Verden. On the other side the Swedish general Stenbock entered Mecklenburg, occupied Rostock, Nov. 14th, and on the 20th, defeated the King of Denmark in person at Gadebusch. Hence he penetrated into Holstein and burnt Altona (Jan. 9th 1713); a disgraceful act which he attempted to justify on the plea of retaliation. But after several reverses, he was compelled by the allies to surrender with his whole army (May 16th).51 The Swedish possessions in Germany being deprived of all defence by this event, the Swedish ministers, in the hope of saving some portion of them, proposed a sequestration into the hands of the King of Prussia. The throne of that kingdom was now occupied by Frederick William I., Frederick I. having expired Feb. 25th 1713. Frederick William was not averse to a proposal which might ultimately place many important towns in his hands without the risk or expense of fighting for them; and the northern allies on their side were willing to conciliate a sovereign whose enmity might be dangerous to them. By the Convention of Schweedt,52 Oct. 6th 1713, Prince Menschikoff agreed, on the part of the northern allies, that Stettin, Demmin, Anclam, Wolgast, and other places of . Swedish Pomerania, should be placed in the hands of the King of Prussia, and should be occupied till a peace by garrisons composed partly of his soldiers, and partly of those belonging to the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp. so Dumont, t. viii. pt. i. p. 249 and 254. By the Capitulation of Oldensworth. Ibid. p. 388. 2 Ibid. p. 407. We must now cast a glance on the affairs of the Czar, and of his adversary, Charles XII., since the battle of Pultava. After the capitulation of the Swedish army, Scheremeteff was despatched with 40,000 men into Livonia to secure that important province and the coast of the Baltic. Peter himself, after his interview with Augustus II. at Thorn already related, proceeded, in November, to Riga, and opened the siege of that place by firing three bombs with his own hand. Hence he hastened to the Neva to inspect the progress of his new city, for the adornment of which his nobles were ordered to construct palaces of stone. Among other improvements, a canal was planned between Lake Ladoga and the Volga, by which a water communication was established with the Caspian Sea. Towards the close of the year Peter entered Moscow with a triumphal procession, in which figured the captured Swedes. In 1710 the conquest of Livonia and Carelia was completed. Meanwhile Charles XII. had been straining every nerve to incite the Porte to hostilities against Russia; in which he was assisted by his friend Count Poniatowski, by the Khan of Tartary, and by the French ambassador at Constantinople. Their efforts at length succeeded. On November 21st 1710, the Sultan Achmet III. declared war against the Czar, and, according to Turkish custom, imprisoned Tolstoi, the Russian ambassador, in the Seven Towers. Peter, relying on the negociations which he had entered into with the Hospodars of Moldavia and Wallachia, despatched a Russian division, under Scheremeteff, to the Pruth; and he himself set off in the same direction in the spring of 1711. Demetrius Cantemir, the Hospodar of Moldavia, a prince of Greek origin, who had engaged to assist the Czar in his war with the Turks on condition that Peter should aid him in rendering his sovereignty hereditary, induced the Russians to cross the Pruth by representing that they would be able to seize some considerable Turkish magazines. But Peter, when he had crossed the river, found that he had been completely deceived. The Moldavians were not inclined to rise, and the want of forage and other necessaries soon compelled the Czar to retreat. But he had not proceeded far when he was overtaken and hemmed in by the Turkish army, which was infinitely more numerous than his own, in a spot between the Pruth and a morass. In this situation, to retreat or to advance was equally impossible; yet the want of provisions allowed him not to remain stationary. Despair now seized the heart of Peter. A single hour might upset all those plans and labours for the benefit of his country which had occupied his whole life; and in |