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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ecdc35 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #55272 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55272) diff --git a/old/55272-0.txt b/old/55272-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index e354d46..0000000 --- a/old/55272-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,13448 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Kings-At-Arms, by Marjorie Bowen - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Kings-At-Arms - -Author: Marjorie Bowen - -Release Date: August 6, 2017 [EBook #55272] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KINGS-AT-ARMS *** - - - - -Produced by Chuck Greif, MFR and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was -produced from images made available by the HathiTrust -Digital Library.) - - - - - - - - - - - KINGS-AT-ARMS - - _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ - - - I WILL MAINTAIN - DEFENDER OF THE FAITH - GOD AND THE KING - THE QUEST OF GLORY - THE GOVERNOR OF ENGLAND - PRINCE AND HERETIC - THE CARNIVAL OF FLORENCE - “WILLIAM, BY THE GRACE OF GOD”-- - THE THIRD ESTATE - GOD’S PLAYTHINGS - SHADOWS OF YESTERDAY - - - E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY - - - - - KINGS-AT-ARMS - - BY - MARJORIE BOWEN - - [Illustration: colophon] - - NEW YORK - E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY - 681 FIFTH AVENUE - - _Published 1919_ - E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY - - _All Rights Reserved_ - - _Printed in the United States of America_ - - - - -CONTENTS - - -PART I - -THE CONQUEROR - - -BOOK I KARL XII - -CHAPTER PAGE - -I 1 -II 11 -III 20 -IV 30 - - -BOOK II PETER ALEXIEVITCH - -I 38 -II 47 -III 56 -IV 65 - - -BOOK III JOHN RHEINHOLD PATKUL - -I 75 -II 85 -III 94 -IV 103 - - -BOOK IV AURORA VON KÖNIGSMARCK - -I 112 -II 122 -III 132 -IV 141 - - -BOOK V THE ELECTOR AUGUSTUS - -I 150 -II 160 -III 170 -IV 180 - -BOOK VI THE BETRAYAL - -I 190 -II 200 -III 210 -IV 219 - - -PART II - -POLTAVA - -I 228 -II 238 -III 248 -IV 256 - - -PART III - -EXILE - -I 265 -II 275 -III 285 -IV 294 -V 300 -VI 309 - - -PART IV - -FREDRIKSSTEN - - - - -KINGS-AT-ARMS - - - - -PART I - -THE CONQUEROR - - “Presque toutes ses actions, jusqu’à celles de sa vie privée et - amie, out été bien loin au delà du vraisemble. C’est peut-être le - seul de tous les hommes, et jusqu’ici le seul de tous les rois, qui - ait réçu sans faiblesse; il a port toutes les vertus à au ecès où - elles sont aussi dangereuses que les vices opposés.”--VOLTAIRE. - - - - -BOOK I - -KARL XII - -“A name at which the world grew pale.”--S. JOHNSON. - - - - -CHAPTER I - - -A lady, haughty and fierce in her natural character, but schooled to at -least the outward show of a cold patience by long years of training in -submission to the wills of men, sat in a little private dining-room of -her palace at Stockholm and frowned with an air of discontent and pride -at her companion, a gentleman, elderly but much younger than herself, -who stood by the fireplace and looked on the ground; he also had an air -by no means well satisfied, but though he was only a minister and she -was a Queen he had never been as much in the background as she, nor so -forced to subdue an imperious spirit, for she was a woman, and women -had never counted for much in Sweden. - -They did not like each other, Count Piper, the late King’s minister, and -Eleanora Edwiga, the late King’s mother; she knew that she owed to him -her forced retirement from the brief-prized power that she had held as -Regent, and he thought her very presence in the palace was vexatious and -that her place was in retirement with her prayer-book and her -embroidery, but for the moment they were in the same position and might -be useful to each other, therefore, tacitly ignoring mutual dislike, -they became allies. - -“I do not know,” said the Queen, “why we talk about these things, for, -of course, the King will do as he wishes.” - -She spoke with a certain chill triumph, and Count Piper knew that her -words meant, “If I cannot rule my grandson, neither can you”; he also -knew that she spoke from pure malice, and that she found every use in -discussing the affairs that composed her life. - -“Naturally, Madame,” he answered quietly, “the King will do as he likes. -It is for us to find out what he does like.” - -The old woman gave him a long and rather bitter look. - -“Do you not know?” she asked. - -“No, Madame,” smiled Count Piper. - -“Well, I do,” replied the Queen sharply. “He likes just what any boy of -eighteen likes,” she glanced at the table with covers for three, elegant -but not splendid. “And he is late for dinner,” she added, and the love -of old age for trifles showed in her acid tone. - -Count Piper seemed faintly amused. - -“It would be strange if His Majesty should be ordinary--considering his -lineage,” he replied. “And he was very carefully trained.” - -The Queen was hit through her pride in her husband and her son. - -“Karl’s breed will show later,” she said stiffly, “for the moment he -is--as I said--eighteen.” - -“A good age,” remarked Count Piper, a little sadly. “I wish I -was--eighteen----” - -“Or King of Sweden at any age,” snapped the Queen. “You always were -ambitious, Count.” - -“Only to serve,” he answered meekly. - -The Queen glanced from the table to the door; expectancy and vexation -showed in her face; she was tall and still upright, spare and haggard, a -Dane, and of a pure Northern type; she had been handsome in a cold, hard -fashion, and was now rather terrible in her gaunt colorlessness, her -sunk blue eyes, her pinched nose, her lipless mouth; all the long -structure of her face showed and the flesh seemed polished on the -temples, the cheek bones, and chin. - -No look of wisdom nor compassion nor resignation softened this -countenance; her glance was still that of a fighter who has grown bitter -in the struggle. - -Her dress, of gold and purple brocade, was rich and in tolerable -imitation of the fashion of Versailles; a lace headdress crowned her -white curls and she wore some costly rubies on her knotted fingers. - -The room of this Northern Princess, which was situate in that portion of -the Royal Palace of Stockholm that had been saved from the great fire of -two years ago, and that was filled with the distant sound of the workmen -rebuilding the edifice in a style in keeping with the increased grandeur -of Sweden, was simple, yet in a way splendid; the dark paneled walls and -ceiling gave the apartment a somber air, as did the inlaid and heavy -furniture; it was a cold day in early spring and the sky was gray; from -where the Queen sat she could see this grayness reflected in the water -from which the palace rose, and the bridges, houses, and waterways -beyond all colorless in the cold light of the sad midday. - -Count Piper kept his glance on the dark rug at his feet; he was tingling -with thoughts of great issues and large events; it was the eve of big -affairs for his prosperous and successful country which was menaced by -many and powerful enemies eager to seize the chance to despoil a -youthful King; Count Piper felt himself equal to dealing with these -concerns--but he was only a councilor of state, and must wait the -pleasure of that same youthful King who even now was keeping him waiting -for his dinner. - -A slight impatience with fate darkened his thin clever face; it seemed -so cruel a blow for Sweden that the late King, stern, wise, just, should -die in his prime leaving his heritage in the hands of a boy and an old -woman. - -The Queen suddenly broke the prolonged pause. - -“I seldom or never hear the truth, of course,” she said abruptly. “But -you, Count, must have means of knowing many things. Tell me,” and her -tone betrayed an anxiety she would never have owned to, “what do the -people say of Karl?” - -Count Piper knew perfectly well what was the general opinion of the -young King--that he was considered idle, haughty, obstinate, and -autocratic--the public was not likely to take any other view of one -wholly devoted to amusements, and who gave no sign of being of the breed -of his heroic father and grandfather beyond the imperious pride with -which, on several occasions, he had asserted his position. - -But Count Piper attached little importance to this verdict of the world -and did not choose to repeat it to the ears of the Queen Dowager. - -“His Majesty,” he replied, “has already given tokens of a spirit such as -the Swedes love, and they await his manhood with many hopes.” - -“He has spirit enough for ordinary impudence,” remarked the old woman -drily; she was thinking how, as a boy of fifteen, he had removed her -from the regency and assumed the government himself, and how, at his -coronation, he had snatched the crown from the archbishop’s hands and -placed it on his brow himself. “Has he spirit enough to go to war, and -wit enough to be successful if he does?” - -The statesman looked grave. - -“I count upon his ancestors,” he replied. - -The Queen would have returned a sharp answer, but the door opened -noisily and the subject of their talk entered the room with an unsteady -step and dropped into the chair with arms at the head of the table. - -He wore a very rich hunting suit of violet velvet laced with silver; -this was torn and muddy, his lawn shirt and his wrist ruffles were -bloody, as were his hands and the sheaths of the long knives he wore -thrust into his belt. - -“Am I late?” he asked. “I had a mind not to come back at all. It was -pleasant in the woods.” - -The Queen rose with a glance of disgust for his attire and his -condition; he had never yet appeared before her so soiled from the -chase. And he was obviously intoxicated. She hesitated for a second, -then rang the silver bell by her side and took her seat opposite to her -grandson, at the end of the table. - -Count Piper came quietly to his place between the King and Queen. - -“There is much business for you to-day, sir,” he said. - -“Business?” said Karl; he laughed, dragged at his napkin and sent over a -glass. - -The lackeys entered with the dinner and there was silence in the somber -little room; both the Queen and Count Piper were looking covertly at the -young King. - -His appearance, even in his present dishevelment and intoxication, was -most remarkable; he did not need his kingship to make him -conspicuous--in any company, on any occasion, he would have been -noticed. - -He was then in his eighteenth year, fully and perfectly developed, tall -and vigorous above the common even in a nation of tall and vigorous men, -graceful with the grace of health and strength, and easy with the ease -of one born to occupy always the place of command and power. - -His countenance expressed nothing but pride, which was, however, -tempered by a certain calm tolerance; his brow was low and broad, the -nose short, blunt, and clearly cut, the mouth large, curved, and mobile, -the chin rounded, the face wide, the eyes very handsome, of a pure blue -free from any admixture of gray and well-set under heavy arching brows; -these eyes were full of a serenity that was almost a blankness, a look -curious and not altogether either amiable or attractive; there was -something about the young man’s whole appearance that was strange, -something difficult, perhaps impossible, to describe. - -Count Piper, who had observed him long and closely, had once said to -himself, “Karl is like an animal--or a god,” which he felt to be a -foolish comparison, yet knew that it expressed that peculiar impression -made by the King--an impression that whatever he was he was not ordinary -humanity--scarcely humanity at all, but something beyond, or, at least -outside, manhood. - -Yet now he was ordinary enough in his clothes torn by the violence of -the chase and stained by the blood of the animals whom he had slain, his -strength and his wits alike beyond his control through the wine he had -drunk. - -His hair, which was light brown and very thick, hung in a quantity of -loosely entwined curls, through those on his shoulders was tied a long -black ribbon; the front locks hung down either side his cheeks and -across his forehead into his strange eyes. - -His grandmother looked at him with less curiosity and less friendliness -than did Count Piper. - -“It is as well that I did not bid your sisters dine with us to-day,” she -said, as she saw the King fill his glass with a strong shaking hand. - -He drank his wine and then stared at her; in silence he set the beaker -down, and then laughed in a way that curled his mouth unpleasantly. - -It was remarkable how his personality even now, when he was not master -of himself, seemed to fill the room, making the other two people and the -whole surrounding but a background to his fierce young figure. - -Dish after dish was removed; only the Queen ate, as if she disdained to -be disturbed. - -“Your Majesty enjoyed the chase?” asked Count Piper suddenly; he wiped -his mouth with his napkin, using a precise movement. - -“I killed three bears,” said Karl; he laughed again, showing his strong, -perfect teeth. - -“You spend your time well,” said the old Queen bitterly. “And now you -will sleep all the afternoon, and drink all the evening. And to-morrow -the chase again.” - -“And three more bears,” smiled the King. - -His grandmother looked at him with a coldness that approached aversion. - -“Your father’s death was a great misfortune,” she said--“for Sweden.” - -“Sweden does very well,” returned Karl indifferently. - -“That,” put in Count Piper gently, “is a question that your Majesty must -better acquaint yourself with.” - -Karl lifted his head which had sunk forward on his broad chest; his face -was flushed and his eyes bloodshot; he spoke thickly. - -“No councils of state--no councils of state, and dull speeches and silly -disputes,” he said. - -“And no interviews with your wretched sister and her ruined husband, who -are here to crave your succor,” added the Queen sarcastically. - -“Does my sister complain of me?” muttered Karl haughtily. - -“The Duchess of Holstein is in terrible straits,” remarked Count Piper -gravely. - -“Well,” asked Karl, “are not you, Count, capable of helping my -brother-in-law to keep his little duchy?” - -The minister was quick to seize his moment. “It is only your Majesty can -do that,” he said, and leant towards the King. - -“Only I,” repeated Karl stupidly. “And why is that?” - -“Who else in Europe,” said Count Piper, “can face at once the King of -Denmark, the King of Poland, and the Czar of Muscovy?--who but the son -of Karl XI, the grandson of Karl X?” - -At this open appeal to pride and vanity the Queen pushed back her chair -with a movement of contempt; the young man’s eyes gleamed for a second; -he put his hand to his forehead in a confused manner, pushing back the -tangled light curls. - -“Are you frightened by three such names, like the children with talk of -ogres?” sneered the Queen. “Indeed, you look capable, sire, of facing -the greatest man in the world!” - -“And who is that?” asked Karl, still amazed and stupid. - -“Why, that is the Czar of Muscovy,” replied the old woman, composed and -vicious and heedless of Count Piper’s look of warning, “the man we shall -all be begging for pity soon--that will be a pleasant day for me--a -woman who has had such a husband and such a son.” - -Karl stared at her. - -“I am not afraid of the Czar of Muscovy,” he replied. - -The Queen laughed, the thin and heartless laugh of old age. - -“I am sure your Majesty is afraid of nothing,” said Count Piper quickly, -“but you must be a little fearful for Sweden.” - -Karl gave a sullen glance at the speaker; he was still drinking and -could hardly hold himself upright in his chair; a shadow passed over the -face of the minister; he would not look at the Queen for he knew her -expression would be one of sour triumph; his tired eyes narrowed and he -kept them fixed on the King. - -Karl leant forward with a lurching movement and stared into his glass in -which still hung, as he tipped it, a drop of brilliant wine. - -“The Czar,” he muttered, “the Czar----” - -Then he suddenly broke into fury, dashed down the glass, and staggered -to his feet. - -“God help you, Madame,” he shouted at the Queen, “but do you think that -I am no match for the Czar of Muscovy?” - -He stood as if he threatened her, flushed and with eyes gleaming as only -bright blue eyes can. - -The Queen turned a wax-yellow color as her cold blood receded from her -face. - -“I think you are no company for a lady’s table,” she said bitterly. - -Karl turned round passionately. - -“Piper,” he cried, “Piper--did I not say I would have no more of old -women?” - -He tried to leave the table, but being unsteady on his feet and fastened -in his place by a heavy chair could not at once do so; Count Piper--for -some minutes on his feet--sprang forward to free him, but the King, with -fierce impatience, pushed back the chair and stumbled towards the door. - -One of his spurs had entangled in the lace border of the cloth, his -impetuous movement violently dragged at this, and in an instant all that -was on the table, plate, fruit, wine, glasses, and china, was pulled to -the ground and scattered over the floor; the King, still with the lace -clinging to his spur, staggered back against the wall beside the door -and the Queen rose, rigid with anger and disgust. - -Karl laughed, lifting his lip from his teeth; Count Piper stooped, tore -off the lace from the King’s spur, seized him by the arm and led him -from the room, closing the door on the wrecked table and the grim figure -of the old Queen ringing furiously her silver bell. - -Dexterously the councilor guided the King’s stupid steps down the short -corridor; at the end of this they came face to face with two women, who -were turning down the passage that led at right angles to the stairs. - -One was the King’s elder sister, the Duchess of Holstein, who had come -with her husband to Stockholm to implore her brother’s assistance; she -was tall, fair, and finely made, like Karl, pure Scandinavian in type -and of a demeanor rather cold. - -She gave one glance under her lids at the two men and hurried on; but -her companion lingered and gazed at the King with wide eyes; she was -fairer than the Duchess, so fair that her hair was more like silver than -gold, and her complexion more like a lily than a rose, if she should -have been praised in poetry, but her eyes were a deep brown and, dilated -as they were now, appeared black. - -The King pushed back his draggled curls to stare at her, which he did -with insolence. Count Piper tried to draw him away; the lady colored -till it seemed as if a fire had dyed her in a bright reflection, and -hurried away with the haste of shame. - -“Viktoria,” said Karl, “she is a pretty creature for a King’s -fancy--that woman.” And he spoke so that the object of his speech must -have heard. - -Count Piper, with greater determination than he had yet shown, dragged -at his master’s arm, guided him to his own cabinet, and helped him into -a chair there. - -Then he closed the door and stood with his back to it; the King stared -absently at his clothes stained with blood, and dirt and wine. - - - - -CHAPTER II - - -Count Piper stood looking thoughtfully at the King; he was wondering if -the young man was sober enough to make it worth while speaking to him; -he doubted this, and yet time was short--a question of hours might -decide the fate of Sweden. - -Karl sat immovable; across his slightly upturned face fell a pale ray of -sun that had faintly penetrated the clouds and entered the small room, -and in this light that was so dim as to be almost colorless, the King’s -countenance, framed in the loose flowing, light hair, had such a strange -effect that it almost startled Count Piper, even though he had known the -King from babyhood and daily watched his lineaments. Very obvious now -was that inhuman look, a serenity, a reserve that was neither disdain -nor secrecy but mere indifferency, a look of something large and noble -and cold in the wide, handsome face that did not belong to ordinary -mankind. - -This was not attractive, this expression, it inspired a certain fear -even in one as familiar with it as Count Piper--yet the King was only a -haughty boy, soiled from his rough sport and drunk--a boy who had been -insolent to his kinswoman and who had insulted his sister’s friend -almost in her presence. - -“Your Majesty,” said Count Piper, looking away from those calm, blank -blue eyes, “will you forgo the chase to-morrow to attend the Council of -State?” - -The King sighed. - -“Yes, I will come,” he said, with a gentleness that Count Piper was not -expecting. - -“And give your mind to the business in hand?” added the councilor, for -he could recollect council meetings when Karl had sat in an aloof -silence commonly attributed to a haughty stupidity, with his feet on the -table and his hands in his pockets. - -Karl slowly turned his fine head and looked at his friend. - -“You are very kind to me,” he remarked gravely. - -“Your Majesty is not just to yourself,” replied the Count. - -An expression of bewilderment crossed the King’s face; he put his -strong, blood-stained hand to his forehead. - -“I am drunk,” he said. - -Count Piper could not repress a movement of impatience. - -“Yes, your Majesty is drunk,” he replied, “and at this moment three -Kingdoms are in league against you--to deprive you of all you have.” - -There was no response in the attitude or expression of the King. - -Count Piper tried the name that had roused him to such passionate -violence before. - -“Is the son of Karl XI going to permit the Czar of Muscovy to add so -easily to his laurels?” - -Karl remained calm. - -“Why are these three princes at war with me?” he asked slowly. - -“Because they think that you are a foolish boy,” replied Count Piper -instantly. “Because they believe that in such hands as yours Sweden can -do nothing against them. Denmark is your hereditary enemy--Saxony is an -adventurer, keeping on foot an army at all costs--and the Czar--is the -most ambitious man in Europe.” - -“What does he want?” asked Karl. - -“All the land between the Gulf of Finland, the Baltic Sea, Poland, and -Muscovy,” replied the councilor laconically. - -Karl laughed; it had a meaningless sound. - -“My land,” he said. - -“Precisely, sire.” - -The King, still holding his head and still confused, spoke again, slowly -and insistently, like a child asking artless, but to himself important -questions. - -“What are the Czar’s objects--tell me, Count?” he asked. - -The more stupidly calm his master showed the more the diplomat dared -show his annoyance--after all, this boy was eighteen, of a race of -heroes, carefully trained and had shown already some signs of greatness -as in the matter of his coronation and his refusal to be ruled by a -woman, and it was intolerable that he should sit here fuddled with wine, -staring with eyes blank as those of any fool. - -“The Czar needs an outlet--a fort--on the Baltic,” he replied, in a tone -of fierce sarcasm; “the Czar is a man of vast schemes, of a wide -ambition--of a fair measure of greatness, too--he has taught his people -much--he would teach them the art of war. At your expense, sire.” - -“And Saxony and Poland help him--yes, you told me so--we discussed this -the other day.” - -“We have spoken of it many times,” replied the councilor bitterly. - -Karl did not heed him. - -“And there is my poor brother Gottorp-Holstein ruined--and my sister -weeping here for help,” he said slowly; “that is a pretty creature she -has with her, Count----” - -“Will your Majesty add that to your other amusements--so soon?” -interrupted Count Piper. - -His glance went wistfully over the splendid young man who stared at him -so stupidly. “I must learn to make my court to a Marquise de Maintenon -or an Aurora von Königsmarck!” he added. - -“Who is she--Aurora von Königsmarck?” asked the King. - -“A thing like this piece your Majesty admires--one of those creatures -who get their feet on the necks of kings!” - -“Not great kings!” said Karl, with a sudden short laugh, showing his -teeth in a disagreeable manner. - -“Mostly great kings,” replied the Count drily. “From Thäis to our poor -Aurora--you may search history and you will never find your conqueror, -your hero without them--and it is human nature--you can no more avoid -them than you can flowers at a feast, or flags at a victory--and is this -to be your Majesty’s choice? I know nothing of the girl.” - -The King had been listening with some intentness; he unaccountably -flushed. - -“I like neither flowers nor flags,” he said. “I will rule without women, -Piper.” His eyes narrowed with a look of intelligence. “Is there any -king in the world now, Piper, who is free of women?” - -The councilor shook his head. - -“There is the King of England, sire, who is a grave and great -Monarch--but he largely owed his fortunes to his wife and has been a -different man since her death----” - -“I will have no wife,” said Karl instantly. “I will be greater than the -King of England--Count, were there women in the sagas? Did the Vikings -care for maids or wives?” - -The older man smiled. - -“I will forgive you your women, sire, and your chase, and your wine--if -you will but keep Sweden great--and make her greater.” - -But the glow of energy had passed from the King’s strange face, the -broad lids dropped over the wide blue eyes. - -“Talk to me later,” he muttered, and turned his head away on the dark -cushions of the chair. - -Count Piper hesitated a moment, then, seeing that the young man was -falling into a heavy sleep, he, with a little bitter shrug, left the -cabinet, gently closing the door behind him, frowning as he did so with -an annoyance that he could, for all his training, scarcely control. - -He went straight to the apartments of the Duchess of Gottorp, the King’s -sister, whose husband had been the first victim of the league against -Sweden. - -She was in her hood and cloak, ready for some poor diversion of a ride -or walk, a sad, anxious lady beneath her air of princely reserve. - -The dreary air of the old palace, which was both dull and unhomelike, -pervaded these apartments of the fugitive princess; she looked and felt -like an exile as she drew off her gauntlet and gave her bare hand to -Count Piper. - -She knew that he was her ally and could be of more use to her husband -than any man in Sweden, but she was surprised at seeing him now as she -had just been with the Queen Dowager and had heard in what condition the -King had left the table; therefore she had hoped for nothing to-day, -which she had already put aside as another space of wasted time. - -“Madame,” said Count Piper, “you have a lady in your service named -Viktoria?” - -The Duchess frowned, instantly cold. - -“I do not like her, Count.” - -“I do not think that I do,” replied the Count reflectively, “but I want -to speak to her, Highness.” - -The Duchess looked at him sharply. - -“What do you know about her?” she asked quickly. - -“Nothing at all,” smiled Count Piper. “It is you, Madame, who should -know what there is to know about this lady.” - -The Duchess seemed vexed. - -“Her father is a great man in Gottorp--I found she had a right to come -to court” - -“And to come with you here, Highness, to Stockholm?” asked the Count, -with a shade of regret in his voice. - -“How could I help it?” demanded the Duchess on the defensive. “They were -ruined--like ourselves--had lost everything. I could do nothing but -offer this shelter to one who had been sacrificed in our cause.” - -Count Piper fingered the brown curls of the wig that hung on to the -heart of his somber coat and looked reflectively at the floor; the -Duchess eyed him, and her fair face was hard in the shadow of her hood -and her blue eyes had darkened with emotion. - -“It is not pleasant to return to one’s country as I have returned--an -exile and a fugitive,” she said, in a heavy voice, “to wait here day by -day, like a poor petitioner, to gain my brother’s ear--but it is an -added bitterness to think that I have brought with me one who will be a -mischief in Sweden.” - -“So your Highness thinks of this lady as a mischief?” asked the Count -thoughtfully. - -“You know, sir,” she replied, disdainful of pretense, “that is what you -came to tell me.” - -“No,” he said, looking at her straightly. “I think she might be useful.” - -“To whom?” cried the Duchess. - -“To Sweden.” - -As the King’s sister understood the King’s minister, she colored swiftly -and drew a step away from him. - -“This is not Versailles,” she said. Then in a tone of real disgust, -“Heavens! would you seek to rule the King through women?” - -“If it was the only way.” - -“A boy!” - -Count Piper lifted his shoulders. - -“She is the type--the temperament--they have noticed each other. He -speaks of her.” - -“Not when he is sober,” flashed the Duchess. - -“Believe me, Madame,” he answered gravely, “he is ensnared. And his -first love. It will be serious.” - -The Duchess tapped her foot impatiently. - -“And I came to Stockholm for this!” she exclaimed, full of contempt and -revolt. - -“So much depends on the lady--why should she not be our friend, -Highness? The friend of Sweden? That wench might save the country if she -chose to persuade the King that way--let us use her, instead of -flouting her, Madame.” - -The Duchess was silent a second, struggling with a pride that bade her -speak scornful words; she knew that Count Piper but followed the usual -procedure of courts, but his worldly wisdom disgusted her, and, -desperate as she was, and cause as she had to be angry with her brother, -she did not care to think of him as sunk in foolish weakness; the men of -her house had never been feeble. - -Yet she knew, by a deep instinct and a jealous observation, that -Viktoria had greatly attracted the King, and she thought that, bold, -fair, and worldly as this woman was, she would not forgo any advantage -for any scruple. - -“I leave it in your hands,” she said at last. “I cannot speak to her -myself. I will send her to you while I go for my walk.” - -She went from the room as if not too well pleased with Count Piper, and -he, left alone in the dreary atmosphere of the narrow apartment, began -to slightly doubt the wisdom of the course he had set himself. - -But he was aroused; he was afraid as only a brave man can be afraid, -mistrustful as only a wise man can be mistrustful, roused in his pride -as a statesman and as a Swede; he believed the Czar Peter to be -terrible--more terrible than anyone yet guessed; ambitious, fierce, one -eager to rule who yet did not disdain to learn--a dangerous combination; -he believed the King of Denmark malicious and active; and the third of -the King’s enemies, Augustus of Saxony, King of Poland, he believed to -be equally formidable--a fribble, a rake, but an important pawn, a sharp -tool in the hands of others--a valuable asset to such a man as the Czar. - -Sweden had possessions all of these envied--they did not hesitate to -stretch out their hands and take them from one whom they knew to be a -boy and believed to be defenseless. - -The two former Kings had made Sweden great--this King might lose all -that greatness so easily. - -Count Piper’s shrewd face hardened as he thought of the tipsy youth -slumbering in his cabinet; his delicate mission seemed easier as he -reflected on that foolish degradation. - -And it was not likely that the woman was of finer clay than the man whom -she sought to enslave; Count Piper was hardened towards her with whom he -had to deal before he had spoken to her; her quiet entry found him cold -and prepared. - -Her curtsey was slow; she had her eyes fixed on him the while. - -It was the first time that he had seen her close and face to face; his -practised glance noted, first that she was not a girl, secondly that she -was as clever as she was fair; it was an intelligence equal to his own -that looked at him out of those clear brown eyes. - -And she was certainly very fair; there was no fault in her exact -features, in her pure complexion, none in her exquisite form, unless it -might be that she was too tall and too slender. - -Her dress was over-rich and over-gay for her surroundings; a court ruled -by an old woman had not seen before a creature so splendid. - -Her pale blond hair was worn in cunningly disposed ringlets through -which was passed a little braid of pearls, and fastened by a fair -tortoiseshell comb adorned with squares of dark amber. - -Her dress was of rose-colored velvet, cut low in front, with a fall of -silver lace on the bosom, and showing a silver petticoat in front. - -She had a great scarf of black silk wrapped like a shawl over all her -attire, and no jewels at all but one square sapphire on the first finger -of her right hand. - -“You are very gracious, Madame, to grant me this interview,” said Count -Piper; he looked a dull, a wizened figure beside her radiant grace. - -“Was it not a command?” asked Madame von Falkenberg. - -She stood facing him, with one hand on her hip, almost in the attitude -of a man who feels for his sword hilt. - -“I am not powerful enough to issue commands to you, Baroness,” he -replied suavely. - -She flashed into a sudden animation that accorded ill with her frail -pallor and look of languid grace. - -“I think you are not powerful enough to do anything, Count,” she said, -“not powerful enough, certainly, to save Sweden.” - -He did not understand her mood or her attitude, but he answered boldly. - -“Therefore I am going to ask your help, Madame.” - -Viktoria von Falkenberg moved impatiently towards the window, like a -creature confined against her will. - -“Are you not ashamed,” she asked, “that you cannot manage one wilful -boy?” - -This was so unexpected that Count Piper could think of no reply -whatever. - -“This King of yours,” continued the lady, “was drunk to-day, and -unwashed from the chase, sat down to his food with spotted linen and -muddy boots, was rude to women--I should not be proud to be his tutor.” - -She had completely turned the tables on him; he had meant to tactfully -reproach her with the effect of her influence on the King--to point out -how Karl was drifting to disaster--and she had snatched his weapons from -his hands and left him defenseless. - -She threw up her head impetuously and struck her open palm on the -window-pane. - -“Oh, for something beautiful!” she cried, “were it but the waving of a -spray of leaves against a gray sky! Your palace stifles, Count, and -while we wait your King’s graciousness we lose our life!” - -“It is of that I would speak to you,” said the Count, endeavoring to -keep to his first point of view, “of your desires--and the King.” - - - - -CHAPTER III - - -“You think that I have any influence with your King?” asked Madame von -Falkenberg. - -Her directness did not displease Count Piper; he saw that she was more -experienced than he had thought and wise enough to be simple. - -“I know you have,” he replied, then added: “His Majesty has never looked -twice at any other woman.” - -“His Majesty is only eighteen,” said Viktoria; her large dilated eyes -looked searchingly at the shrewd, withered face of the minister. “What -do you know of me?” she asked. - -He had his answer ready. - -“I know that you are of one of the noblest families in Gottorp--that you -are a very attractive woman, and, I think, ambitious.” - -“You know nothing about my husband?” - -The question seemed to Count Piper quite irrelevant. - -“I know that Baron von Falkenberg was killed in a duel a few months -after his marriage, and that that is five years ago.” - -She gave him a narrowed glance. - -“And so you think that I have influence with your little King?” she -demanded abruptly. - -Count Piper was surprised into irritation. - -“Madame, it is a Viking!” he exclaimed with pride. - -Madame von Falkenberg lifted her slender shoulders. - -“He seems like a child to me,” she answered, “and if,” she added, “you -think so well of him, why do you come to bargain about him with a woman -whom you think is a greedy adventuress?” - -Count Piper looked at the lady with dislike; her attitude was one with -which it was impossible to deal; for all her directness she was -hindering him in the object of his conversation; vexation rose in his -heart against boys and women and this kind of bed-chamber intrigue; he -longed for such a master again as the late King had been. - -“Sweden is threatened,” he replied, with some sternness, “and to save -her I must use any weapons I can.” - -“Even soiled ones,” said the Baroness. - -“I have not said so--but I am dealing with a youth, one who has no -interest beyond his games and his sports--one who is self-confident, -arrogant----” - -The lady interrupted. - -“And you can do nothing with him?” - -“No.” - -“And the Queen?” - -“He smiles at the Queen.” - -“What do you want him to do?” - -“What his father would have done,” replied Count Piper--“lead an army -against Denmark, Poland, and Russia.” - -“I see--you want an antique hero--a Viking, as you say, in this modern -age of ours!” She seemed scornful, and her lips shook as she spoke. “And -you think that a woman’s smiles can rouse a demi-god from a tipsy boy! -You think that he might go to war if he could find me among the spoils -of victory!” - -Count Piper was silent; he could not understand her mood. - -She seemed in considerable agitation and leant against the window-frame, -pressing a little handkerchief to her mouth; the sharp eyes of the -minister noted the stains of red on the cambric as she rubbed off the -moistened rouge. - -“You think to find in me an Aurora von Königsmarck--a gilded puppet -whose strings you can pull!” she cried. - -Count Piper felt bound to defend himself. - -“Madame, you have not seemed displeased at the King’s notice.” - -“No,” flashed Viktoria, “and the Duchess has told you that she does not -like me and that I am a light creature, and so you think you can affront -me with impunity.” - -“Madame, it can be no affront to suggest that you might be the King’s -friend and influence him for good.” - -She sighed a little at these conventional words and put her thin hands, -with a gesture of weariness, to her fair brow. - -“Will you let me see the King, alone?” she asked quietly. “Perhaps I -might be able to turn him to what is the wish of all of us.” - -The Count did not affect to understand this change of front, but he was -eager to grasp at her suggestion. - -“His Majesty is now in my cabinet,” he replied. - -“I wish to see him when he is sober.” - -“When he wakes he will be sober.” - -“Take me to him.” - -Count Piper glanced at her somewhat doubtfully; if she did become his -puppet he did not think that she would be a particularly easy one to -manage; so far, at least, she had shown no good-humor and a certain -enmity towards himself; he agreed with the King’s sister in not liking -her; what charm she had, he decided, lay solely in her rather colorless -beauty. - -He conducted her to his cabinet without any very great hopes as to the -success of his experiment, but, at least, he consoled himself, he had -forced an issue that might have hung long and vexatiously, and this -interview would decide how much or how little Viktoria von Falkenberg -was going to count for in the life of the King of Sweden. - -When the cabinet door opened Karl looked round. - -He was still in the chair where Count Piper had left him and seemed to -have but lately awakened. - -The Baroness entered and closed the door. The King at once rose, and -stood, with one hand on the back of his chair, looking at her in rather -an amazed fashion. - -His eyes were clear and his hands steady; he had already thrown off the -effects of the wine--an easy matter for his superb and vigorous -constitution. - -But his hair was still disordered, his dress disheveled and stained with -blood, and dirt, and wine. - -The lady, in her fair exquisiteness, rose color and silver, her finished -beauty and artificial grace, was a curious contrast to the young man in -his vigor and careless attire. - -“Ah, Madame von Falkenberg,” said the King, “who do you wish to -see--Count Piper?” - -“No, sir.” - -“This is Count Piper’s cabinet,” replied Karl, with a look of confusion. - -“He has been lecturing your Majesty?” - -The blood rushed up under the King’s fair skin. - -“He spoke to me of the Czar of Muscovy, but I do not rightly recall all -he said.” - -The Baroness advanced a little; all that there was of light in the dull, -small apartment seemed to be gathered in her brilliant figure. - -“I also have come to speak of the Czar of Muscovy, your Majesty.” - -Karl looked at her doubtfully. - -“Oh, yes, Count Piper sent me,” she added, “but I do not come on his -errand, but on my own.” - -The red still showed in the King’s strange face; he glanced at his -clothes. - -“You take me at a disadvantage,” he said, with dignity. - -Viktoria smiled faintly. - -“Ah no, sire--you have all the advantages!” - -Karl suddenly smiled also; it changed his face, not agreeably. - -“You think I have all I want?” he asked. - -“I think that you could have.” - -“That rests with you, Baroness,” he replied; now that he was sober it -was noticeable that his demeanor was cold and his manners of a freezing -haughtiness; only towards this woman his behavior was softened; he was -being as gracious as he knew how; his large serene eyes gleamed as they -rested on her loveliness; he approved her openly and with a lack of all -subterfuge that had something large-natured in it; indeed, it was -impossible to associate him with anything small of any kind. - -They stood facing each other, and for all that she was tall she was -hardly to his shoulder; he stared at her, and behind all his arrogance -was a certain shyness. - -“Sir,” she said, “it is a pity that you should depend on a woman for -anything.” - -That seemed to strike a responsive chord in his nature; he drew up his -magnificent figure and a look of intense pride darkened his face. - -He put his hand to the hilt of the short sword he wore and turned away -rather abruptly. - -“What could I give you?” asked Viktoria softly. - -He looked at her over his shoulder. - -“I think you know,” he said rather sullenly. - -“But tell me,” she insisted. - -The King gave his ugly smile. - -“You are such a pretty creature,” he answered, “you give me more -pleasure than any fair sight I have ever seen.” - -She did not receive his compliment in the usual fashion of blush and -confusion. - -“I am sorry that your Majesty has seen so few pleasant sights,” she said -quietly, “but you are very young.” - -“You think of me as very young?” demanded the King, with narrowed eyes. - -“What are you, sire, but a boy?” replied the lady calmly. “Ah, when will -you be a man?” - -“With God’s help, when I choose,” he said shortly. - -Viktoria von Falkenberg smiled sadly. - -“Sire,” she said, “I do not come to lecture you as Count Piper or the -Queen do. I think I have no right to speak at all, save this little -right that you have noticed me.” - -“I have noticed you,” he interrupted heavily. - -“And that others think that I might influence you,” she continued. - -“Ah, they think that, do they? Count Piper thinks a woman could -influence me!” cried the King. “Forgive me,” he added quickly, “I am not -courteous.” - -“Indeed,” replied the Baroness, still with that little fixed smile, -“your Majesty is more fitted to the camp than the court.” - -Again the King flushed, and his eyes were narrowed and gleaming. - -“Ah, I am boorish--I know,” he said, then, suddenly, “but I could be -gentle to a woman, a woman like you.” - -“I want you to be gentle to me now, sire,” she replied quickly, “for -what I have to say may try your patience.” - -“Nay, that could never be.” - -He did not speak in a tone of gallantry or artificial compliment, nor -even with any of the confusion or shyness likely in one so young and so -unused to dealing in affairs of love, but with a certain hardness and -hauteur, the mark of absolute sincerity and complete self-command. - -It was impossible to believe that he would ever waste himself in mere -pleasantness; he did not trouble even to smile, but looked at the lady -gravely with his strange blue eyes that were of so rare a color and so -curious an expression. - -“You think that I please your fancy,” she said, with a flutter of color -in her face. - -“I know that you do,” he replied seriously. “You are very wonderful. But -Count Piper was wrong,” he added grimly, “when he thought that you could -influence me.” - -“Yet I am going to try and do so,” said Viktoria. - -“Yes?” he seemed faintly amused. - -“I want you to forget me, to forget the chase, to leave the wine, and -become the man your father was.” - -These words were so unexpected that for a moment his composure was -disturbed. - -“Forget you?” he asked. - -“Sire, whether my words have any effect with you or no, after to-day I -shall never speak to you alone. I am not the woman your councilor takes -me to be. He thinks that I would be your plaything, and that through me -he would work his way with you.” - -“And so you will have none of me?” asked the King quietly; “I could have -loved you.” - -“Sire, I have done with love. And I was never ambitious.” - -“But I,” smiled Karl, “I have not even begun with love. And I was always -ambitious.” - -She flashed at him with sudden animation and force. - -“Then if you are ambitious leave love alone. Turn your back on women -until you take your Queen--be the one King in Europe who is not ruled by -a petticoat. Be a man like the hero of antiquity, feared, obeyed, -revered by _men_, not cajoled, flattered, led by women!” - -He gave her a dazzling look. - -“And if I wished I could be such a one,” he said strongly. - -“And do you hesitate? There is a man’s work--a King’s work ready to your -hand--a nation that your forefathers left great looking to you for help -against three terrible enemies, the world before you in which to win -glory.” - -“And if I wished I could win it,” said Karl, in the same tone. - -“Sire, first you must conquer yourself--to-day you were intoxicated.” - -The King flushed hotly. - -“You came to the Queen’s table blood-stained from the chase. You -dragged the cover to the floor with your spur in the cloth. You insulted -me in the corridor.” - -Karl looked at his disordered clothes. - -“Before God,” he said in broken voice, “I am sorry.” - -“And because of these things Count Piper resorts to a woman to influence -you.” - -“I am ashamed,” said the King. “I am ashamed. Yes, I was drunk. I went -into my grandmother’s presence like any stable boor--I remember now. And -Count Piper led me here--and I fell asleep when he talked politics.” - -He hid his face in his strong hands, resting them on the back of the -chair, his tangled curls falling over the dark tapestry. - -Viktoria Falkenberg had not known him long, but she was quick to -perceive that he was moved to emotion rare in such a nature. - -She came quickly up to him, and laid her thin hand on his bowed -shoulder. - -“Sire, what does it matter? You are young and splendid. Think what may -be before you--think what you have in your hands. What is the chase -compared to war? What is wine-drinking compared to the joy of victory? -What the pursuit of women compared to the pursuit of nations?” - -He raised his strange face that was now quite pale. - -“You are right,” he said. “You are very right. I have always thought -like that. Yet there seemed nothing to do. And I amused myself with -games,” he added simply. - -“There is now plenty to do,” said the lady, with a faint smile. “You -must give your brother-in-law back his duchy--humble Denmark--subdue -Poland--hold the Czar in check.” - -“You think that I could do that?” he asked quickly. - -“Sire, you come of a race that has done such things.” - -He looked at her with an intensity almost painful. - -“You are interested in me, but yet you do not care about me.” - -“I do not love you, sire,” she replied quietly. “I loved once. It was -enough. I loved my husband and he did not love me. For the sake of -another woman he was killed soon after our marriage.” - -She drew from behind the silver lace on her bosom a golden locket which -she opened, and showed no portrait, but a fragment of blood-stained rag. - -“That I cut from above his heart the day they brought him home,” she -said. “It is all I care for in the world. I--I have suffered so much -that it is as if I had died. That is why, sire, I can speak to you so -coldly now.” - -The King looked at her calmly; by contrast with her own words she -herself appeared insignificant, his fancy for her, which she might have -formed into the strongest passion his cold nature was capable of, had -died on the instant before the images her words had evoked. - -No one had ever spoken to him directly with strength and sincerity; the -sneers of his grandmother he had always despised and everyone else had -been his inferior, not daring to tell him plainly that which men thought -of him and his actions. - -Never before either had he been so degraded as to-day when he had -returned to the palace intoxicated and shown himself so before women, -and in the revulsion of shame and disgust that he felt the words that -this lady had dared to speak to him made the deeper impression. - -He looked at her with respect and a slight amazement; she seemed thin -and pale and artificial in her gorgeous stiff gown, very different from -the heroines of his beloved sagas--yet she had shown qualities that were -admirable in his eyes. - -“Enough,” he said suddenly. “I think I have done with childish things. I -have had my dreams--maybe some of them I can realize. I thank you, -Madame, for your timely speech.” - -He offered her no compliment nor courtesy and his expression, as he -gazed at her, was hard, but she believed that she had accomplished her -purpose and she did not care how soon he forgot her; she had very truly -done with the emotions of love and vanity. - -“I thank you for your attention,” she replied gently. “I have, sire, no -more to say.” - -With a little curtsey she left him; he did not give a sigh to her going, -but turned with brusque eagerness to study the map of North Europe that -hung above Count Piper’s desk; with intent blue eyes and a steady finger -he traced the positions of those provinces his three enemies wished to -wrest from Sweden. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - - -He was eighteen years of age, of a superb constitution, perfect health, -and noble descent, absolute monarch of a prosperous and well-governed -country, troubled by neither plots among his nobility nor factions among -his people. - -He felt as if the world had been put into his hands, as a small globe to -crush or fondle; his deep but hitherto sleeping pride, his vast and -arrogant ambition were now finally roused by the humiliation into which -his idle habits had led him, and the direct words of the woman who had -attracted his cold fancy by her pretty, sad grace. - -As a personality she was now dismissed from his thoughts, but he dwelt -on her speech with a deep, mighty resolve forming in his powerful mind. - -In every way he was equipped to play a great part in history; his -father, a stern, just, and haughty prince, had educated him with great -care and wisdom; his natural gifts for languages and mathematics had -been developed by training and diligence; he was proficient in history -and geography, well-versed in the lives of the heroes of ancient Greece -and Rome whose example suited his temperament, and familiar with the -sagas of Scandinavia, the only form of any art that had ever moved him; -his understanding was beyond the common, and he had not as yet displayed -any vice or weakness likely to obscure his fine qualities, beyond this -indolent absorption in rude sports that he had shown since he came to -the throne; he was neither cruel and given to abuse of power nor was he -liable to the weakness of being led by flatterers. His notice of -Viktoria Falkenberg was the first attention that he had ever accorded a -woman. - -He seemed to be without affection and without passion; to his father he -had shown the only obedience he had ever displayed to a human being; his -mother he had despised, for he had early observed how slight a value his -father had set upon her gentleness and how harshly he had treated her; -his feelings towards his sisters were the same, the old Queen he could -only tolerate by ignoring. Count Piper, the one man to whom he had shown -special favor, he liked but was not fond of, nor had he any warm -feelings towards his country which he admired only inasmuch as it was -his own. - -He was conscious only of the desire to dominate, to be without a rival -as he was without a master; and, now that the words of Viktoria -Falkenberg had taken root in his mind, to be great, to master kings, and -nations, and peoples, and stride over them to fresh conquests; the -reinstatement of his brother-in-law, Sweden’s ancient ally, the Duke of -Holstein-Gottorp, in his dominions, was a good excuse for him to enter -the arena of European politics where his fellow-monarchs considered him -too young to play any part. - -The true greatness of his strange character showed in his haughty -resolve to conquer himself before ever he attempted to overcome his -enemies. - -He decided to be the one King without weakness or vices, and as easily -as he took off his soiled garments of the chase he cast from him the -vulgar amusements and rude diversions that had hitherto occupied his -leisure. - -The evening of the day that Viktoria Falkenberg had spoken to him he -joined the Queen at her supper table. - -His two sisters were present and the husband of the eldest, the Duke of -Holstein-Gottorp. - -Karl took his place at the head of the table; he was now absolutely -sober and extremely cold in his demeanor; his disordered clothes of the -morning had been changed for garments of black velvet and a muslin -cravat fastened by a white pearl; his bright and waving hair was -confined by a broad black ribbon save the foremost locks which fell over -his shoulders; in this grave style of dressing, with his great height -and noble person, he appeared much older than his years. - -The Queen, who had, as usual, a bitter speech ready for him, snapped her -lips together after she had glanced at his face; when he was master of -himself she was afraid of him; he gave her a by no means friendly glance -and his beautiful eyes traveled to the harassed countenance of his -brother-in-law and the quiet faces of his sisters; the Queen, who was -watching him shrewdly and with no predisposition in his favor, noticed -that now more than ever before he dominated his company; the women, -Count Piper, the young Duke all seemed pale and incomplete, like people -cut out of paper, compared to his calm and overwhelming personality. - -He did not sit down, but, pouring out a glass of wine, raised it almost -to the level of his lips. - -“Madame,” he said, addressing the Queen, “I must ask your pardon for my -great discourtesy and boorishness to-day. I do ask it. I ask these -gentlewomen to forgive me some insolences. I was not sober. That will -never happen again.” - -He paused for a second; there was no flush in his face, his eyes looked -as hard as sapphires; he never glanced to where Viktoria Falkenberg sat -beside the Duchess of Gottorp. - -“I drink your health, Madame,” he continued, bowing towards the old -Queen, “and I drink it in the last wine I shall ever taste.” - -He emptied his glass and set it down quietly. “And now forgive me my -absence,” he said. “I have much to attend to. Count, will you wait upon -me later?” - -Without pausing for a reply he left the room. - -The Queen wiped her lips in a certain grim satisfaction. - -“Well,” she remarked, “he is capable of keeping his word.” - -Count Piper glanced at the downcast and weary face of Viktoria -Falkenberg; she sat next to him and spoke, under the little murmur of -talk that had arisen since the King’s departure. - -“He will do, your master,” she said, “he is quite heartless, quite just, -and inhumanly strong.” - -“You spoke to him?” - -She raised her eyes. - -“Our interview was not what you think. We have really no interest in -each other.” - -Count Piper could not pretend to understand her; nor did he really care -to explore the intricacies of feminine sentiment and feminine intrigue; -if Viktoria Falkenberg was not going to influence King Karl she ceased -to in the least concern Count Piper. - -“His Majesty will help Gottorp, you think?” asked the Duchess. - -“I think so,” said Count Piper. - -He hastened his dinner that he might rejoin the King, who was already, -he knew, in his cabinet. - -And there he found him, standing by the window through which the long -Northern twilight fell into the narrow apartment; his arms were locked -over the back of a high chair and he leant forward, in the attitude of -one dreaming. - -Though he was so splendid in his magnificent youth there was something -in his demeanor more terrifying than lovable, and his proud noble face -was marred by the ugly smile that curved his full lips. - -As soon as the Count entered he spoke, without raising his head. - -“I shall go to war,” he said, and his voice that was always -expressionless had a hard ring in its clear quality. “I shall return -Gottorp to his duchy and I shall engage Denmark. Saxony must be brought -from the throne of Poland, and from these I menace this Emperor of -Muscovy--this Czar of the Russias.” - -“I believe,” replied Count Piper, with perfect sincerity, “that your -Majesty can do these things.” - -“I believe that I can,” said Karl. “The most dangerous of my foes is -Russia. He affects to be a mighty man, does he not?” - -It was plain that this greatness of the Czar rankled with him; it was -almost as if he had a personal hatred of this political enemy of his -country whom he had never seen; this was the only person towards whom he -had ever evinced the faintest anger or jealousy. - -“The Czar is great,” replied the Count, “but your Majesty might be -greater.” - -“I would like to break him!” exclaimed the young man looking up. With -that startling flash in the darkening blue of his eyes, he looked more -human, more moved than Count Piper had ever known him. “’Tis a savage, a -Tartar ... and he defies me ... wants my provinces ... _mine_, by God -... you have seen me drunk to-day, you will not see that again ... we -will see if the Czar drunk can match me sober ... and Poland with his -Aurora.... I will have no women, Count.” - -He seemed greatly moved by a deep and restrained emotion. - -“You owe something to one woman,” thought Count Piper, “if she has -wrought this change of mind in you.” - -And he wondered what Viktoria Falkenberg had said. - -“Russia does not think that anyone is likely to oppose him,” continued -Karl. “Is it not so? He believes that there is no man in Europe would -face him and his savages.” - -“He certainly thinks,” replied the minister, “that your Majesty will be -easily despoiled. ’Tis a man with many noble qualities who seeks to -bring his country forward in an honorable manner in Europe--yet -unscrupulous and fierce--a barbarian teaching civilization to -others--but,” he added, “before your Majesty thinks of Russia, there is -Denmark.” - -“I attend the council to-morrow,” said Karl, “and in a week’s time I -hope to leave Sweden. The Dutch and English will help us--at least -indirectly. I think it is not to King William’s interest that I should -be overwhelmed. I mean to make a feint on Copenhagen and compel Denmark -to a peace.” - -“The Danish fleet protects Spaelland, sire,” said Count Piper quickly. - -“But I have looked at the map,” replied the King, “and I see that one -might pass through the Eastern Sound.” - -“Which is not held to be navigable, sire.” - -Karl did not seem to pay much attention to this remark. - -“King Frederick is older than I, by ten years,” he said, reflectively. -“Do you think that he is a great man, Count?” - -“He is popular in Denmark, sire.” - -“I am vexed,” added Karl, “that I let him take Gottorp--but,” he paused, -then seemed to resolve to say no more on that subject. “England and the -Netherlands will stand by us?” he asked. - -“They certainly will not wish to see Denmark in possession of the -commerce of the North, nor the Czar of Russia overspread his dominions. -I believe we could count on the junction with the Anglo-Dutch fleet.” - -“And Poland marches on Livonia,” said the King. “I hear his Saxon -soldiers are very fine troops.” - -“One thing has just come to my ears, sire--Patkul is with Poland.” - -The King’s face hardened instantly at mention of this man who had led -the Livonian revolts that had disturbed his father’s reign and whose -intrigues had broken out again on his own accession; Patkul had been the -only jarring note in the last years in Sweden; and rebellion was a -hideous sin in the King’s rigid code of honor. - -“When I make peace with Poland,” he said, “I shall bid him send back to -me the traitor Patkul.” - -Count Piper looked at him curiously; the certainty of his speech, the -confidence of his bearing were amazing things, for they were entirely -free from braggart vanity or youthful swagger. - -The King saw his minister’s glance and slightly flushed. - -“Perhaps,” he said quickly, “I seem vainglorious in my speech, but I was -not thinking of myself, but of Sweden--Sweden could do great things, do -you not think so, Count?” - -It was like an attempt to conciliate, and the minister could not forbear -a smile. - -“Under such a King as you will be, sire,” he replied sincerely. - -“Well,” said Karl, with his strange simplicity, “I do not see that it -should be very difficult to defeat these three Kings.” - -The next day he made his appearance at the council board in a mood -different from any in which he had appeared there before. - -The councilors had been used to seeing him with his feet on the table -and his hands in his pockets, lolling and yawning; now he came erect and -composed among them, and in a few words announced his intention of -making war on Denmark, Poland, and Russia. - -This swift facing of their enemies was not what the council had been -expecting; they had already begun to consider the advisability of -negotiations with the three sovereigns who were taking advantage of the -youth of their King. - -But Karl’s words left no doubt as to his intention and his spirit. - -“Sirs,” he said, “I have resolved to never make an unjust war, but never -to finish a just one save by the conquest of my enemies. My decision is -taken--I shall attack him who first--who has declared himself against -me, and when I have vanquished him I shall hope to inspire some fear in -the others.” - -That same evening he heard that the Saxon troops of the King of Poland, -the regiments of Brandenbourg, Wolfenbüttel, and Hesse-Cassel were -marching to the assistance of the King of Denmark, who after having -taken Gottorp was besieging the town of Tönning in Holstein. - -Against these were sent 8000 Swedes, some troops from Hanover and Zell, -and three Dutch regiments, Holland, as well as England, having taken up -arms against Denmark on the excuse of her having broken the Treaty of -Altona. - -In the early days of April, King Karl took private leave of his family -(a cold farewell of his sisters and the Queen), and, accompanied by -Count Piper, the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, and General Rehnsköld, left -his capital for the port of Karlskrona, where he embarked on his -flagship “The King Karl,” which was mounted with 120 pieces of cannon, -and at the head of forty-three ships set sail for Copenhagen, on his -first campaign. - -As the shores of Sweden were receding behind them Count Piper told the -King that he had heard that Viktoria Falkenberg was very ill; he had -wondered that Karl had not remarked her absence from attendance on his -sister. - -“Ah, Viktoria Falkenberg,” said the King thoughtfully. He offered no -comment, and that was the last time he ever spoke her name. - - - - -BOOK II - - -PETER ALEXIEVITCH - - “C’etait par des actions plus étonnantes que des victoires qu’il - cherchait le nom de Grand.”--VOLTAIRE. - - - - -CHAPTER I - - -The short Russian summer was in the commencement of its glory; a clear -sunshine penetrated the groves of beeches and firs, the thickets of -lilac and senna plant, and shone on the brilliant flowers that carpeted -the woods which spread about the wide estuary at the mouth of the Neva. -Here and there, through the radiant blossoms, could be seen a glimpse of -cold blue sea; the sky was of the pale green tint peculiar to the last -hours of the day; no sound disturbed the peace of the little house on -the lake in the woods, the residence that it pleased the Czar of Russia -to call “Marli,” in imitation of the French King, and which was one of -his favorite places of retreat, being, indeed, more suited to his tastes -than the gorgeous palaces he had built in Russia and the antique -magnificence of the Kremlin. - -It had also the advantage of being near to Cronstadt, the port he was -building and in which he took such a personal interest, where he kept -the nucleus of the Navy he was creating and of which he was so intensely -proud, and where he had personally worked at some of the twenty-six -trades that he had learnt in his journey through Europe. - -Save during the brief loveliness of the summer there was little beauty -in these marshy woods; neither birds nor animals seemed to inhabit them -and the stillness and the vastness added to the melancholy of the -solitude. - -Marli was a two-storied house with a tiled roof, a door with plain steps -and a window above with a balcony. - -It had no defined garden but stood solitary in the woods; it was not far -from the swamps where the Czar had resolved to build his new capital, -nor from the spot where his favorite Mentchikoff was raising a superb -palace, but it had, despite the bright flowers and the sunshine, an air -of solitude that was dreary. - -There was no sign of cultivation round the lake, and the wild flowers -grew up to the very door, bending over the shallow steps; the yellow -plaster front of the house was stained with damp and the windows were -without curtains, the shutters being all fastened back. The door stood -open and there was no sign of servants or of any domestic work being in -progress. - -At the edge of the lake and looking up at the house was a man whose -appearance and attire were in entire contrast to his surroundings. - -He was tall and stoutly built, with dark hair and eyes and an expression -of some fierceness, his locks were cut short into his neck, and he was -attired in native Russian costume untouched by European fashion. - -His long coat of fine gold-colored silk brocade, shot with blue and red -flowers, was open on a vest of fine muslin, fastened with sapphire -buttons, and belted above the full skirt with scarlet leather. - -His full breeches of pale blue velvet were gathered into high vermilion -leather boots, much polished and soft. - -He carried a short sword of Oriental design, the hilt studded with -tourmaline and rose quartz, and wore a close cap of scarlet silk round -which was twisted a fine gold chain which held in place a buckle of -diamonds that clasped a long white osprey. After looking at the little -house thoughtfully this personage went slowly round the lake and in at -the open door. - -The two front rooms were closed; the newcomer went to the back and -looked into the kitchen; it was here very hot, for the cooking stove -was lit and several dishes stood on it from which exhaled an odor of -onions, cabbages, and rancid grease. - -On a side table stood pots and pans and dishes containing fish under -vinegar and salted gherkins, also some jams and jellies and a few fine -spoons of silver gilt; flies and mosquitoes buzzed over everything; all -was dirty; the floor and the stove filthy with dropped grease and -spillings of food. - -A Tartar servant with a flat yellow face was watching the cooking; he -wore a soiled blue blouse and trousers; his throat and chest were bare -and the perspiration rolled from under his oily hair. - -He regarded the newcomer with a look of complete stupidity and turned -his gaze again to his cooking. - -He appeared to be no more impressed by the gentleman’s brilliancy than -the gentleman was by his dirt and disorder. Only, as that person was -leaving the kitchen, the taciturn servant vouchsafed a warning. - -“If you come with unpleasant news, Danilovitch Mentchikoff, you had -better keep them for a while.” - -“He is in a bad humor?” asked the Prince quickly. - -“He was drinking all night,” replied the Tartar. “And now he seems to be -in a melancholy. What am I to do about the dinner, Danilovitch -Mentchikoff? He will not bear me in the room--and as for you, he will -beat you like a dog.” - -“Well, when he has beaten me, we will have dinner,” replied the Prince, -and he turned away and went upstairs. - -He entered the front bedroom which was that with the balcony over the -door; a good-sized chamber very plainly furnished with a low bed, a -table, a few chairs, and one or two half-open boxes filled with clothes. - -The pale melancholy light streamed in uninterrupted through the -curtainless window and lit every crevice of the apartment. - -Above the bed was an ikon of the Saviour, very dark and indistinct and -adorned with plates of silver; two candles in sticks of violet jasper -stood on a shelf beneath this; on the stove was the unfinished model of -a ship in wood; these were the only remarkable objects that the room -contained. - -The one occupant was a young man who sat in a low chair by the stove, -and who was intent on carving with a small knife a large fir cone. - -Peter Alexievitch, Emperor of Muscovy and Czar of all the Russias, was -at this time twenty-eight years of age, and it was not long since he had -been recalled by rebellion at home from that extraordinary journey in -disguise round Europe whereby he had sought to learn the various means -by which nations secure prosperity and greatness, that he might instruct -his subjects; he had since gained some glory by a victory over the -Turks, but his present league with Poland and Denmark against Sweden was -his first real entry into war and politics, the first attempt to put -into practise the schemes by which he sought to render his vast Empire -secure and mighty. - -He did not look up as Prince Mentchikoff entered, but continued, with -ostentatious disregard of a presence he was certainly aware of, to chip -at the pine cone. - -His friend, standing inside the door, eyed him with some apprehension. - -The Czar’s appearance was as remarkable as his character and his -history. - -Unlike the Prince, he wore European clothes, a shirt of very fine linen, -much ruffled, faded green cloth breeches, white cotton stockings and -leathern shoes, and over all a full dressing-gown of brown wool which -was tied round his waist by a cord. - -Even as he sat so, doubled up on a low chair, it was noticeable that he -was of gigantic height, and slender and graceful in his proportions; the -hands that were busy with his minute work were slim and elegant, his -head was of a noble shape and covered with smooth short curls of a dusky -brown color; his face, of an Asiatic type, was singularly beautiful, -though already marred by passion and vice. - -The short blunt features were finely formed, the dark eyes, large, -lustrous, and full of sweetness, eagerness, and ardor, the complexion of -a warm brown, darkened by exposure to sun and wind; a close mustache -outlined the full lips; for the rest he was well shaven, and there was -something both robust and boyish in the smooth contours of his face. - -He was extremely attractive and gave the impression of being simple and -lovable to an almost childish degree; his complexion, naturally so -smooth and clear, was now rather pale, the eyes heavy and stained -beneath; the hand that held the knife very slightly shook. - -Mentchikoff noticed a dirty glass full of flies on the floor beside him -and a number of bottles, mostly empty, scattered about, a strong smell -of brandy being in the air. - -“I come, as you bade me, to dine with your Majesty,” said the favorite. - -Peter did not even look round; he took a pinch of clay from a board on -top of the stove and began to model it on to the fir cone. - -The Prince was vexed by this reception; he had begun to think he could -do what he liked with the Czar, who had raised him from the position of -a pastry cook’s lad to that of greatest noble in all the Russias. - -“Well, Peter Alexievitch,” he said drily, “there is some news that you -must hear. But I would keep it till after dinner.” - -Peter turned now; one side of his face twitched in a slight convulsion. - -“Why did not this news come to me?” he asked sullenly. - -Mentchikoff saw that whatever his potations had been he was now sober, -and went warily accordingly; the Czar sober was not so easy as the Czar -drunk. - -“Who dares to come to your Majesty when you are withdrawn into your -solitude? Therefore the dispatches from Moscow were brought to me.” - -“Is it bad news?” asked the Czar gloomily; he turned again to his work, -and began coloring the clay with his finger dipped in rough pigment -which he had arranged on the same board as the clay. - -“Well,” said Mentchikoff, “I certainly think that your Majesty should be -at Moscow.” - -And irritated at his reception he seated himself near the window with an -air of impatience. - -“I will not go to Moscow,” said the Czar, in a tone of suppressed -violence. “I wish to be here--this is where I will build my city and my -fort. Why cannot I be alone here? I care nothing for your news.” - -“Well, then,” replied Mentchikoff exasperated, “it will not destroy your -appetite, Peter Alexievitch. The King of Sweden has defeated Denmark, -taken back Holstein-Gottorp, and signed a victorious peace.” - -Peter stared. - -“The King of Sweden!” he ejaculated. - -“Yes, that boy who was to be so easily despoiled. Europe remembers -nothing like it. In fifteen days he has ended the campaign.” - -The Czar’s face was a ghastly color. - -“This is greatness,” he said. - -With the mechanical movement of one who has received a shock he -continued his work, staring at the clay he continued to mold and color. - -“Eighteen years old,” added Mentchikoff, “and his first campaign.” - -“Tell me about it,” said Peter, in an agitated and humbled manner. - -“Do you really want to hear?” asked the Prince in some surprise; he had -known the Czar to have messengers of ill-tidings knouted. - -“I want to hear,” replied Peter, without looking up. - -“Well, the Swedes made a descent on Copenhagen and joined the -Anglo-Dutch fleet by Spaelland--they sailed through the Eastern Channel -of the Sound, a thing not before thought possible--and then they landed -and attacked Copenhagen by land.” - -“The King led them?” - -“The King led them--he was the first to land, and waded with the water -to his waist and his sword in his hand--under the musket fire of the -Danes, you perceive. There was a short engagement in which the Swedes -were completely victorious, and Copenhagen lay at their mercy.” - -“Where was King Frederick?” asked Peter. - -“I do not know--still besieging Tönning, I suppose--at least he sent to -negotiate.” - -“To negotiate!” cried the Czar, looking round. - -“Sire--the Baltic Sea was covered with the Swedish ships, King Karl -master of Seeland, Copenhagen beseeching mercy--but our young hero must -do the magnanimous--he fought not for conquest, he said, but justice. In -brief, there was a congress called at Tarrenthal and there is a peace to -be signed this month.” - -“And what are the terms?” - -Mentchikoff shrugged his shoulders. - -“Sweden wants nothing for himself--Gottorp is to get his indemnity and -his Duchy, and Denmark is never to meddle again against Sweden.” - -Peter was silent a moment he was still very pale and one side of his -face twitched convulsively. - -“What news from Poland?” he asked at length. - -“There were those dispatches yesterday, but you would not listen to -them.” - -“Tell them to me now.” - -“Augustus has raised the siege of Riga.” - -“Why?” demanded the Czar, trembling all over. - -“The excuse is that the town is full of Dutch merchandise and Poland -would not offend Holland. The truth is that Augustus could not take the -town.” - -“Curse Augustus and curse Frederick,” said the Czar heavily. - -He put down the little toy he was making and clasped his head in his -hands. - -“So of all the enemies of this young man there remains but yourself, -Peter Alexievitch.” - -The Czar was silent; he could have imagined no greater blow than this -appearance of a rival to his glory in Northern Europe, a man ten years -younger than himself who had already achieved what he never had. - -How often had not Peter dreamed of dictating terms to a conquered city -and setting conditions of peace to vanquished Kings, of seeing a great -many obey his commands and thousands of fine soldiers march behind him -to conquest; all things that this youth had experienced in a few days, -while he, Peter, had been indulging himself in a sullen retirement -broken only by those drunken debauches with which he sought to cure the -terrible melancholy that periodically assailed him. - -A bitter scorn of himself, a bitter envy of the King of Sweden, a wild -yearning to be other than he was, settled on him like the mantle of -despair. - -“Tell me what this young man is like,” he asked, in a muffled voice; his -curiosity as to what was admirable and good and great was insatiable; -even now it dominated his emotion. - -Prince Mentchikoff did not know much; this young hero, whose name was -now in everyone’s mouth, was a new figure in Europe. - -“He is very austere and prides himself on his justice, they say, and his -army is so disciplined that they are at prayers twice a day, and they -pay for all they take and do not despoil the dead. But this young man -must be ambitious--he will lose his head.” - -“You know nothing about it, Danilovitch,” replied Peter, “they are brave -and cold, the Swedes. And this boy was well-trained and taught,” he -added enviously. - -“Well,” said the Prince, “he is something to be reckoned with--and I -hear from Stockholm that he is angry with the four envoys you have sent. -He thinks that when you are at war you should drop the pretense of -peace--he is of a rigid honor.” - -“Oh!” said Peter. - -He glanced up at the toy he had made; it represented an old woman in cap -and shawl, the cone being her skirt and the upper part being cunningly -fashioned of clay. - -“That is what I can do,” he added fiercely. - -The Prince swung on his heel with some impatience. “You should be in -Moscow,” he declared. “Will you wait till the Swede is over the -frontier?” - -The Czar did not reply. - -“The Saxons have left Livonia,” continued Mentchikoff goadingly. “Patkul -has proved a poor statesman and the treaty of Préobrapenskoè a -failure--you can go on building Cronstadt and St. Petersburg, for this -war is over.” - -The Czar gave his friend an ugly look; his hands trembled on his knees. - -“Do you think that this boy has vanquished me?” he cried. - -“I think that he may, Peter Alexievitch.” - -The Czar sprang to his feet. - -“Faithless, insolent, and foolish!” he shrieked, in an instant at the -height of passion. “Where did you find the courage to presume on my -kindness! Have you forgotten that I am Peter!” - -The Prince stood passive, only holding up his hands to protect his face; -the Czar grappled with him and flung him down; Mentchikoff prostrated -himself at his master’s feet, face downwards on the dirty floor. - -Peter was not mollified by this submission; he took off his belt and -beat the shoulders of the favorite until the gay brocade was torn to -ribbons. - -He ceased as suddenly as he had begun, and staggered out into the head -of the stairs, dragging his shirt open at the throat. - -The Tartar servant was coming up with dishes on a tray; Peter gave one -glance at the food then tipped it all out of the man’s hands so that -cabbage, soup, and fish rolled down the stairs; then he gave a great cry -that seemed like a shout for air and fell backwards; a little foam -flecked his lips and his eyes turned in his head. - -The Prince and the Tartar with the air of men doing a usual thing, -dragged and pushed him somehow to his bed. - - - - -CHAPTER II - - -The Czar Peter lay at full length on his camp bedstead, his hand at his -forehead, sheltering his eyes, his mind full of bitter and angry -thoughts. - -Seated on a low chair near him was Danilovitch Mentchikoff, who regarded -him with an expression like that of a favorite dog who has been beaten, -and who waits patiently until his master chooses to forgive him. - -For two reasons Mentchikoff would take anything, blows, kicks, and -violent abuse, from Peter; first because of the traditional implicit -obedience of a Russian towards the Czar, a sentiment that had caused men -dying under torture to bless the monarch who had condemned them, and -secondly because he loved and revered Peter with a deep, passionate -fidelity. - -Insolent towards all the world, easy and familiar even with his master, -with whom he frequently presumed too far, he yet never resented any -caprice that humbled him by word, look, or whip; he did not fawn from -policy but from an intense devotion to the man whom he considered the -greatest in the world. - -There were some elements of greatness also in Danilovitch Mentchikoff; -he shared not only the Czar’s views, but some of his capacity for -carrying them out; he had been his companion in the labors of the -dockyards of Amsterdam and Wapping, as well as in the barbaric splendors -of Russia; he also had seen and judged that Western civilization that -the Czar burned to emulate; he also dreamed the same dreams of the -future greatness and glory of his country, and to this cause was eager -to devote his strength and his intellect. - -Some personal ambition colored his attitude; Peter had raised him from -cook-boy to page, from page to noble, friend, minister; he was already -wealthy, honored, feared, but though he might be an insolent tyrant to -all the world, to the man who had raised him he was absolutely -submissive, even abject in his love and admiration. - -Peter, whose nature was warm and affectionate, loved this creature of -his own making, to whom he allowed liberties never permitted to the most -powerful of his boyars, but he had more often than once made Mentchikoff -the victim of his insane furies in a manner that had nearly cost him his -life; but the servant had never uttered a sound of complaint, and, when -the outburst was over, had never failed to drag himself, bruised and -bleeding and faint, to lick the boots and kiss the hand of the man who -had chastised him. - -He now was watching the Czar with some anxiety; he had been vexed for -the last few weeks because Peter had made no steps in the campaign -against Sweden, but, seized with one of his attacks of melancholy, had -retired to Marli to brood over the plans of Cronstadt and St. Petersburg -and drink himself into fits of false gayety that were followed by black -and dangerous depression. - -And now the blow had fallen; a new captain had arisen who in a few days -had forced Denmark into peace; Poland was retiring from Riga; a young, -vigorous King who had shown himself possessed of resolution and martial -genius, with a perfectly equipped, trained, and victorious army behind -him, was free to turn his attention to the third enemy who had so -wantonly provoked him. - -Mentchikoff’s long dark and rather haggard face was shadowed with -anxiety. - -Not only did he wish his master’s political and military schemes to -fructify, he wished the Czar to be personally great and without rival in -this greatness. - -He was concerned that Russia should have Livonia and a port on the -Baltic, he had concurred in the plans laid down by Patkul, but he was -still more concerned that Peter Alexievitch should shine resplendent, -without a rival, in the Northern firmament. - -Already he hated Karl of Sweden, who had the advantage in education, -tradition, and breed; who was controlled, humane, just, and -honorable--with none of these things could even the blind devotion of -Mentchikoff credit Peter--and who had the added interest of his extreme -youth and the justice of his quarrels; a young warrior, stern, outraged, -fighting only those who had attacked him, conquering easily, and, with a -haughty generosity, claiming no benefits from his victory, but only the -restoration of his friend to what was rightfully his--this was a figure -on heroic lines and one sure to appeal to the imaginations of men. - -And how would the world account Peter by contrast? - -A half-savage monarch of an almost wholly Eastern realm, never yet taken -seriously into the reckoning in the affairs of Europe, one who had taken -eccentric means to learn the means of civilizing his people and who yet -was notoriously incapable of controlling his own meanest passions, one -who had been guilty of fierce cruelty and bitter revenge and excesses -beyond ordinary debauchery--how did such a one show beside the cold, -fast, calm, and mighty figure of the young King of Sweden? - -Mentchikoff was jealous for his hero, who to him was the greatest man on -earth; Peter’s faults were not faults to him; he came of a people long -used to cruelty in their rulers, it was in his blood and in his training -to submit to tyranny, but he had been the Czar’s companion in his -journey through Europe and he had seen, with his strong native -shrewdness and perception, the qualities admired and respected by -civilized peoples, and he knew exactly where Peter failed to reach the -standard of the West--it was one to which he could not attain himself, -but that did not prevent him from keenly observing his master’s -failure. He still passionately dreamed of seeing the Czar a King after -the fashion of the Kings of France and England, and had been one with -him in every effort to attain this end; so complete was the devotion and -abnegation of Danilovitch Mentchikoff that his life was one with his -master’s life, his glory and ambition one with the glory and ambition of -Peter Alexievitch. And the Czar’s moods, melancholies, and passions, -that went so far to hinder his glorious schemes and tarnish his -brilliant qualities, caused the keenest pangs to the fiercely loyal -heart of his servant. - -And now there was this new hero to reckon with; a man such as Peter was -not and never could be. - -The long figure at which the Prince gazed with his small brilliant eyes -stirred on the rude bed; Peter dropped the arm that shielded his eyes -and stared before him. - -He also had his thoughts of Karl of Sweden; they were as intense and -bitter as those of Danilovitch Mentchikoff. - -He was conscious of his own greatness, conscious of his own failings, -and overwhelmed by the task which destiny and his own will had laid on -his shoulders. - -He was the master of a continent, the undisputed lord of millions of -human beings, enveloped in a grandeur almost mythical, possessed of a -power almost godlike; better for him if he had been content with this, -satisfied as his ancestors had been satisfied by an enclosed splendor, -instead of being tortured by dreams of making Russia what she had never -been, what she perhaps never could be. - -All the sciences, the arts, the trades and commerces that had been the -result of such slow and painful growth in Europe, he hoped in one -generation to implant in the sterile soil of a nation almost wholly -savage from the point of view of the West. - -A great capital must be built, a great port made, a trained army raised, -a navy built, trade established, people educated in commerce and -handicrafts--marshes drained, forests cleared, swamps turned into -profitable ground--his people must learn the utmost resources of their -country and how to turn them to account. - -The beautiful arts of other countries must be introduced and made to -flourish; all that was wonderful, fair, or great must find a home in -Russia. - -Such were the dreams of Peter; his breed, his tradition, his character -were against these dreams. - -Half an Asiatic, his type was largely Eastern, his outlook wholly so; he -was nearer Timour Beg than Louis XIV, despite his admiration of this -latter ideal of kingship. - -He had admired Europe and copied Europe and envied Europe--he had little -in common with Europe. - -His story was one of a violence and terror difficult to find in the -annals of any country but this, full of dark splendor, of flights, -revolts, dangers, imprisonments; the brother who had shared his throne -had disappeared to a mysterious death, the sister who had been his -regent was languishing in a close prison; he was separated from his -wife, his one son was sickly, almost witless. - -In his blood lurked horrible diseases; his brother had been an idiot, -tortured by convulsions, his sister was afflicted by dropsy and ulcers, -he himself had been given to epilepsy since childhood; unbridled -passions, unlimited power, unchecked lusts had tainted his whole race -with a mental unbalance akin to insanity; melancholy, nightmare horrors -of glooms and broodings, wild extravagance of thought and action were in -his heritage. - -Heavier burdens even than the scepter of all the Russias had come from -his forefathers to Peter Alexievitch; clouding and torturing his brain -and body were the dread shadows of mortal maladies, the black form of -madness. No one knew his sufferings; he himself was ignorant of their -cause and terrified at their power; only alcohol could allay them, and -then the payment exacted was horrible as death in agonies. - -The dark horrors of delirium, the monstrous fancies of fever, the -tortuous labyrinths of the underground ways by which the borderland of -delusions, dreams, hallucinations, and unbidden imaginings leads to the -utter starless abyss of insanity were often more real to Peter than the -strenuous world in which he lived; shadows from realms that he tried to -deny the existence of, ghastly gleams from hells at which his soul dared -not glance, clouded and colored his thoughts and his actions. - -A continent was at his feet and he had undertaken a task as tremendous -as any man had yet put his hand to--but even this was not sufficient to -distract him from the terrors of the unseen and the unheard who haunted -those foul, secret places where his soul was doomed to wander. - -He was weak now after his fit and there was a dullness on his spirit -almost akin to peace; he was frowning, and his beautiful eyes were well -stained with blood, but his glance sought with a certain gratitude the -cool peace of the green beyond the square window, and he was glad of the -quiet, watchful presence of his friend. - -“Danilovitch,” he said, in a low voice, “I must get back to Moscow,” -then “If Cronstadt were built and I had a navy, I would batter this boy -by sea.” - -He sat up slowly, a languid, graceful figure in the soiled -dressing-gown; he had bitten his tongue when he fell and his mouth was -still marked with blood; a few tiny spots of red were on the front of -the fine cambric shirt; his forehead was damp with perspiration and the -soft glossy curls hung in wild disorder; yet his face, so round in the -contours still, with a certain bloom and freshness, attractive, gentle -in expression, was the face of a youth, sensitive and dreamy. - -Prince Mentchikoff did not answer; he was not yet sure of his master’s -mood and feared to say something that might irritate him. - -“And if I had an army I could batter him by land,” added Peter, with a -hard smile. - -“Your Majesty has an army,” ventured Mentchikoff. - -“Has it ever been tried in battle?” demanded the Czar grimly. “Is there -anyone in the whole of Russia who knows anything of the art of war?” - -“It is for you to teach them,” ventured the Prince. - -“There is much I have to teach Russia,” remarked the Czar. - -He stood up, to the full of his great height, and pushed back his hair -impatiently with both damp hands. - -“Is this how I get my Baltic port?” he cried scornfully. “Is this how I -wrest a province from Sweden? I should have been in Moscow months ago.” - -“God knows you should, Peter Alexievitch,” said Mentchikoff mournfully. - -“But I had to labor with my hands, Danilovitch, there is no other cure -for these infernal torments. I must make things, and be near the sea.” - -The Prince knew that Peter alluded to the black melancholy fits to which -he was subject and made no reply. - -“This boy now,” continued the Czar, in a quieter tone, “he would be -sober? Not chased by phantoms or mocked by the infernal ones, eh, -Danilovitch?” - -“A cold Norseman,” replied Mentchikoff. “They say that for this campaign -at least, his life has been austere.” - -“That is it,” replied Peter, with an eagerness that was almost wistful, -“an austere life--to train the body, to eat bread and drink water, to -sleep on the ground, to live as the meanest foot soldier--and I could do -it--if he, why not I?” - -Then, in a sudden fit of gloom, he added: - -“I have no troops worth naming beyond the Strelitz and the -Germans--savages, peasants, this King will laugh at me--and Riga is lost -and Tönning? Curse both the Saxon and the Dane.” - -He spoke wearily, without passion; Mentchikoff rose and touched him -gently, with an infinite tenderness, on the arm. - -“Come, Peter Alexievitch,” he said softly, “come out and look at the -sea.” - -He had never known when a glimpse even of the ocean had failed to soothe -the Czar. - -Peter did not reply, and Mentchikoff deftly drew off the dressing-gown -and put on an old green coat of European cut that hung over a chair; the -Czar silently permitted the change. - -The Prince fetched a bowl of water and helped him bathe his face, a comb -and smoothed out the tangled hair, performing these menial tasks with an -unconscious joy in the doing of them and a tender love for the person -whom he served that was touching to behold in one so stern featured and -haughty as Danilovitch Mentchikoff. - -Peter did not speak; he seemed in an apathy that chilled his faculties -like the languor of a mortal illness; he suffered his friend to lead him -from the house and showed neither dissent or assent. - -It was now fading to the cool of the evening; the sky was translucent -and almost colorless against the motionless forms of the trees that had -not yet lost the freshness of early summer; the lake was placid beneath -the borders of bright grasses and trails of wild flowers that flung -themselves in lightly woven wreaths over the tiny wavelets that spent -themselves against the banks. - -In the distance a nightingale made the silence of the wood tremble with -the intermittent rehearsal of his sharp, sweet song. - -The two fine figures, the servant so splendid, the master so humble in -attire, the King leaning on his minister with a sad and fatigued air, -passed the little clearing round the house and through the first trees -of the wood until they came to a spot where, through a break in the -forest, was a view of low swamps and the distant sea which had the pale -splendor of a tourmaline in the light of the sunset. - -Peter sighed, with a long shiver of relief; his very muscles seemed to -relax; his was the panting satisfaction of one who is fevered, and, -after much delay in heat and pain, finds a cup of cool fragrant water at -his lips. - -The air was of a keen freshness and ocean salt; it seemed to be wafted, -pure and strong, from the distant shores of some dreamland beyond the -verge of the pale confining sea; the perfect silence seemed charged with -a sense of vitality, of the joy of life, of nature; the song of the -hidden bird, that now and then sharply broke the stillness, was like a -chant of calm triumph in the eternal majesty of nature’s solitudes and -untouched places; there was now no melancholy in this loneliness; a -tender magic filled the marvelous hour of the twilight and something -more than mortal was abroad in the gathering dusk. - -The young Czar felt his lassitude fall from him; new energy shot through -him like a flame touching his heart; once again all seemed possible; the -grandeur of his manhood, the splendor of his rulership, again became -palpable things; the nightmares fled leaving a sane world about him; the -Swede no longer seemed a thing to so greatly fear or envy. - -He was Czar of All the Russias, and a strong man in his youth. - -With a laugh he pressed his friend’s arm, and Mentchikoff laughed also, -knowing his master cured for a while. - -“Shall we trouble for that Northern boy, we who are Peter?” demanded the -Czar, holding up his head and staring at the sea; he spoke thickly, for -his tongue had swollen where he had bitten it, but the unhealthy pallor -had left his face and his eyes had the calm of a healthy man. - -“Come and have supper, now that your melancholy is over,” said -Mentchikoff, in a happy voice, “and I will show you a gay creature who -will make you glad.” - -“Until it is dark I will stay under the trees,” replied Peter, “and I -shall not drink to-night.” - - - - -CHAPTER III - - -When the last glow of the sun had faded, the air of desolation, of vast -gray spaces isolated from the world, returned. - -The nightingale had ceased to sing and there was no other living -creature abroad; the swamps beyond the wood were devoid of life, the -night sky had the lead-colored look of the North, and there was no moon; -there was no sense of summer now that the moon was gone. - -Peter turned away; the sea being hidden from his view, he had no -interest in the landscape; he moved slowly and with a ponderous step -through the last trees of the woods, until he came to the chain of lilac -thickets, now past their blooming, that led to Danilovitch Mentchikoff’s -house, Oranienbaum, a palace that he was erecting near to his master’s -cottage of Marli. - -The night air refreshed the Czar; he was now perfectly sober and -completely master of himself, but his spirit was plunged in a profound -melancholy and his mental vision filled by the cold mighty figure of the -young Scandinavian who had so suddenly crossed and blocked his path. - -He felt no hatred towards this rival and no common envy, but a sad sense -of his own failure beside the triumph of this heroic youth. - -He had a long walk to the palace of Mentchikoff, which was situate -almost at the mouth of the Neva, and on the opposite shore to where the -fort of Cronstadt was being raised; but the exercise pleased him and he -would not go to Marli for a horse, or a light, or a servant, but strode -alone through the gloomy dusk, without hat or cloak. - -There was nothing new to Peter in this experience, though it was a -remarkable one for the Czar of All the Russias; he had wandered through -Europe alone, and poorly clad. When he reached the gardens that -Mentchikoff was laying out, it was already completely dark, for the cold -stars gave no glow, and Peter was guided only by the lights that shone -through the open windows of the palace on to the parterres of brilliant -flowers and the high hedges of clipped hornbeam; some one was playing -the bailaika; the thin music sounded sadly in the empty gardens; Peter -slowly went in at the principal entrance, the door of which stood wide. - -The first floor of the palace was finished and furnished in a gorgeous -style that was a mingling of the West and the East, of Europe and -Russia. - -The hall was hung with arras sent from France, and lit by Dutch lanterns -that had come from the prows of ships. - -The room that Peter entered had vermilion walls, vases of purple jasper -on malachite stands, and Chinese furniture of ebony inlaid with ivory; -on top of the great enamel stove was a beautiful ormolu clock which was -not going; lengths of French silks and Eastern damasks covered the -couches of which there were several, and a silver branched candlestick -of Italian workmanship held seven candles that were the sole light of -the room. - -This stood on a long table of gray marble mounted in heavy gilt, which -occupied the center of the apartment. - -In one corner was an ornate black cabinet set with various colored -stones, in another a beautiful Dutch bureau in oak; the tops of these -were crowded with goblets, boxes, bottles, and trays of silver, gold, -enamel, and glass, some heavily encrusted with precious stones. Near the -window which was curtained with cut velvet in orange and blue, hung an -ikon, one mass of carved silver and rubies, and still hung with the -Easter offerings of wreaths of wax fruit. - -The air had been scented by the burning of pastilles, and a faint bluish -smoke still obscured the atmosphere. - -The whole effect was one of brilliant and crowded confusion, tasteless -and barbaric; to Peter it was very splendid; a feeling of pleasure -touched him that his favorite should have such a magnificent house. - -“Danilovitch!” he called and went up to the table, and stood there, -resting his hands on the gilt edge. - -The twinkling notes of the bailaika stopped, and, from an inner door -that Peter had not hitherto perceived, a woman entered carrying the -little instrument. - -They looked at each other across the candle light. - -She was as tall as he, and beautiful, with a robust and splendid beauty; -her carriage was magnificent; she wore a robe of crimson satin with an -overdress of scarlet, stiff with gold embroidery, that reached the floor -and stood out about her, only being open at the sides; a square plate of -gold set with rubies shone at her breast, hung by rope on rope of -twisted pearls her dark brown hair fell on her shoulders, from under the -stiff Russian headdress of gold satin studded with turquoise, and to her -feet behind, depended a long white gauze veil. Her fair, bold face, firm -and beautiful in line and color, and sweet and pleasant in expression, -was turned full towards the Czar. - -He, in his worn green coat, disordered appointments, and tired bearing, -was in a contrast almost sad with the room and the woman. - -“You must be the Czar,” she said; she put down the bailaika and came -towards him, moving lightly on gold-shod feet. - -“I am Peter Alexievitch,” he replied, “and you?” - -“My name is Marpha,” she said simply. “I hardly know who I am.” - -“A Russian?” he asked, for her speech was strange, as if she used a -tongue with which she was not familiar. - -She shook her head. - -“A Livonian, sire--a Lutheran--I do not know who my parents were,” she -added, anticipating his next questions, “nor why Prince Mentchikoff -should bring me here.” - -“Why,” said Peter, “you are the person he spoke of who could cure me of -my melancholy.” - -She again shook her head. - -“No, it could not be I--I am only a servant--in my best clothes”--she -laughed gaily, glancing at her attire. “I have never been so fine -before, but to-night Danilovitch Mentchikoff ordered me to dress so!” - -The Czar was interested in her; she had an air of extraordinary -vitality, of serene courage, and generous good-nature; she gave out an -atmosphere of pleasant warmth and kindliness, of enthusiasm and joy of -life, more remarkable than her beauty; Mentchikoff’s vivacity and high -spirits had always been his greatest attraction for Peter, but this -girl’s calm happiness and aspect of radiant health were more potent than -the favorite’s gay humor in their effect on the Czar’s somber mood. - -“Why are you melancholy?” she asked, with a straight look from her large -clear gray eyes. “The Czar of Holy Russia, and sad?” - -Her glance seemed to have a certain pity for his marred and weary -comeliness; it was as if she were the Empress and he the peasant, so -splendid and composed was she, so shabby and downcast was Peter. - -“I have something to make me sad, Marpha,” he said. - -“And many things to make you happy,” she replied simply, “but you great -men are never gay. There is supper to-night in the pavilion. Will you -come and I will pour your wine?” - -“No,” said Peter, “I shall not drink to-night.” - -Remembrances of the cloudy horrors of the day darkened his face; he -glanced round the gaudy room with the restlessness of a creature finding -itself suddenly caged. - -“I will go into the garden,” he said; then abruptly, “You are a -Livonian. Do you know anything of your King--Karl of Sweden?” - -He paused in the open window, looking at her keenly, and ready to break -into anger at whatever answer she might make. - -But Marpha’s simple sweetness was too strong for his suspicious anger; -she defeated him by the sheer frankness of her reply. - -“I know nothing of him,” she said, “and what can he matter to such as -the Czar of Holy Russia?” - -Peter glanced at her, baffled; his vanity was soothed by this ignorant -creature’s perfect faith; his pride began to rise against this dread and -envy of the threatening figure of the unknown young King. - -“Yes, I am the Czar,” he said sullenly, “and I can put a million men -into the field for his every thousand, and if they are not as good -soldiers I can knout them into being so.” - -With that he turned into the garden, and his tall figure was immediately -lost in the darkness filled with the sound of the waving sumach boughs. - -Marpha gazed thoughtfully at the open window; her hands that were white -and smooth, but thick and strong, the hands of a peasant, played with -her heavy jeweled breastplate. - -Prince Mentchikoff entered from the hall where he had been waiting -behind the open door. - -“Has he gone?” he whispered. - -“Into the garden,” said Marpha. - -“What do you think of him?” asked Mentchikoff eagerly. - -“He is comely,” replied the girl. - -Mentchikoff laughed. - -“He is the greatest man in the world.” - -“Ah, yes, the Czar of All the Russias.” - -“Not that only--he is a hero and a genius,” said Mentchikoff, with -passionate enthusiasm. “He is creating a new Russia.” - -“I understand none of these things,” replied Marpha. “The world seems to -me very well as it is--but I like Peter Alexievitch.” - -“Then--if you can--make him happy--keep him cheerful,” said Mentchikoff; -“in many ways his life is barren.” - -The girl looked at him with those clear eyes that were full of an almost -startling sincerity and truth. - -“Then you are tired of me, Danilovitch Mentchikoff, and wish to hand me -to your master?” - -He returned her look frankly; both were of the same class, one by -talent, the other by beauty elevated to these surroundings of royal -luxury; she had been little better than a camp follower and he was from -the gutter; neither was disguised to the other by their present splendor -and the pomp of their surroundings; both held their positions by the -frail tenure of another person’s favor--he by that of the Czar, she by -his; for the powerful Prince was, after all, but a dependent on the -favor of Peter, as the peasant girl was dependent on the caprice of -Mentchikoff. - -The two adventurers looked at each other keenly and there was a laugh -between them; hers was wholly indifferent, perhaps heartless, his was -gay and confident, for she cared for no creature but herself, nor ever -would, while his least thought and meanest action was ennobled by his -love for his master. - -“I am not tired of you, Marpha,” said Mentchikoff, “and never shall be. -I think you are a wonderful woman. I think you might help the Czar where -I fail--as now when he is in his melancholy--and when he is drunk, and -when he is ill.” - -“I do not like sick people,” said the Livonian slowly. - -“You have enough health and vitality to be able to share it,” replied -Mentchikoff sharply. - -She drew up her superb body that so proudly bore the heavy ornate -trappings, and turning her beautiful head slowly, looked out into the -darkness of the garden. - -“We speak of the Czar of Holy Russia,” added the Prince, with some -offense at her indifference. - -“We speak of a dangerous man,” she replied, with that shrewdness that -had already earned for her Mentchikoff’s respect. “I do not wish to be -raised up to be dashed down. He can be cruel, and he has all the power. -Let me keep out of the way of Peter Alexievitch.” - -“You said that you liked him,” said Mentchikoff sternly; he had been -hoping more than he admitted to himself from this second influence on -Peter, that was to have been like a doubling of his own. - -“I like him, but I am afraid of him,” she answered concisely. “He has -many devils. I saw them peep out of his eyes. Keep me for yourself, -Danilovitch Mentchikoff, for you are a peaceful man.” - -The Prince replied violently: “If you will not please Peter Alexievitch, -you shall not please me”--and passing her roughly, followed his master -out into the murmuring darkness of the garden. - -Marpha colored, and her serene pleasant face was overcast. - -She had been quite content with her lazy life of ease and admiration, -which had been like Paradise after the hardships of her earlier years, -and she was sorry that Mentchikoff, for whom she felt a placid -affection, had put her in the Czar’s path, for she was without ambition, -fond of ease and comfort, and entirely uninterested in statecraft and -politics; she could not write her own name, and was in every way -entirely ignorant save in the natural arts of reading men and managing -them; she would rather have been left in peace, and this though the dark -sad face of Peter attracted her as she had never before been attracted. - -With a little sigh she turned to her own apartment to take off the -garment whose splendor rather constrained her, and put on the peasant -costume that she usually wore. - -In the pavilion Peter and Mentchikoff were discussing the coming -campaign, the Czar showing a sudden fervent interest in those events -that he had refused hitherto to even glance at; he would not drink, but -turned half a glass of wine out on the table, and dipping his finger in -it, proceeded to draw a rough map of the scene of the King of Sweden’s -operations on the green marble. - -His knowledge of the country was accurate; he correctly placed -Copenhagen, King Frederick at Tönning, Augustus of Saxony falling back -before Riga and the victorious forces of Sweden. - -Then he drew a swift line through Poland towards Narva. - -“There he will fall on Russia, Danilovitch.” - -“Here we can meet him,” replied Mentchikoff. - -Peter frowned; his dark head with the full short curls was bent low over -the stains of wine on the malachite table; carved wooden dishes with -birds’ heads, full of fruit, beakers of pierced steel and horn, had been -pushed aside by the sweep of his right arm; the light of the candles -fixed to the white walls of the pavilion shone on his stooping figure, -and the harsh, earnest face and brilliant caftan of Mentchikoff. - -Peter, staring at the smears of red on the green, was seeing those vast -disputed provinces that he coveted, Ingermanland and Karelia ceded to -Sweden nearly 100 years ago, Livonia and Esthonia lost by Poland to the -same power in 1660; the possession of these lands would secure that -Baltic port which had been the dream of Ivan IV, and which was so -passionately desired by this first Czar who had beheld and loved the -sea; the first ruler of Russia who had aspired to seize the trade with -Asia and open up sea-going commerce. He had believed that the boy King -of Sweden would be utterly incapable of defending his provinces, and -that his secret league with Denmark and Poland would be easily and -successfully pursued to a victorious conclusion. - -Now Denmark had fallen out of the fight and Poland was a wavering ally; -but Peter still put some faith in Augustus, because of the trained Saxon -soldiery. - -So he remained for a while, staring at that crude map, his swift mind -filled out with all detail; then he suddenly smeared the wine spillings -together with his open hand and looked up at Mentchikoff, who was -regarding him eagerly. - -“This is a more difficult task than punishing the Strelitz or subduing -the Cossacks,” he said, with glittering eyes. “Surely it is more -pleasure, Danilovitch, to overthrow free men than to put one’s feet on -the neck of serfs.” - -“The Cossacks will join Karl,” remarked Mentchikoff, kindling eagerly at -the Czar’s fire. - -“To-morrow we return to Moscow,” said Peter, and his face was as fierce -as it had been in the days after his return from his travels, when the -streets of the capital had run red with the blood of the old Moscovite -army, which had revolted against his foreign reforms. - -He pushed back his tangled hair with his wine-stained hand. - -“Send for that Livonian woman,” he said, “she amuses me.” - - - - -CHAPTER IV - - -Peter held his councils in the Kremlin surrounded by the pomp of the old -world and the new; the reforms that he had introduced with so fierce and -imperious a violence had not as yet greatly affected the nation, but the -nobility who came directly under the influence of the Czar had been -largely forced to adopt European ways, much as they might hate them and -the men like Gordon and Lefort, who, mainly because they were -foreigners, had so great an influence over Peter; these were both lately -dead, but their inspiration remained. The Czar gathered his boyars -together in the Golden Hall of the Sign Manual where his predecessors -had sat on a silver throne under the gilded vaults, clad in robes stiff -and blinding with jewels, and holding a rich orb as symbol of the -universe they commanded; there Peter himself had sat in splendid pomp as -a child with his idiot brother enthroned beside him. Peter was not -magnificent to-day; in his plain green uniform and short hair he looked -like a European foot soldier and utterly out of place in this great hall -hung with scarlet, carpeted with Eastern tapestries, and decorated with -jasper and silver, malachite and lacquer. The silver throne stood on a -dais under a crimson canopy, and on the steps of it sat Peter, his hands -clasped round his knees. The boyars had gone with their breastplates and -caftans, robes, and caps, and there remained only the Duke of Croy, the -German who commanded the army, and Mentchikoff. - -All these were in the habit of Europe, Mentchikoff gorgeous in laced -coat, star, cravat, and a flowing French peruke which heavily framed -his long, harsh face. - -Peter, though affecting the most utter simplicity himself, liked to see -those about him richly clad, and his favorites vied with each other in -the splendor of their appointments; nothing pleased him more than to see -the man who had worked beside him at the carpenter bench at Wapping and -Zaandam, clad in workman’s overall, appear in all the trappings of a -French or English courtier. To-day he was in a good humor; the boyars -had been compliant before his every command; his blood-thirsty vengeance -on the reactionary party who had dared to raise a rebellion during his -absence abroad was indeed too fresh in the minds of all for anyone to -risk angering the terrible Czar. - -“I will teach Russia the arts of war as I am teaching her the arts of -peace,” he remarked, looking at the Duke of Croy whom he admired as a -tried soldier. - -The German made a suitably loyal reply, but Mentchikoff broke in with a -sharp remark. - -“How many years do you think it will take you, Peter Alexievitch?” - -“All my life,” replied the Czar humbly. - -“All your life,” smiled Croy, “and not the meanest serf in All the -Russias will thank you for your labors.” - -“What do you mean?” asked Peter. - -Croy lifted his shoulders. - -“Oh, go on with your wars and your politics and your reforms,” he said -cynically. “You are a strong man--but stronger is Holy Russia!” - -Peter looked at him with a certain eagerness entirely devoid of anger; -though he was so haughtily autocratic with his boyars he would take even -insolence from these men whom he had put in the position of his masters; -for a long while Croy and his like had represented European civilization -to Peter. - -But Mentchikoff resented on his master’s behalf this speech made so -sharply by the German. - -“The Czar holds the Russias in the palm of his hand,” he said haughtily. - -“Oh, la, la!” cried the Duke. - -Peter smiled grimly; he was thinking of the little chapel a few yards -away, from the window of which his uncle had been hurled out on to the -pikes of the soldiery below, and of his own boyhood of flight, and -peril, and hiding; not far away in this same fierce fortress was the Red -Staircase where Ivan the Terrible had stood to watch the cross-formed -comet that had predicted his own ghastly end, that staircase where, one -blood-stained June, Feodor Borisvitch, strangled by the sheltsi, had -been flung down, this but in revenge for another murdered Czar; the -history of his predecessors might indeed teach Peter that Holy Russia -was not so easily governed or so rapidly subdued. - -“The House of Romanoff has had its misfortunes but also its greatness,” -he said simply. - -“And yet may give a lesson to the impertinent Swede,” said Mentchikoff -haughtily. - -“He is a great soldier,” added Croy, in his stern way. - -The Czar’s face darkened; he rose abruptly, his great height overtopping -all of them. - -“If he throws himself against Russia, he breaks himself,” he remarked -gloomily. - -“He will attempt anything,” said Croy; his imagination like that of most -men of action had been fired by the figure of the Northern hero, who, -like another Viking, had arisen to defend his country with so much -majesty and cold magnanimity. - -Peter did not care to hear his General praise his enemy. - -“Where is Patkul; has he not returned?” he asked briefly. “He should -have been here--I want news from Livonia.” - -No one knew where Patkul might be; it was not easy to travel in the vast -kingdoms of the Czar, and a man might be late in obeying his sovereign’s -commands, and his letters might be lost, for no other reason than the -size of the country and the primitive confusions of all its services. - -Peter would have liked the presence of the fiery Livonian, with his rage -against Swedish tyranny and his hatred of Karl XI, who had condemned him -to death for protesting against the wrongs of his countrymen, and his -scorn for the present King as a haughty boy who would soon be tripped up -in his giant’s stride. - -But Patkul, at present with Augustus of Saxony as ambassador of Russia, -had not come nor answered the summons, and Peter knew very little of -what was happening in any of the Baltic provinces; he saw them in his -mind as a vast confusion, and felt impatient considering how much there -was to be done and how inadequate his means were; his military plans had -got no further than a proposed expedition to Esthonia, to seize, if -possible, that province, and to send help to Augustus in Poland, or -rather to effect a juncture with him, as Peter greatly relied on the -trained Saxon troops and the polished diplomacy of the Elector; General -Patkul should be with the Polish army, Peter knew, but since Dahlberg -had worsted him at Riga, the Livonian’s credit as a soldier had fallen -in the Czar’s eyes and he wished to consult with Augustus. - -He was conscious of defects in his own statecraft; the Muscovite envoys -whom he kept in Stockholm to swear friendly relations with Sweden had -merely angered and disgusted the severe honor of the Northern King, and -the Russian manifesto, in which the most puerile reasons were given for -declaring war, had been better if never published; but so far no Czar of -Russia had ever published any document concerning European diplomacy; in -everything Peter trod new ground and was keenly conscious of his -numerous mistakes. - -“I will go to Poland,” he said, his words following out his train of -thought. - -“You will have to defeat Sweden first, sire,” replied Croy. - -“Well,” said Peter gloomily, “one can try. We march against Narva. The -Swedes do not fear a winter campaign--since they are willing to fight -amid the ice we must learn to do so also.” - -Saying these words with a certain simplicity, he abruptly left the -chamber, and, passing through a maze of gilt and painted apartments, -came out on the great terrace of the Kremlin that overlooks Moscow and -the bridges over the Moskva. - -He felt neither excited nor elated; perhaps he knew better than either -Croy or Mentchikoff the difficulty of this, his first great enterprise, -for, by the measure of his own wild heart he could judge of the -greatness of his rival in glory; extraordinary himself, he found it easy -to credit the extraordinary in others, and just as he was prepared to -open war in the depth of winter, in a Polar climate, so he believed that -Karl would be ready to meet him; nothing could prevent him from carrying -out his ambitions, even if he had to perform feats that in the eyes of -ordinary men were madnesses, and he rightly gauged his enemy’s character -to be the same in this respect. - -He was glad that it was not possible to open the campaign till the -winter, for he considered the added difficulty an added glory; with that -sense of his own deficiency that was his truest greatness he did not -intend to command his army himself, but to serve in it as a lieutenant, -thereby giving the Russians a lesson in discipline and the value of -training, for he was aware that his soldiers would consist of a horde of -armed slaves and his officers of lawless nobles without experience or -any capacity for warfare. - -But here again his pride supported him; the more impossible the -material, the greater the glory of creating for Russia an army that -should out-rival those of Europe. - -With a quiet step he walked the terrace of the fierce old palace, -half-fortress, half-monastery, filled with churches and tombs, treasures -and chambers, haunted by the remembrances of cruelty and bitter -passions, all old, half-decayed, half-vividly splendid, dirty, holy, -secret, and foul. - -Peter did not greatly care for this residence of his predecessors; he -preferred the little cottage that he called Marli or any of the humble -houses in the Dutch style that he had built since his return from -Europe; the Kremlin oppressed him; there was something in the atmosphere -that seemed to drag him back into the old ways of his ancestors here; -his green uniform and his foreign friends could not disguise from -himself his Tartar origin, his Asiatic breeding, which everything he -touched reminded him of; neither did he love Moscow with that reverent -love that he knew was in the heart of most Russians; he dreamt of that -other city that was to spring out of the mudbanks of the Neva and rival -Paris and London. - -Pausing in his walk, he turned his soft and beautiful eyes over the -prospect of the barbaric city which glittered in many brilliancies under -the pale, greenish sky which was fading towards the evening hour; near -by, beneath the battlements, was the river, full of reflected light, but -void of color; beyond the plain was covered with crowded houses, a -confusion of roofs of a dull brown hue above which rose the myriad -cupolas and towers of the churches, shaped like strange fruits and -decorated with fantastic designs in every color and shape, only alike in -this, that each had the Christian cross surmounting the Tartar crescent, -memorial of the time when the Asiatic hordes had possession of Russia -and had changed the churches into mosques and of Ivan Vassilivitch who -raised the symbol of Christ above that of the Infidel. - -These crosses were all fastened by golden chains to the cupolas, and -many were hung with discs, orbs, and stars that swung and glittered with -every changing wind or shifting sunbeam. - -Despite the splendor of the churches there was something dull, -colorless, and melancholy about this prospect. - -The Kremlin (a city in itself) was also gloomy; when Peter turned from -looking over the city he could see, across the sandy, weed-grown -courtyard, the whole of the citadel; the golden domes rising above walls -disfigured and neglected, the three old cathedrals where the Czars were -crowned, married, and buried, the great tower built by Boris Godunof, -and behind all the red structure of the palace and fortress. - -Peter was never pleased when his glance fell on these three churches -that crowded round his royal residence; they reminded him too forcibly -of the position assumed by the Church. - -Peter meant to deprive the Patriarch of much of his power, and to vest -in himself the religious as well as the temporal prerogatives of -Aristocrat of All the Russias. - -He began pacing up and down the terrace again, and presently took from -the skirt pocket of his uniform a little letter which he read while the -evening breeze fluttered it in his hand. - -It was an appeal from his sister, miserably confined in the convent of -Novo-Devichi, for a slightly better treatment; she was very ill, she -said, having grown too stout and being covered with ulcers, and she -begged for a little air and exercise. - -Peter read the appeal with unmoved serenity; Sophia had inspired the -late rebellion and could never be forgiven. - -“A pity,” thought Peter, “for she is clever and might have been useful -to me.” - -He considered that he had been extremely generous in allowing her her -life; the heads of her supporters still rotted on the battlements of -Moscow; his wife, Eudoxia, suspected of favoring the rebels, was -enclosed in a convent with a shaven head that last day of September, in -the Krasnoi Ploshtshad, Peter had executed with his own hand several of -the wretched rebels already broken by torture, and had himself shaved -the beards the nobility wore as a sign of their adherence to ancient -custom; on the first day alone of the executions, two hundred persons -had been ferociously put to death in the presence of their frantic wives -and children; in the seven days’ vengeance more than a thousand had -perished; the bleeding members of the rebellious Strelitz had been -nailed to the bars of Sophia’s prison; every square in Moscow, every -corner of the battlements of the Kremlin, had been hung with corpses. - -And Sophia, who had been spared, ventured to complain of her prison! - -The only effect of her letter was to make her brother resolve that if -she gave any trouble during his present absence she should be strangled -in the jail she found so irksome. - -Tearing the paper into little pieces he cast it away, so that the -fragments floated down the terrace and lodged in the broken pavement and -the weed-filled terraces of the wall. - -The sunset glow, pale and dim, but faintly tinged with a warm light, was -now full on his smooth and rounded face with the large soft eyes and the -loose curls; he looked younger than his years, an ardent boy; his -thoughts had turned to his new adventure, the coming experiment of war. - -He returned to his own chamber, not speaking to those whom he met on the -way, walking softly through the gorgeous and dismal apartments of the -Kremlin, with his hands locked behind the skirts of his coat and his -head bent. - -His room had a gold-domed ceiling and walls of sparkling mosaic, a holy -picture set with precious stones between two pillars of gilt vermilion -and Eastern carpets of silk on the floor, but the furniture was that of -a camp, and the iron bedstead was covered only by the meanest blankets. - -On a bright green cushion by the closed window sat Marpha, the Livonian -peasant; she wore a plain white wool robe girdled with scarlet, and -orange leather shoes; her head-dress had been removed and her bright -opulent hair hung in heavy locks over her broad shoulders. - -On the floor in front of her stood the crowns of the Russias, and she -was playing with these in turn, like a child fondling toys, while on her -lap was a bag of sweetmeats from which she fed herself continually, -eating noisily and licking the sugar from her lips. - -When the Czar entered she had in her left hand the plain gold crown of -the Crimea, and before her the massive crowns of Astrakan, Kazan, -Siberia, and Georgia, which pulsed with the light held and given forth -by a thousand precious stones. - -Peter looked at her with the eyes of love. - -“Have you ever had such pretty playthings?” he asked. - -Marpha glanced at him without either greed or envy in her expression. - -“I would rather have an ivory comb,” she said simply, and rose with the -crowns in a half-circle at her feet. - -“You shall have,” answered Peter tenderly, “as many ivory combs as there -are hairs in your head.” - -He crossed over to her and embraced her, resting his head, with a little -sigh, on her bosom; she looked down at him calmly and with a certain -indulgence. - -“Marpha,” he asked, “will you come to the war with me?” - -“Still thinking of the war?” she replied gaily. “Have you had your -supper? Will you eat here with me instead of with your boyars to-night? -I have the kvas ready.” - -Peter lifted his head and looked at her; the atmosphere of the room was -close and foul, the air full of flies and mosquitoes; both the room and -the woman were dirty; her gown was soiled, her face and hands sticky -with perspiration and sugar; the taint of brandy was in her breath, and -her expressionless beauty was clouded by her slovenliness. But the Czar -saw none of these things; he felt as happy as he had ever felt in his -life as he flung himself into one of the camp chairs, and she hastened -to bring him his drink; the native spirit and fine French wine in equal -parts. - -He drank this, glass after glass, as the woman went into the inner room -and prepared the rude supper, singing in a sweet voice and thinking of -nothing much but the good, plentiful food and the fine, plentiful drink -and the gay dresses and lazy days now within her reach. - -And Peter, as he became inflamed with the spirit, imagined himself -crushing the Swedes as he had crushed the rebellious Strelitz, and he -nodded at the pale-faced ikon between the scarlet pillars, promising it -an egg-shaped emerald when he should have taken Narva. - - - - -BOOK III - -JOHN RHEINHOLD PATKUL - - “His grief was but his grandeur in disguise - And discontent his immortality.” - - - - -CHAPTER I - - -By the first day of October, Peter, after ravaging Ingria, found himself -before Narva, swiftly bearing the thunders of his vengeance against his -Northern rival, who, despite the extreme severity of the climate (it was -already midwinter in this bitter latitude), was steadily advancing to -meet the last and most powerful of his enemies. - -Peter was on fire to prove to the people, who were half unwillingly -accepting his gigantic efforts to lift Russia into the position of a -great power, that his new methods of warfare were capable of rendering -null the treaties of Stolboro and Plivia, and Karl was equally resolute -to prove that he was invincible in defense of what he had every right to -consider his own territory. - -John Rheinhold Patkul, the Livonian noble who had been largely -instrumental in forming the threefold secret treaty against Sweden, who -had been first in the service of the Elector of Saxony and afterwards -Peter’s envoy at Dresden, was now with the Muscovite army, and the -report of his presence there further inflamed the cold anger of the King -of Sweden, who, crossing the sea with a fine fleet of transport, was -marching towards Narva six weeks after Peter had commenced the siege, -regardless alike of the increasing rigors of the winter and the -disparity of numbers between his own army and that of the Czar. - -He had reason for his confidence, for it was in numbers only that Peter -had the advantage. - -A skilled general with a disciplined army would have been able to reduce -the little town of Narva into ashes in a few days, perhaps hours; Peter -had sat down before it six weeks in vain, while the Baron de Horn, in -command of the beleaguered garrison, was able, with his few pieces of -cannon, to again and again level the trenches, redoubts, and -fortifications that Peter had constructed round his camp, in accordance -with what he had learnt in his travels. - -These rude attempts at the science of war were complete failures; 150 -cannon could scarcely be fired and could never hit their objective; -nearly 65,000 men remained helpless before a garrison of 1000, in a -small ill-protected town. - -Peter, in no way sparing himself (he still held the rank of lieutenant -in his own army), spent his days going from one part of his camp to -another, instructing, working, exhorting, threatening, enduring all the -hardships of the terrible weather and the inadequate supplies of the -badly provisioned army. - -The Duke of Croy was in command; an able soldier, trained in the -traditions of European warfare, he yet was incapable of controlling an -army consisting largely of a horde of peasants, dressed in skins, armed -with scythes, pruning knives, and officered by a haughty and ignorant -nobility, who knew neither how to enforce obedience nor how to submit to -discipline. - -There was not one good gunner in the whole army and no one who had seen -a siege before; the only passable troops were the Strelitz, decimated by -Peter’s late vengeance on their reactionary spirit and only accustomed -to Eastern and Asiatic methods of warfare. - -Day after day Peter, dressed in the old green uniform, with a worn fur -cap and mantle, smoking a Dutch clay pipe, watched, with a dogged -patience, the erections of fortifications that Horn’s artillery always -accurately demolished; his brooding gaze traveled over his soldiers, -courageous, robust, and willing, but completely ignorant and -uncontrollable, and he thought of what he had yet to do for Russia. - -Easier to build his city on the marshes of the Neva than to frame out of -these an army that would defeat Karl of Sweden! He became melancholy and -fierce; neither Mentchikoff nor Patkul nor Croy could divert his gloomy -musings; the only creature who had any power to soothe him was Marpha, -the Livonian peasant, whom he had brought with him and who bloomed like -a winter rose amid the rough life of the camp; she enjoyed her -surroundings, could give or take a rude jest with the least of the -soldiery, wait on the Czar like a foot-boy, yet be a wild Aspasia to -this strange Pericles. - -The King of Sweden, with about 8000 men, of which the half were cavalry, -landed at Pernau in the gulf of Riga; with all the horse and about half -of the foot he advanced at once on Revel, without waiting for the rest -of his troops. - -Peter meanwhile had left the army before Narva in charge of the Duke of -Croy, and had himself hastened to Pskov to bring up a new body of 30,000 -troops; his design being to enclose Karl between two armies; he had -already thrown across the road from Revel to Narva 55,000 men, including -his best troops, the Strelitz, 5000 of which formed an advance guard, -who soon found themselves facing the first regiments of the King of -Sweden’s army. - -The Strelitz were so well posted among the rocks that a far fewer number -than they possessed could have easily hindered the approach of a much -larger army than that possessed by Karl, but the Russians, not knowing -what they had to face and believing the Swedes innumerable as well as -excellent, fled with little resistance. This panic communicated itself -to their compatriots behind them, and in two days the Swedes had swept -before them 25,000 men, taken all the Russian outposts, and appeared -before the Czar’s entrenchments before Narva. - -It was a black morning of dreadful cold, the last day of November, when -Karl found himself before the army of Peter. - -A gray sky hung heavily over the desolate landscape and seemed to press -heavily on the bare trees; the Swedes were fatigued with the march from -Pernau and the encounters with the Russians on the road; Karl called a -halt. - -A young Scotchman in his army, who had several times proved himself -useful in delicate work of espionage, had managed to get ahead of the -army and penetrate the Russian lines; the news he brought was considered -interesting enough to cause him to be taken before the King. - -He had never seen Karl XII face to face, and it was with considerable -curiosity that he followed the staff officer who took him into the royal -presence. - -The army was taking a few hours’ repose, but no tents had been set up, -and the Scotchman found Karl seated on the great roots of a huge pine -tree, with him Count Piper and several generals. - -He was already completely inured to hardships for which his childish -training had well fitted him, and suffered from the severities of -warfare perhaps less than any of his soldiers. - -He was now only a few months past his eighteenth birthday, but in every -respect had reached his full development; his great height and powerful -figure made him conspicuous even among an army of robust and vigorous -men; he had the grace of the athlete and the dignity of a king in his -carriage, yet there was an awkwardness, a stiffness in his manners that -might have been haughtiness or indifference or even shyness; his -expression was cold and unchanging, his speech abrupt and plain; he gave -no impression of youth save in the softness of his traits and the -slackness of his figure. - -He wore a blue uniform, tight waisted and with a full skirt, closely -fastened with buttons of gilt leather up to the throat and showing no -shirt, but only the plain band of the black satin cravat; an ordinary -leather belt and strap supported his sword, and long gauntlet gloves -reached to his elbow, his soft knee boots and his breeches were alike of -leather; he wore a three-cornered black hat set well on his head, and -his fair hair arranged in curls like a peruke on his shoulders. - -He had a mantle of blue cloth, lined with fur, but this, despite the -freezing cold, was cast on the ground beside him; his face, yet -beardless and showing, notwithstanding the exposure to intemperate -weather, still the bloom of extreme youth, had hardened in outline since -he had begun the life of a soldier; the features were firm as a mask of -stone, fresh with the warm tints of health, generous and full in line -and curve; neither enthusiasm nor humor, nor pride, nor tenderness -showed in his expression; his blue eyes looked out with a cold, level, -and serene glance; he had the air of one dwelling in a world of his own -with little care for others. - -The Scotchman thought him remarkable but neither agreeable nor -attractive; the King had a personality too aloof from warm and human -weaknesses to command sympathy from ordinary men; he had many servants -but few friends, much admiration, but little love. - -“Tell me,” he said at once, as the young man was presented to him, “did -you see the Czar of Muscovy?” - -The Scotchman saw that the King attached much importance to this -question, and was chagrined that he could not answer in the affirmative. - -“Sire, the Czar has left his army to hasten up the reserves.” - -“I should like to have met him in the battle,” said Karl, but without a -trace of annoyance. “The reserves could have come up without him. I -think he did ill to leave his post now.” - -“It looks,” said one of the generals who stood beside the King, “as if -he was afraid of your Majesty.” - -“That is impossible,” replied Karl quietly, “for I take him to be a -great man.” - -“But it is true, sire,” put in the Scot, “that the Muscovites have a -great terror of your Majesty; I was in their camp last night and heard -them speak of you and your exploits as they might have spoken of -supernatural things.” - -“It needs but a poor prowess to achieve a reputation in the eyes of -savages,” replied the King, still cold and unmoved. “These Russians are -both ignorant and wild. How came you, sir, to escape detection?” - -“I speak the German very well, sire, and passed for the servant of a -German officer, of whom they have several, and their camp is in such a -confusion one might almost come and go as one pleases.” - -“They know nothing of war,” observed Karl, “but the Czar will teach -them.” - -“He seems much loved--though unjustly cruel and unwisely generous. I saw -his friend, Mentchikoff, and the Livonian woman who they say has a great -influence over him.” - -Karl smiled, as if he was glad to hear of this weakness in his rival; -there was not a woman in the whole of the Swedish army; the Scot -remarked how disagreeable his smile was; it seemed to disfigure his -noble face. - -“Saw you this woman?” he asked. - -“Yes, sire, at the door of Peter’s empty tent, making kvas, as they call -the stuff they drink. She had a fur coat of uncouth cut and was all -smeared with meal and honey, but in her way she is as beautiful as -Aurora von Königsmarck.” - -The King abruptly changed the subject as if he regretted having shown -even so much interest in the affairs of his enemy. - -“You learnt nothing of importance?” he asked with great indifference; he -had only spoken to the spy because he wished to know if Peter was with -his army; as to his own actions, he had decided what they were to be -ever since he had landed at Pernau. - -The Scotchman proceeded to tell him of what he had learnt of the enemy, -their number, disposition, and probable plans. - -Karl listened with patience, but with so cold a mien that the young man -faltered in his speech; the King’s face, blank as it was of all but -courageous steadfastness, overawed him and made him uneasy; he felt that -he spoke to one utterly beyond his knowledge or liking; he was glad when -he was dismissed. - -As he went Karl rose from the tree roots, overtopping, by nearly half a -head, his tallest officer; the air was still and freezing, and a few -flakes of ghastly white snow began to flutter from the bitter sky. - -“We should be able to attack at midday,” said the King; it was then -about ten o’clock. - -“Your Majesty has considered the peril?” asked General Rehnsköld. “By -all accounts we must be outnumbered by a hundred to one, and they are -entrenched and fortified.” - -Karl stooped and took up his mantle, shaking from it the first flakes of -snow that were large and hard. - -“Do you doubt,” he answered, “that I, with 8000 Swedes, can pass over -the bodies of 80,000 Muscovites?” - -He swung the mantle round his great shoulders and then added instantly, -fearful that he had seemed to boast, a thing his pride loathed: “Are you -not really of my opinion, Rehnsköld? I have two great advantages--he -cannot use his cavalry, and as the ground is enclosed his great numbers -will be but an encumbrance. It is I who am really stronger than he, and -have all the advantages.” - -General Rehnsköld bowed his head in assent; there was not one of the -staff officers behind him who did not consider the young King’s action -rash to madness. - -Karl saw this; for their opinion he cared nothing; but he greatly -disliked to be suspected of bravado; his was not the unconscious modesty -of a man who knows not he is great nor that his actions are remarkable, -but the conscious austerity of one who is aware he is extraordinary and -wishes to be acclaimed, but not by his own tongue. - -“If I defeat the Czar here, Cracow and Varsovia are open to me,” he -said, turning his blue eyes on the quiet faces of his officers. - -Again General Rehnsköld bowed. - -“I am entirely of your Majesty’s opinion.” - -“At least you submit very gracefully, General,” replied Karl, with his -ugly smile. - -He turned away and Count Piper followed him. - -“He will be as hard and obstinate as his father,” remarked an officer, -shivering under his fur, for the cold was of Polar intensity. - -“Eight thousand men against eighty thousand!” exclaimed another. “He -thinks to rival Leonidas or one of his saga heroes.” - -“Gentlemen,” said Rehnsköld, “I think he will do it.” - -The King and Count Piper mounted and cantered along the lines of the -resting army; Karl had taken no deliberations and held no councils. He -considered that there was nothing to do but to give the order to attack; -after a brief survey of his men he would be back with his staff under -the great pine. - -Count Piper, who was not a soldier but a true patriot, glanced several -times at what the black hat and full fair curls allowed him to see of -the King’s face. - -He had been very eager to urge him into a defensive war, but he had -never dreamed of these reckless projects, this complete absorption in -war for war’s sake; he secretly suspected that all the cold but deep -passion of the King’s nature was concentrated, not on the desire to -better Sweden, but on the design of making for himself the reputation of -an invincible captain; the main object of the war was achieved in the -restoration of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp to his dominions; but Karl -had never said a word of returning to Stockholm, even for a visit, and -the last advices from the Council of Regency in the capital he had -thrust in his pocket without reading, and he had embarked on this -desperate winter campaign, with no purpose that Count Piper could see -but that of making the world stare. - -“As long as these mad exploits are successful----” thought the -statesman, “but his first failure will cost us all Gustavas Vasa -gained!” He could not resist the endeavor to rouse Karl from his passive -hardness. - -“When your Majesty has beaten the Czar of Muscovy, will you be content?” - -“There is still Augustus,” replied the King; he glanced up at the -snow-filled air. “Look, the storm is blowing towards the enemy, we shall -have it at our backs, they in their eyes--did I not say I was -fortunate?” - -Count Piper shivered; the weather was black and bitter enough to freeze -a man’s soul; he wished Karl’s ardor for glory had stopped short of -battle in midwinter at a latitude of 30 degrees Polar, with odds of a -hundred to one. - -“You are cold?” asked Karl. “I like the snow. I wish Peter was with his -men. Surely he will return from Pskov.” - -His blue eyes cast a bright glance over the precise ranks of his -perfectly disciplined soldiers; men who had prayers twice a day and -lived like athletes in training. - -“I had an item of news from Stockholm when last I heard,” said the -Count, as they turned their horses’ heads. “Viktoria Falkenberg is -dead. It seems that she had long concealed a fatal complaint.” - -The King’s expressionless face did not alter; he was skilfully guiding -his horse over the rough ground, already white with snow. - -“The signal for the charge,” he remarked, “will be two shots--the -passwords--‘God with us.’” - -A darkness enclosed the world with the soft descent of the snow; the -flakes hung in the folds of the King’s mantle and in his curls; his hat -was covered; the ground was frozen, the tops of the gaunt pines hidden -in the whirling storm; the rigid ranks of Sweden showed a darkness amid -the dark; facing them were the black gaping cannon of the vast army of -the Czar; even beneath their fur caftans the Russians were numb; Marpha, -wrapped in skins and wools, stared at a picture of St. Nicholas -Mentchikoff had thrust into her hands, but she was not praying but -thinking of the absent Czar; she wished he was back in the dirty tent -where she could minister to him and prepare him for the fight. - -“I wonder if he is afraid of that boy?” she thought, then suddenly -crouched low as the sound of the Swedish cannon scattered the storm; -Karl and his eight thousand were hurling themselves on the ranks of -Muscovy; Marpha crept to the tent door and looked out, but the snow -swirled in and blinded her; again the cannon and distant shouts; she sat -huddled and silent, hating her lover for not being there. - - - - -CHAPTER II - - -“If you do not believe that I shall redeem Narva you are a fool,” said -Peter rudely. “The Swedes themselves will teach us how to defeat their -own armies.” - -It was three months after his bitter failure when the King of Sweden had -scattered his immense forces in a few hours, and he himself, coming with -the reinforcements from Pskov, had withdrawn from the path of a -conqueror with troops so greatly inferior to his own; Karl was spending -the winter encamped near Narva and Peter had come to Birsen, a little -town in Lithuania, to meet informally (indeed it might be said that the -Czar never did anything formally) his ally, Augustus, Elector of Saxony -and King of Poland, on whose trained troops Peter still relied, though -Augustus had shown to but little advantage in the war, and had done -nothing since he had gracefully submitted to necessity in raising the -siege of Riga. - -It was to Augustus whom Peter spoke now; the King Elector’s heart was -hardly in the war that for him had been mainly an excuse to keep a -standing army with which to overawe Poland, and that he had never -intended to go to these extreme, expensive lengths, and he had several -times referred, with that calm elegance that irritated Peter, to the -disastrous day of Narva, so fatal to the Russian arms that the terrified -inhabitants of Moscow, on hearing of the news, had not hesitated to -attribute it to magic on the part of the Swedes. And Peter had suddenly -broken out into violence. - -“Perhaps you are a fool,” he added loudly. - -Augustus flushed, but smiled and slightly raised his eyebrows, glancing -at the third occupant of the chamber which was the best parlor of the -best house in Birsen. This gentleman was John Rheinhold Patkul, the -prime author of the league against Sweden, at first in the employment of -Saxony, now in the service of Peter whom he continued to represent at -Dresden. - -He looked at the Czar now with a glance of affection and spoke quietly. - -“I am sure that your Majesty will completely revenge Narva.” - -“Thank you, General Patkul,” said Peter sullenly, “but whatever you or -any other man believe, I am sure I shall humble that haughty boy.” - -He put his elbows on the corner of the black oak table near which he sat -and supported his face in his brown hands. - -The persons of these three men were in great contrast, and it was plain -that some extraordinary event outside their own volition or inclination -had brought them together. Peter wore his shabby green uniform, cracked -and old top-boots, a sword and belt like those of a common soldier, his -own tumbled short and dusky curls, only his linen was fine and clean -where it showed above the high buttoned coat; for the rest he might have -been a trooper, disordered after a day’s march. - -Augustus, who sat in a great chair with arms near the log fire, was a -man of a physical strength famous throughout Europe; he was as tall as -the Czar and far more powerfully made, the splendid Karl would have -appeared a stripling beside him for he was now in the prime of his -manhood; a magnificent prince like the hero of a fairy-tale to the eye, -for he was extremely good-looking in a pleasing, conventional fashion, -gracious, easy in manner, full of fire and chivalry, and elegant as any -courtier of Louis XIV; his court was considered next to that of -Versailles for brilliancy, extravagance, and elegance, and he had made -Dresden nearly as fashionable as Paris. - -He also wore riding costume, but in complete contrast to the -habiliments of the Czar; a mantle of dark blue silk, lined with black -fur, was flung back on his shoulders and fastened across the breast with -gold clasps; his coat was of fine deep crimson cloth gallooned with -silver; his rich laces, fastened with a black bow at the throat, fell -over a white satin waistcoat heavily embroidered in colored silks; his -close knee-boots were of the softest leather, his spurs gilt, his sword -and baldrick very handsome and tasseled; his kindly, charming face was -framed in the rich curls of a long peruke, and on the chair beside him -were his huge gauntlet gloves, his black hat with long white plumes and -his gold-headed riding-crop. - -He looked both disinterested and slightly ill at ease, though his air -was one of perfect courtesy, and he seemed to pay more attention to the -Livonian nobleman than to the Muscovite Czar--finding the former more to -his ideas of civilization. - -This man, who had already played such a considerable but more or less -secret part in the politics of Northern Europe, and who now defied Karl -XII with his sword as he had defied Karl XI with his eloquence, was -still young, but of an appearance ordinary compared to that of the two -princes. - -He was fair, of medium height, with blunt features and earnest gray -eyes, an expression enthusiastic and serious; he wore the uniform of a -Saxon General, and his peruke was tied with a black ribbon; his -personality was sincere and attractive, and to any who knew his history -there was round him the fascination of lost causes and forlorn hopes, -the romance of the fanatic and the patriot, for Patkul had only lived -with the one object of rescuing his country from the tyranny of Sweden. - -He had been elected as spokesman to put the wrongs of Livonia before -Karl XI; that stern monarch had received him graciously. - -“You have spoken for your country like a brave man, and I respect you -for it,” he had said, but the next day Patkul had been arrested on a -charge of treason; he had broken prison and escaped abroad, and from -then had been the steady enemy of Karl XI and his son. - -To Augustus he had been of infinite value, and he had only left the -court of Dresden because his single-mindedness, his haughty spirit, and -ardent purpose had accorded ill with the frivolous atmosphere, -bed-chamber plots, and petty intrigues of the Elector’s court; in Peter -he had found a more congenial master, but a sentimental tie still bound -him to Dresden; he was betrothed to a good and beautiful Saxon lady, -Mdle. D’Einsiedel. - -The sincerity and simplicity of this love affair was in contrast to the -fashion of the moment; Augustus was slightly cynical and Peter did not -understand, but Patkul was not greatly concerned in these princes’ -opinion of his private concern; they were to him but instruments to free -Livonia and humble Sweden, though for Peter Alexis he felt a certain -affection, for the Czar was also struggling with a gigantic, perhaps -hopeless, task. - -Augustus glanced with some disgust at the somber figure of Peter; the -moods and melancholies of the wild, diseased Muscovite were very -repellent to the healthy, ease-loving Saxon; secretly he cursed the -alliance with Russia (though he was too good-natured to blame its -author, Patkul), and wished that he had found some less dangerous excuse -for keeping his standing army. - -However, he had to force on his reluctant and somewhat lazy mind that he -was in a perilous position; Karl had defeated Denmark (who no longer -counted as a member of the league) and defeated Russia, and there could -be little doubt that the stern and haughty young conqueror would now -turn his arms against Poland; the King-Elector saw no ally and no chance -of support save in the Czar. - -The treaty of Altona kept England and Holland tacitly at least on the -side of Sweden, and Augustus had never been looked upon well by France, -whose princes he had defeated in the candidature for the Polish throne. - -His defensive measures must be taken in concert with Peter; a defeated -man, certainly, but one of immense resources and genius. - -“While we talk, Sweden will act,” he said, with a slightly quizzical -smile, his good humor after all carrying the day in the struggle with -his irritation against the mood of the incomprehensible Peter; he rose, -very gorgeous and making the room look mean. “Let us have our dinner,” -he added, “and then come to some serious conversation.” - -“Which has been too long delayed, sire,” remarked General Patkul -quietly; already the meeting between kings and ministers was several -days old, and nothing had taken place but mutual compliments and mutual -entertainments in which all had joined from Peter and Augustus to the -meanest secretary in their train; Patkul, the only man who had kept -quite aloof, was probably the only man in Birsen now completely sober; -it was the reaction from debauch that had plunged Peter into melancholy, -and Augustus was heavy-headed and heavy-eyed. - -“Too long delayed,” he agreed smoothly. “Karl will not spend much longer -before Narva--why, having achieved his end, he cannot go home----” - -Peter looked up. - -“Achieved his end?” he questioned. - -“Has he not got back Holstein-Gottorp and checked the invasion into his -Baltic provinces?” - -“And you think that was his end!” exclaimed the Czar contemptuously. -“No, he wishes to dethrone you and me.” - -Augustus laughed at this abrupt statement. - -“A second Alexander? Not in these times, sire,” he replied. “Not even a -vain boy would dream of world conquest now--especially after the lessons -of Ryswick; what Louis could not accomplish Karl will hardly attempt.” - -“I think that he will,” said Peter, measuring the Swede’s spirit by his -own. - -He was seconded by the Livonian. - -“I think that you are right, sire; there is no end to what Karl will -attempt--perhaps no end to what he will achieve. I think his Saxon -Majesty can hardly conceive the type, hard, cold, justly cruel and -justly generous--a man without mercy for himself or others, austere, -awkward, without grace or charm, yet underneath half-mad with pride, -with obstinacy, with the old Viking blood lust, the old Berserker fury -against those who oppose him.” - -Patkul spoke with a feeling that pleased Peter, always intensely -interested in anything to do with his rival. - -“He is reputed virtuous,” said the Czar. - -“Virtuous!” exclaimed Patkul, with a flush in his blond face. “Yes--he -has prayers twice a day in his camp, and his soldiers do not take a -slice of bread that they do not pay for; he lives the life of a Spartan -and a monk, for it is his vanity to be considered above the weaknesses -of mankind, but he would see Sweden go to perdition sooner than forgo -one of his mad schemes or sacrifice one leaf from the laurels of his -barren victories!” - -“You speak from your knowledge of his father,” said Augustus. - -“From my knowledge of the race, sir. Karl XI thought something of the -good of his people, and embarked on no useless conquests, but the type -was the same--a man of granite. He killed his Queen with his hardness. I -think that he never said a kind word, all his days, to anyone.” - -“And no woman was ever found to soften him?” asked Augustus, who was -trained in the traditions of Versailles. - -“Never. They say that this man is the same,” replied Patkul. “He -prefers to govern his passions rather than to risk female domination and -has resolved never to look on a fair face.” - -“I will send him Marpha,” said Peter gravely. “She would twine round the -heart of a saint.” - -At the thought of such an ambassadress being sent to bewitch the haughty -young conqueror with her crude charms, and the spectacle of the Czar’s -entire belief in the illiterate camp follower with her rude speech and -neglected person who so offended the fastidious taste of the Saxon, -Augustus could not repress a smile of contempt. - -Peter perceived it and rose; little flames of wrath sparkled in his full -brown eyes. - -“Well, send him Aurora von Königsmarck,” he cried violently. - -Augustus was utterly taken aback; he had never so been spoken to nor -surrounded by other than refinement and elegance; to even hear the name -of Aurora on the lips of Peter was a profanation, but to listen to her, -one of the admired women of Europe, the Montespan of his Versailles, -coupled, in this odious connection, with the Livonian peasant, raised by -the mad caprice of Peter, made him put his hand to his sword. - -“Well,” said the Czar, with dangerous softness, “why not your woman as -well as mine?” - -Patkul intervened. - -“Leave the names of women, sire,” he said quickly and with some -authority. “The King of Sweden is not, in any case, to be outwitted that -way.” - -Augustus recovered his composure by reminding himself that he had to -deal with a man almost wholly a savage. - -“At least you will leave the name of the Countess von Königsmarck, sir,” -he said coldly. - -Peter laughed with rude contempt; he had no respect for any woman, and -the brilliant Aurora who ruled the superb court of Dresden was no better -in his mind than Marpha, who stirred the kvas and drank brandy in his -dirty hut or tent. - -Augustus did not like this laugh and spoke again, to avoid a quarrel. - -“Surely it is time we joined Mentchikoff for dinner,” and he glanced -patiently at the cold winter day beyond the window. - -“You are very fond of your dinner,” said Peter, who turned from the -French cooking provided by Augustus to devour half-cooked greasy meat -and parboiled vegetables soaked in vinegar. - -The King-Elector, perfectly master of himself, turned easily to Patkul. - -“General,” he said, “escort His Majesty to the dining-hall.” - -And with that he left the room, gathering up gracefully his hat, gloves, -and whip. - -“He is a silly fribble and a besotted rake,” said Peter angrily, as the -door closed. - -“He has a fine army, sire,” replied Patkul quietly; he was used to -managing both these men, so utterly different and both so necessary to -his great schemes. - -“Yes,” admitted the Czar sullenly, with envy in his eyes. - -“The sort of army that is needful to defeat Sweden--come here, sire,” he -beckoned Peter to the window and pointed out, in the courtyard of the -modest house, the Saxon guard who had been appointed to attend on Peter -during his residence at Birsen. “Are they not splendid fellows? And -those passing, of the Brandenbourg regiment--and Augustus has thousands -of such men.” - -Peter’s haggard eyes lit with professional enthusiasm. - -“I will have men like that, Patkul.” - -“Meanwhile it is useful to tolerate the Elector, sire.” - -“And choke myself with his French sauces, and grimace with him over his -compliments.” - -“Well,” said Patkul gravely, “I think your Majesties have some tastes in -common; you have been drunk together for three days on end, and that -should have promoted some fellow-feeling.” - -The Czar gave no answer and Prince Mentchikoff entered the room; he was -dressed magnificently, and in tolerable imitation of the Saxon nobility; -the peasant had acquired Western polish more easily than the Czar. - -Peter greeted him affectionately, taking his face between his hands and -kissing him; it was the first time he had seen him that day for -Mentchikoff had been sleeping off the effects of last night’s orgy. - -Patkul left the two Russians together, and hastened after Augustus who -was already seated at table with several of his ministers and officers. - -“You wish yourself back at Dresden, no?” he greeted the Livonian -pleasantly. - -“Sire,” replied Patkul, “I should not care to be back at Dresden -thinking that this meeting had been fruitless.” - -“You are right,” said Augustus, gravely, “and the sooner we finish this -treaty the sooner we can return,” and his eyes shone, as he thought of -his Aurora. - -Patkul completed the treaty that day; the Czar was to send into Poland -50,000 men to learn to become soldiers, and, in the space of two years, -to pay to the Czar 3,000,000 rix-dollars; Augustus was to levy from -neighboring princes 50,000 trained German troops to send into Russia; -this treaty, that seemed to lay the foundation for the greatness of the -Czar and the ruin of Sweden, once completed, Patkul would have made -instant preparations to put it into force; but Augustus, despite the -attractions of his gorgeous darling and his fears for the safety of his -kingdom, joined Peter in a week-long debauch. - -Meanwhile Sweden, breaking camp at Narva, marched on Riga, and Patkul, -unable to endure the idle orgies, obtained permission to join the Saxon -troops under Courlande and Steinau, who were defending the passage of -the Dwina against the conqueror. - - - - -CHAPTER III - - -“When things go smoothly it is well to be a woman, when they go ill I -would give my soul to be a man,” said Aurora von Königsmarck. - -She was in her beautiful chamber in the Palace at Dresden, seated on a -low couch piled with cushions of shimmering brocade, holding in her long -fair hand a letter from the Elector. - -“I think,” replied her companion, “you would not, under any inducement, -be other than what you are.” - -Aurora looked up sharply. - -“Would you?” she demanded. - -The court favorite smiled as she spoke and flung herself farther back -into the soft cushions, crushing the stiff violet ribbons and frills of -silver lace on her magnificent gown. - -“No,” said the other lady; she was fair and pale, and seated on a stool -of red lacquer was helping a tiny negro page to feed with sugar a parrot -that swung in an ebony ring. - -“Why?” asked Aurora. - -“Because I am betrothed to General Patkul,” replied the lady, without -looking round. - -“Romantic love--in this age!” smiled the Countess. - -Mdle. D’Einsiedel daintily placed the morsel of sugar in the bird’s huge -polished beak; he as daintily accepted it, and twisted round in his ring -sweeping his long green tail feathers into the face of the page. - -“Tell me about it,” coaxed Aurora, leaning forward so that her beautiful -head peered over the gilt edge of the settee. “Tell me what it is like -to be in love--in love!--in that way?” - -“I am sorry for you that you do not know. Countess,” smiled Hélène -D’Einsiedel, still amusing herself with the bird and not looking round. - -Aurora von Königsmarck studied her with a curiosity that was not -entirely without malice and envy. - -The young girl (she was hardly more than seventeen) made a beautiful -picture in her full rose-colored dress, seated on rose-colored cushions, -with rainbow-hued silk ribbons at her slender waist, and in her loosely -dressed pale hair, silk flowers; forget-me-nots and roses were amid the -fine laces on her open bosom, pearls in her ears and round her throat; -her delicate features shone fair with youth and health, grace and breed; -she was wealthy, noble, nurtured in a corrupt and brilliant court, and -she had consented to bestow her hand on a man who was no more than a -political adventurer; native of a country supposed half-savage and with -no particular attractions of person or manner, John Rheinhold Patkul had -never been popular with the courtiers of Augustus, but he had inspired -this girl with an intense devotion that no opposition could shake. - -She continued with undisturbed grace to feed the parrot; behind her was -a tapestry of a woodland scene, gray-green in color, which formed the -background to her pale beauty which was in piquant contrast to the negro -with his scarlet suit and sky-blue turban and the harsh colors of the -bird. - -“Well, child,” said Aurora at length, “if you will not talk----! You -will marry your Livonian, and go to live in his wild country and forget -about me.” - -The girl looked at the sugar lying in her pink palm; Aurora had always -been her friend, to some extent her patroness, but she did not care to -talk to her of General Patkul. - -“Obstinate!” continued the Countess. “You will not even distract me from -my bad news. Augustus is sick. And the fight by Riga goes ill for us.” - -“Ah!” Mdle. D’Einsiedel turned her brown eyes now. - -“I thought I should move you,” remarked Aurora maliciously. “Have you -not heard, then, from your idol?” - -Patkul, with Courlande and Steinau, was disputing the sandy reaches of -the Dwina against the advancing troops of Karl XII; it was the first -shock of the opening of the young conqueror’s second campaign. - -“I have not heard for several days,” replied the girl in a low voice, -“but why should I grieve or trouble? The cause is a sacred one, and I -feel sure that God will protect it.” - -Aurora smiled at these trite words which betrayed the touching -confidence of youth in the continuance of happiness; she saw that the -girl was so wrapt in the splendor of a first and noble passion that she -could not think of misfortune as a possible thing. The Countess sighed -and pulled at her waist ribbons with restless fingers; all romance had -long left her life; her outlook was that of the brilliant adventuress -concerned only to keep the splendid position she had attained by talent -and beauty. - -By now she had forgotten if she ever had loved Augustus, the handsome, -generous, good-humored Prince whose favor had made her great; he was -simply her world, the thing by which she must stand or fall; his ruin -would be her ruin, utterly; she was grateful enough and loyal enough to -scorn the thought of leaving him if he was defeated and brought to -disaster, but she could not view with calm the prospect of losing her -position as mistress of the second most brilliant court in Europe, and -all the pleasures and honors she now enjoyed as a famous beauty and a -clever and powerful woman. She was of a noble Swedish family with a wild -and tragic history; the names of her two brothers had long held a horrid -renown; Philip von Königsmarck had been the lover of Dorothea of Zell, -the Elector of Hanover’s wife, and, betrayed by a woman’s jealousy, had -been caught and horribly murdered as he left the Electress; the other -brother had been concerned in the brutal assassination of a wealthy -Englishman whose wife the young adventurer hoped to marry; his -accomplices were taken and hanged and he had fled, to perish miserably -and obscurely in battle. - -These tragedies had not been without their effect on Aurora; she found -the echo of them in her own wild heart; she had wept with passionate -indignation for Philip and scorned the other for a fool. - -As for herself she meant to be neither the victim of passion nor of -folly, but in every way to avoid disaster; her impetuous spirit was -governed by a cool brain; she was intelligent in large matters, clever -in small ones, intensely conscious of being an extraordinary woman, not -vain of her beauty nor her wit nor her charm, but aware of the value of -these things, how men could be led by them, and the power they might -purchase. - -She had no evil qualities; her most sincere emotion was her passionate -love for her beautiful little son, Maurice; perhaps a sense of stifled -discontent lay deep hidden in her heart, mingled with the adventurer’s -secret longing for haven and security; this she never admitted even to -herself, but sometimes it colored her behavior, as now when she was -inclined to be spiteful with the young and rather silly girl absorbed in -the magic of a great love. - -“She really would leave everything for him,” thought the Countess; she -wondered what it must be to feel like that; the creature was so shy and -reserved about it too. - -Aurora had herself, purely as a matter of course, tried to bring Patkul -to her feet when he had first come to the Dresden Court; neither her -fidelity to Augustus nor the native coldness of her disposition -prevented her from endeavoring to subjugate every notable man who -crossed her path; that the Livonian had been ice to her and flame to -Hélène D’Einsiedel did not add to the good-humor with which she viewed -this romantic, old-fashioned love affair. - -Vanity apart, her good sense condemned the type of man who could prefer -a stupid girl, endowed only with the passing prettiness of youth, to a -woman like herself. - -She was extremely lovely, vivid in coloring for the North, bright brown -eyes, soft brown hair, graceful from crown to heel, every movement -charming, every look and gesture radiant with beauty. - -“Why are you angry with me, Countess?” asked the girl suddenly, tossing -down the sugar on to the rose-colored cushions. - -“How did you know I was angry?” - -“Oh, la, you look as if you would like to beat me!” - -Aurora suddenly moved and clasped her long hands round her knees. - -“I suppose I envied you,” she said, in one of her careless generous -impulses. “You have something I have never had.” - -Hélène did not quite understand. - -“Little silly!” laughed Aurora. “Do you not know that I am incapable of -loving any man as you love your Patkul?” - -“You pretend very well,” said Hélène, with a demureness that might have -hid a touch of malice. - -Aurora was silent; yes, she could pretend very well, she had often -marveled at that herself, often been genuinely amazed at the strength -and sincerity of the emotion she could raise in others and her own lack -of response; she would have liked to have felt, if only for half an -hour, any adoration for any man equal to that this girl felt for General -Patkul; she knew that such an emotion would have been entirely in -opposition with all her plans and schemes, but in her avid desire for -life and knowledge, she would have given much for the curiosity of the -experience. - -However, she put the thought out of her mind, moved quickly, and glanced -again at the letter from Augustus. - -She was vexed that he was too ill to take the command of his armies in -person, the more so as she guessed this illness to be consequent on his -debauches with the Czar at Birsen; Peter to her was a monster, she could -not forgive in Augustus the weakness that made him the companion of his -ally’s vulgar orgies. - -“Yes, ’twere better to be a man now, free on horseback,” she said. “This -waiting amid one’s toys is an ugly part of a woman’s life”--she paused, -then added quickly, “it must be hateful to belong to a man who is -defeated.” - -Hélène gazed at her with startled eyes. - -“You do not think that Saxony will be defeated, Countess?” - -“He has been defeated already,” replied Aurora. “And do you think he has -very much chance? The savage Muscovite is no use--every battle will be a -Narva for him. Denmark is silenced--and the King of Sweden is great.” - -Mdle. D’Einsiedel forgot her negro and her parrot. - -“He is a cruel tyrant--a bitter oppressor!” she exclaimed; her pale -little face looked sharp with anger, “he fights for the lust of -conquest--a heartless, fierce man.” - -“So speaks the betrothed of Patkul,” answered Aurora. “You are too -bitter against this man to judge him. He is a hero. And young and -splendid, a Viking, child.” - -“This is not the age for Vikings,” said Hélène coldly, “he is like his -father. Patkul has told me of them--hard and cruel--how I _loathe_ -cruelty.” - -Tears shone in her soft eyes and her lips quivered; she was thinking -that it was just possible Patkul might one day be in the power of this -same cruelty. - -“Nay, he is just and even generous; you heard how, after Narva, he gave -all the Russian officers their liberty, detaining only M. de Croy, to -whom he paid full honor--and the modesty of his dispatches! ’Tis said -that with his own hand he struck out his praises and put in those of the -Czar.” - -“’Tis his vanity,” said Hélène scornfully, “he wishes to impress the -world--see if he is kind to his peasants--to his women-folk--see if he -has ever thought of the justice of Livonia’s wish for liberty--he -blindly continues his father’s tyrannies.” - -Aurora checked her with a light laugh. - -“That is none of it women’s business. Augustus is the best-natured -person in the world, but I doubt if he knows much of his peasantry in -either Saxony or Poland!” and she laughed again at the thought. - -“He would be a better prince if he did,” said Hélène, with a sternness -strange in one of her youth and frivolous appearance. “Patkul says the -day will surely come when all the peoples will rise up and cast down -their rulers.” - -“Patkul is a fanatic and a visionary--a rebel also. Karl is his King. I -am a Swede. Hélène, I have no sympathy with these revolting Livonians.” - -Hélène glanced at the vivid lovely face of the Countess and her eyes -narrowed. - -“The Elector would not care to hear you speak so of Sweden,” she -remarked. - -“The Elector expects no hypocrisy from me,” replied Aurora haughtily. “I -am not his wife. He knows that a man like Karl would attract a woman -like me--I have told him I should like to meet him.” - -She had, in truth, heard of the austere life and cold manners of the -young conqueror whose name was now so famous in Europe, and she had -imagined herself subduing him with her charm; she could not resist -picturing herself as the Cleopatra to this immaculate Cæsar; Augustus -had been amazed with anger at the Czar’s crude suggestion that the -famous beauty should be used to beguile their enemy, but the woman -herself had long toyed with the idea; it would be a wonderful triumph -and, she believed in her heart, an easy one. Karl was only a boy, after -all, and had probably never been tempted; it was impossible that he -intended to be absorbed for ever in schemes of military aggrandizement -and glory; and she had never failed yet. “Perhaps I could do more in -half an hour than your Patkul has done in a lifetime,” she said -suddenly. - -“Oh, would you speak for Livonia?” asked Hélène, then quickly and with a -blush, “but no, Patkul would not like that.” - -“Let him rely on his sword and his virtue,” said Aurora haughtily. -“Saxony may require my services.” - -“He would not wish that you should sue to Sweden for him!” exclaimed -Hélène. - -Aurora rose. - -“Wait till King Karl has overrun Poland and is at the gates of Dresden.” - -She clasped her hands behind her head, shaking down her bright hair that -was undressed, and gazing fixedly at her reflection in a circular mirror -framed with gilt balls that hung above the couch. - -Hélène sat silent on the rose-colored cushions; the parrot swung idly in -the ring above her head; the page had wandered to the window and was -flattening his face against the pane; a monkey in a crimson coat that -had been sleeping in a basket lined with white satin, now came climbing -over the furniture, turning its wizened face from one to the other of -the two silent, beautiful women and chattering at both of them. This was -the only movement in the gorgeous little room, now filled with the -spring sunshine that streamed softly through the long curtains of -straw-colored silk. Aurora had dropped her arms, and with her hands -clasped before her continued to gaze at her resplendent image. - -Her thoughts were entirely personal; she cared very little for politics -though she had an intelligent understanding of them; she had watched -Augustus undertake this war light-heartedly enough, knowing that it was -only an excuse to keep a large standing army with which to overawe -Poland, but the quality of Karl XII having surprised them all into -disaster, Aurora became angry with the war and those who had suggested -it, and impatient with the enthusiastic Patkul, and gradually her -attention had become fixed on the figure of the King of Sweden, rendered -more arresting by every success, more terrible in the eyes of men and -more attractive in the eyes of women. - -Aurora knew something of what the Court of Sweden was like. - -“He has never met a woman like me,” she thought, and there was a glow, -as of coming triumph, at her heart. - -The other woman’s reflections had traveled far from herself! they were -with a fair, rather ordinary-looking soldier, with short-sighted, -anxious eyes, and a blunt-featured face that had a certain pathos in its -open sincerity and goodness, who was now probably riding to and fro in -the confusion of battle, steadying the Saxon troops against the -victorious ranks of Sweden. - -She loved him so utterly, so ardently believed in his cause and his -life-work that he seemed to her like a being charmed whom no actual -danger could touch, yet she yearned over him, child as she was, with a -yearning that was near tears; and this, though her whole being was -pervaded by the supreme happiness of her love which kept her in a serene -and beautiful aloofness from all that was painful or terrifying. - -The monkey clambered to the end of the couch, dropped into Hélène’s lap, -and began stealing the sugar scattered over the cushions. - -Aurora moved slowly from the mirror and told the page to bring her -writing materials; when they were given her she began to write, not an -answer to her lover’s neglected letter but a paper of French verses to -Karl XII. - -Hélène, wrapt in her dreams, heeded her no more than she did the monkey -crunching sweetmeats on her lap. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - - -In July of that year Karl XII totally defeated the Saxon troops and -forced the passage of the Dwina, near Riga, at a point where the river -was nearly a mile wide, making use of specially built boats for the -passage of his troops, and taking advantage of the direction of the wind -to create a smoke-screen that concealed his crossing from the Saxons. - -The battle was long and bloody, Courlande, Steinau, and Patkul fought -with desperate bravery and considerable skill, but the victory of the -great captain was complete; he passed on through Livonia, took Mitau, -capital of Courland, and one after another all the towns of that duchy -surrendered; the whole of Lithuania submitted. - -At Birsen, where his enemies had so shortly before drawn up the league -that they hoped was to be his ruin, he paused in his triumphal progress, -taking his residence in the house occupied by Peter and Augustus. - -He was now in an extraordinary position of greatness; he had been but -little more than a year from Sweden and he had completely subdued his -enemies, crushed the revolt in Livonia, consolidated his hold on the -disputed provinces, and preserved his army in good health and perfect -discipline with very little loss of life. - -His fame had spread all over Europe, and Sweden occupied a sudden -position of importance in the eyes of the West; the Czar’s glory was -eclipsed, and it was not believed likely that he would ever recover from -Narva sufficiently to again face the King of Sweden. - -What the next actions of this hero, as yet not twenty and in a position -so unique, were likely to be, neither his friends nor his enemies could -guess. - -He affected a deep reserve, and there was no one who could boast of -being entirely in his confidence, not even his brother-in-law, the Duke -of Holstein-Gottorp, whom he had restored to his dominions and regarded -with a certain affection, nor Count Piper, whom he kept near his person -and trusted implicitly in political matters relating to the government -of Sweden. - -This latter, however, did not intend to remain so quietly in ignorance -of his master’s designs; he viewed Karl very differently since he had -observed his military genius and his obstinate pride and perfect -self-control, but he had not yet entirely relinquished all hopes of -guiding this strange character into the paths trod by Karl XI. - -Sweden was ever uppermost in Count Piper’s thoughts; he believed that -she occupied but a small place in those of the King; to the minister all -the objects of the war had been now attained, and there remained but to -make an honorable, durable, and glorious peace which should strengthen -Sweden in position, commerce, and prestige. - -And Count Piper felt that this was the moment, when Karl had the Baltic -provinces under his feet and his enemies disordered and confused, to -propose a set of terms, that however advantageous to Sweden, they would -be in no position to refuse or even to dispute. As the King’s haughty -and glacial reserve allowed no indication of his future plans to escape -him, Count Piper resolved to directly approach him, and endeavor to -discover if he did not himself consider this a favorable moment for -triumphantly concluding the war. - -He found occasion to approach Karl one day after his dinner; this meal, -of the greatest simplicity, the King always took with his officers; he -was seldom more than half an hour at table; he drank only water and ate -the plainest of food, never had he faltered an instant in his rigid -self-discipline; his life could not have been more hard, stern, and -barren of all but duty; his one occasional amusement was to have -portions of the old Scandinavian sagas read to him, but even of this he -seemed slightly ashamed. - -Count Piper found him now with his secretary in the room where Marpha -had served Augustus and Peter with wine, and Mentchikoff had sung -drunken chants for the amusement of the Saxon nobles. - -Karl had had everything removed from the chamber but a table and a -couple of chairs; on the walls were maps of Lithuania, Livonia, and -Esthonia, and a large model of the globe in a black frame and roughly -painted in bright colors, stood beneath. The King sat beneath one of the -windows dictating to the secretary, a young Swedish officer, who sat at -the table which was covered with neatly arranged papers. - -Karl wore the costume he had not altered since he left Sweden; the dark -blue cloth coat, the black satin cravat, the high boots, and buffle -gloves which he held now across his knee; his fair hair had been cut -short and he wore no peruke. - -He was bare-headed and the summer sunshine was full on his face, -inscrutable in expression, showing superb health and hardihood in line -and color. - -As Count Piper entered he was sitting silent, like one wrapt in dreams, -and the secretary was waiting, in respectful silence, for him to -continue the correspondence. - -As soon as he observed the minister he roused himself from his reverie, -and with a gesture dismissed the secretary who rose and offered his -chair, the only one in the room, to Count Piper. - -The King looked at the older man with the blue eyes that seemed to -express nothing but a steady strength and an adamant courage, and spoke -pleasantly. - -“You had something serious to say to me, Count?” he asked. - -The minister had not seated himself but remained standing, leaning -against the back of the plain wooden chair; in his rather rich civilian -attire, with his full peruke and fine appointments, he was in contrast -to the camp-like simplicity of the room and the austere figure of the -youthful soldier. - -“I have come to ask your Majesty what you intend to do,” said the Count; -he knew that it was useless to try diplomacy or even tact with the King -who was offended with all but the bluntest of speeches. - -“You have been wishing to ask me that for some while, have you not?” -smiled Karl, he was no longer brooding or thoughtful, but alert and -keen. - -“I think that this is a decisive moment in your career, sire, therefore -in that of the history of Europe.” - -This was the kind of bold compliment that pleased the King. - -“I believe so,” he said calmly. - -“You have, sire, achieved more than anyone could have believed -possible--there only remains for you to bless your country with a -lasting peace.” - -“Ah!” exclaimed Karl shortly, with his disagreeable laugh. - -Count Piper faced him calmly. - -“Is not that your Majesty’s intention?” - -“My intention,” said Karl, with his stare of blank fortitude, “is to -dethrone Augustus and Peter.” - -The minister caught his breath; this was more than he had anticipated, -even from the headstrong obstinacy of a youthful hero flushed with -success. - -“Did you imagine, Count,” asked the King, “that I should return to -Sweden?” - -“I hoped so,” said the minister gravely. - -“Why?” demanded the King. - -“Because I am anxious for the honor and safety of our country. Sire, -Sweden will be better served by moderation than extremes--she does not -need conquests but good government.” - -“And you think that I should return home to govern?” - -“Yes, sire.” - -“Not yet,” replied Karl. - -“What else does your Majesty propose to do?” asked the minister. - -“I have told you.” - -“But, sire--to conquer Poland, Saxony, and Russia----” - -“Do you not think,” interrupted Karl, “that I am capable of executing -this design?” - -Count Piper was silent in sheer bewilderment; judging from the King’s -recent actions he was capable of anything; on the other hand, the -conquest proposed was so vast, the means so comparatively small that -common sense refused to be convinced even by the genius of this -extraordinary young man. - -“Well?” said Karl. - -The minister fastened on the aspect that was always nearest his -heart--how his country would be affected. - -“Sweden will never stand the strain!” he exclaimed. - -Karl shrugged his shoulders. - -“It can be done,” he said. - -“Before God, sire, I do not think that it can.” - -The King’s obstinate blue eyes did not falter; his lips were curved in a -smile too indifferent for disdain but more freezing than contempt. - -“Think, sire,” continued Count Piper energetically, “of the size and -resources of these three countries--Saxony will have all the German -States behind him--Russia is a continent.” - -Karl’s face now betrayed where his principal hate lay. - -“Peter is a savage commanding savages,” he replied; “the whip and not -the sword is necessary to disperse his hordes.” - -“You think of Narva,” said Count Piper, “but he will learn. He will -train his men.” - -“And if he does?” demanded Karl coldly, “what of the passage of the -Dwina? Am I not able to resist veteran troops?” - -The minister could not deny the truth of this; to all appearance Karl -was invincible, yet the Count’s heart utterly misgave him at thought of -the gigantic enterprise to which the King appeared to have pledged -himself. - -“It is purposeless, sire, and useless,” he said with vigor. “Sweden -could never hold these conquests if she made them; Europe would not -permit it, nor her own strength. You have made her secure and powerful, -respected and feared; have the strength, sire, to stop. This is not the -age for sheer conquest. War bars the progress of mankind. Sweden -requires your Majesty’s genius for her internal reforms; you do not know -yet your own country--your father, sire, knew it from end to end.” - -If the King considered this speech too much of a reproof he did not say -so nor show his resentment by the slightest sign. - -“You think I should return to Stockholm, Count?” he asked. - -“After you have secured a victorious peace--a peace that will leave the -Duke of Holstein-Gottorp restored to his estate, you master of the -Baltic Provinces, Denmark silenced, Saxony and Russia punished. Sire,” -added the minister with a smile, “I think no young prince could desire -greater glory than this.” - -This hurt the secret pride of the King, which hid itself under such an -aspect of stern modesty. - -“I do not fight for glory,” he said haughtily, “but to dethrone these -villains.” - -Count Piper was silenced; in these words he read the wild dreams of -unpractical youth, the mad schemes of a man who believed war the only -profession for a prince, the only occupation worthy of a gentleman, and -who would consider nothing beside his ambition. - -“Sweden does not need this war,” he said, “nor can she afford it.” - -But this argument was entirely lost on the King, who loved to achieve -the impossible; the difficulty and magnitude of the enterprise were -what gave it, in his eyes, its great attraction. - -And Count Piper now began to experience the force of the King’s -extraordinary qualities, his hard obstinacy, his blind fortitude. - -The King rose, and crushed his gloves in his strong white hands. - -“I would as soon,” he said, with as much violence and impatience as he -ever showed, “be in my coffin as in Stockholm. I should feel as confined -in one as in the other.” - -“Does your Majesty never intend to see your capital again?” asked Count -Piper sorrowfully. - -The King stared at him; the good of Sweden or any interest in her was -far from the mind that was full of dreams of the conquest of Russia and -the subjugation of Poland and Saxony. - -Karl had completely abandoned the government of his country to the -Council of Regency; he hardly troubled to acquaint himself with their -proceedings, and often left unread the home dispatches. - -Patriotism did not touch his dreams of the cold greatness he had -conceived for himself. “I told my people,” he said, looking, not at his -minister, but out of the window at the summer sunshine on the dusty -road, “that I would never make an unjust war nor abandon a just one, -without the punishment of the offenders.” - -“Are not these same offenders already sufficiently punished?” demanded -Piper quickly. - -“No,” replied the King, and now his strange eyes showed a faint but -fierce fire like those of a noble animal roused from slumber to anger. -“Not unless they are dethroned.” - -“Is it your Majesty’s ambition to wear these crowns?” - -The King laughed shortly. - -“I want nothing but to punish my enemies,” he replied. “What are crowns -to me?” - -Boastful as the words sounded, Count Piper believed they were sincere; -he had already seen how, in the defeat of Denmark, Karl had astonished -the world by demanding nothing for himself, and he could credit that -Karl was capable of exhausting his country and spending himself in the -effort to gain countries only to give them away when he had conquered -them; he did not want Russia, only the pleasure of dethroning the Czar; -he had no desire to reign over Poland, only the wish to seize that -country from Saxony. - -“I think your Majesty is wrong,” said the minister. “As one who was your -father’s friend and is the friend of Sweden, forgive me if I say so, -sire, if you stop now you are safe and glorious, if you go on, it may be -to disaster.” - -The King winced at the sound of that word which no one had ever dared to -utter to him before. - -“When I have humbled these two kings and punished one other we may talk -of peace,” he said curtly. “I speak of John Rheinhold Patkul.” - -His fair face, so beautiful in line, but so devoid of expression as to -lack all attraction, hardened into an aspect of sheer cruelty new to -Count Piper; the King whose first act had been to abolish judicial -torture from his statute books had hitherto been considered as of a -merciful disposition, nor had his campaigns been stained even by the -usual excesses of war; yet his look as he spoke of the Livonian was one -of fierce hate and cruelty. - -“Before I return to Stockholm,” he added, “Patkul must----” - -He paused abruptly; it was evident that his cold magnanimity did not -extend to the man whom he regarded as a rebel and a traitor. - -“Both Peter and Augustus are pledged to defend Patkul,” said Piper; “it -is not likely that he will be taken by your Majesty--he is too wary and -skilful.” - -“I will force Augustus to deliver him to me,” said Karl, still with that -ugly look on his face. - -“Your Majesty would make that one of the terms of peace?” asked Count -Piper in a curious voice. - -“The first condition. And, Count, it is useless for us to converse -further. I have never liked talking. And my mind is made up about the -future. And I was always tolerably resolute in my decisions nor likely -to be moved in any way from my resolves.” - -It was the end between King and minister; these words were as a -dismissal to Count Piper; he saw that Karl was set upon a path entirely -different to that followed by his father; his aim was the pursuit of -fantastic dreams of purposeless and costly conquest--he would make war -neither for the defense nor the aggrandizement of his country, but -merely to suit his own ideas of kingly occupation, his own secret ideals -of ambition and glory; he would probably ruin his country and might do -considerable harm to mankind, but he could not be stopped from the mad -use of the power which he held in his hands; at that moment Piper -disliked him; he was alienated by this cold obstinacy and by the look -and manner of Karl when he had spoken of Patkul; the minister would -almost rather have served Peter whose aims were progressive, not -obstructive, and whose madnesses were never without an object, and whose -cruelties were never cold-blooded but the result of inflamed passions. - -He turned away and took a brief leave. - -“An extraordinary man,” he said to himself, as he left the King’s -presence, “but there is no true greatness in him.” - -Karl, on his part, was equally disgusted with Count Piper. - -“I want no politicians about my camp,” he told his brother-in-law that -evening. “We are soldiers with soldiers’ work to do,” and he began to -discuss his plans for an advance on Cracovia and Varsovia. - - - - -BOOK IV - -AURORA VON KÖNIGSMARCK - - “Sylve paludes, aggeres, hostes, victi.”--_Medal of Karl XII._ - - - - -CHAPTER I - - -“I think you have no idea of the confusion of my affairs--nor of their -apparent hopelessness. I speak of them to you because you are the only -person whom I can trust.” - -Thus Augustus to Aurora, and in these words she read his confession of -utter defeat; she was deeply vexed; for some time past she had displayed -ill-humor at the growing discomforts and perils of her situation; she -was now at Varsovia, a barbaric place that she disliked, where Augustus -had come to attend the Polish Diet that he had been forced to convoke. -It was midwinter, and she sat over the fire in the huge stone chamber -that was so difficult to warm, her great coat of lemon-colored velvet -lined with white fur, thrown open on her lace gown, and the leaping glow -of the firelight all over her bright beauty. - -She knew that perhaps her principal hold on Augustus was her good -temper, and seldom was she betrayed into anger; but now her -disappointment made her answer sharp. - -“Why do you not abandon Poland and return to Saxony?” she asked. - -The King-Elector looked at her reproachfully. - -“Is that your comfort?” he asked. - -“I think that it is very good advice,” she replied, controlling herself -not to speak bitterly. - -Augustus, who looked tired and haggard (he was indeed more fitted to be -the head of a brilliant court, the patron of arts and letters, than to -confront these troublous times), flushed with rising annoyance. - -“It is useless to discuss with you, Madame,” he said, “what you are too -flippant to understand----” - -“Oh,” interrupted Aurora, “do I not understand that I am at Varsovia in -midwinter, cold and dull? That you are always ill-humored and absorbed -in affairs, and that I have no company beyond Hélène who is love-sick, a -parrot, and a monkey?” - -Augustus rose from his seat by the great oak table. - -“Very well,” he said quietly, “you had better return to Dresden, Madame. -It is true that here I can give you no comfort. It is also true that I -must remain--my crown, all my fortunes and perhaps my life, depend on -these events.” - -Aurora bit her lip in vexation at her own peevishness; she scorned -fretful women, and she was moved by her lover’s gentle response. - -She got up impulsively and held out her hands; a gorgeous creature in -her rich clothes and vivid loveliness, illuminated by the tawny light of -the flaming pine knots. - -“Forgive me,” she said quickly. “I am ashamed of myself. I have been -idle and frivolous, tell me how I can help.” - -He kissed her hands in instant gratitude; he had always found her his -best friend; she was more intelligent, perhaps more courageous than he, -but she had managed never to offend him with her superiority, and she -always soothed him with her firmness and encouraged him with her high -spirits. - -She smiled now with a certain tenderness at this magnificent-looking -prince who was so downcast and so almost helpless; in her wild heart she -perhaps a little despised him; certainly he was not her ideal hero, for -all his strength and handsomeness and charm, but both out of kindness -and interest she was his ally. - -“Come,” she said, “forget, sire, that I am a woman, and talk to me as if -I was your minister.” - -She took the seat at the table he had just left and drew her coat round -her, leaning back and looking at Augustus, who remained standing by the -fire. - -“My dear,” he answered, “I do not know if affairs could be much worse.” - -“This Diet is not going to help you?” - -“Would to God I had never had to summon it!” exclaimed the King-Elector. -“The King of Sweden has as much influence there as I!” - -“Ah!” murmured Aurora, “they are not loyal to you, these Polish -princes?” - -“There is not one man in Poland loyal to me,” replied Augustus bitterly; -“this cursed war has alienated all of them.” - -The Countess knew that good statecraft would have foreseen this; Poland, -afraid of Sweden and jealous of its Saxon King, was fiercely resentful -of a war bound to end in her subjugation either at the hands of Karl XII -or at those of her own elected monarch; the remnants of the Saxon troops -who had survived the battle of Riga Augustus had had to send back to -Saxony to quiet the Poles, and for the same reason he had been obliged -to call a Diet when he wished to raise an army. - -Aurora, remembering the time and money spent on acquiring the crown of -Poland, wondered if the bargain had been a good one for Augustus, who, -used to being an absolute ruler in his own hereditary dominions, found -himself little more than head of a Republic in Poland. - -“Who are your enemies in the Diet?” she asked gently. - -“Leczinski, of course, the Lubomirski, and the Sobieski--these and their -followers are all secretly with the King of Sweden, and, naturally,” -added Augustus, with, for him, considerable heat, “Cardinal -Radziekowski is playing his own game which is not mine.” - -“In brief,” said Aurora, “these Poles are seizing this moment for their -own intrigues; they consider you as more dangerous than Karl, and would -as willingly see you overthrown.” - -This plain view of the case slightly startled Augustus, but he had to -admit that it was true. - -“And there is the revolt in Lithuania,” he added gloomily. “The Sapieha -and the Oginski at each other’s throats--my troops in fugitive parties -living on rapine because I have not the money to pay them----” - -“You cannot summon the Polish nobles to raise their followers on your -behalf?” - -“I dare not--for it would be to risk a refusal.” - -Aurora bit her lip. - -“But you have the Polish army.” - -“There are only 18,000 men--not paid, not armed--and their generals -uncertain whether to fight for me or Sweden!” - -“And every one knows this?” - -“I fear that my weakness is but too apparent--see how they have forced -my hand in the matter of the Diet!” - -“And you dare not bring back the Saxon troops?” - -“It would be the excuse and the signal for a general revolt in Poland,” -replied the King-Elector. - -Aurora von Königsmarck mentally cursed Poland; she had been perfectly -content in Dresden before ambition had urged Augustus into this -troublesome glory. - -“What will the Diet do?” she asked, suppressing her irritation and -speaking with gentleness. - -Augustus began pacing up and down the room. - -“Who can tell?” he replied wearily, “intrigues and -counter-intrigues--all irresolute, all crying out for freedom and -justice and none knowing where to look for it! Meanwhile everything -goes to ruin while they are talking, and the King of Sweden advances -daily deeper into the country.” - -Aurora frowned; hitherto, with a woman’s evasiveness, she had refused to -glance at the state of matters in Poland; now she forced herself to face -them, and to apply all her intelligence to helping her lover in what -seemed indeed a desperate pass. - -“And the Czar?” she asked. - -“The Czar needs assistance himself,” said Augustus grimly. - -“But the Muscovites? Did you not tell me that he was sending some men -into Lithuania?” - -The King-Elector became angry at the thought of this, the sole fruit of -the secret treaty of Birsen. - -“He has sent some villains who are doing more damage than the Swedes,” -he replied hotly. “They have turned freebooters, and are utterly deaf to -discipline and orders--’tis but so many marauders the more in the -wretched kingdom, and yet further inflames the Poles.” - -Aurora could not forbear a smile. - -“There are the troops you were to train?” she asked. - -“Yes, God help me, and now they are here I have not a single Saxon -officer available--not that a corps of Turenne’s veterans could train -these savages!” - -Aurora knew, though she forbore to mention it, that Augustus had failed -to fulfil his side of the bargain, and had not been able to raise a -single regiment of the German troops promised to Peter, nor to pay him -anything for the maintenance of the Muscovites sent into Lithuania. - -“So you see,” added the Elector, with rather a bitter smile, “that my -position is desperate on all sides.” - -“Come here,” smiled Aurora. - -He crossed to her chair; she took his hand and pressed her soft cheek -against his rings and ruffles. - -“My poor dear,” she said caressingly. “I wonder if I can help you now, -to return a little all the joy you have given me?” - -She would have kissed his hand, but he prevented her, eagerly lifted her -face and kissed her lips. - -“What have I done for you!” he cried. “Why, you have gilded all my -life!” - -“You have been very good to me,” she said, a little wistfully. “Men can -be so cruel. I think you hardly know how grateful women are for -kindness.” - -He smiled tenderly; his handsome face lightened of half its care as he -looked at her. - -“Not women like you, Aurora!” - -“Yes, women like me,” she replied. “Why--you might get tired of me.” She -caught her breath a little. “I might fade--I am not as pretty as I -was--but you----” - -“Aurora--I adore you.” - -“Thank you,” said the Countess unsteadily. “Thank you for loving me. -That is why I want to help you--you have made life wonderful to me by -your love----” - -He dropped his hands to her shoulders and she looked up at him. - -“And you--have you not loved me, Aurora?” he asked. - -“Oh, a woman’s love does not count!” - -Augustus did not understand her mood, he was not a man to nicely read a -woman’s complexities; and the next second Aurora did not understand it -herself, and was lifting her shoulders with a laugh both for her words -and his bewilderment. - -“I am a silly creature,” she said lightly, “but I only seek to please -you.” - -She gently drew herself away, rose and went to the fire; the yellow -coat, the gleaming hair, dressed in long, smooth curls slightly -disordered and falling over the smooth white fur; the proud air and -bearing of her, the piquant, gay face, made a fair picture in the -brilliant glow that shone on her from head to foot and threw her -figure, a thing of light against the gloomy background of the room, -darkening in the fading light of the winter afternoon. - -“Now--my advice,” she said. “I wonder--will you take it?” - -Augustus smiled at her; his handsome face was no longer troubled as he -gazed at this brilliant, darling companion of his; his distresses that -sat lightly enough on him anyhow were almost forgotten as he -contemplated her courage and her gaiety. - -“Tell me,” he answered gently. - -There was something of challenge, almost of defiance in her beautiful -eyes as she replied, but she spoke very sweetly. - -“You must make peace with Karl.” - -Augustus did not speak. - -“Of course you will have to take his terms, but it seems to be his rôle -to be generous,” continued the Countess. “And better be at his mercy -than at that of the Poles, your own subjects.” - -Augustus thought so too; it was not very pleasant to contemplate -humbling himself before the boy King whom he had hoped to conquer so -easily, but his pride was not very deep-seated, and he bore no rancor -against anyone, not even against the man who had defeated him; if he -could purchase ease and safety by submitting to Karl he was ready to do -so without any bitterness, and, as Aurora suggested, it was easier to -accept terms from a fellow-monarch than from his own subjects. - -“You must open negotiations at once before you lose everything,” -continued the Countess quickly. - -“But he will not listen--why should he?” returned Augustus doubtfully. - -“If the ambassador is well chosen he will listen.” - -“But it is no object to him to make peace,” said the King-Elector -uneasily. “Doubtless he will prefer the glory of overrunning Poland and -possibly Saxony.” - -Aurora did not yet mention what made her feel sure that the King of -Sweden might be brought to reason; she was sure that her project would -be distasteful to Augustus, and she was waiting her moment to broach it; -twisting one of her long ringlets round the slender fingers of her left -hand that sparkled with some of the Saxon jewels, she frowned into the -flames. - -“No,” added Augustus gloomily. “I see no hope--’tis a youthful captain, -intoxicated with success, inured and implacable by nature. I believe he -fights for glory, and nothing, to him, would be greater glory than the -conquest of Poland--by arms and by intrigues. He thinks to dethrone me -by means of factions--look how he has armed the Sapieha against me and -torn Lithuania with civil war----” - -“I know,” interrupted Aurora, curbing some impatience; it seemed to her -that Augustus went round and round the same points, in a confused -manner, which was irritating to her own clear mind that looked ahead to -ultimate issues. “But the trial might be made.” - -“It would have to be secret,” said the King-Elector, “and kept very -carefully from the ears of Patkul and the Czar.” - -“Naturally,” replied the Countess drily. “The Czar will be easily -hoodwinked; as for Patkul, it is he who is the cause of all this -trouble, if need be he must be sacrificed.” - -Augustus turned a startled face. - -“Patkul?” - -“Yes, Patkul, this adventurer who has embroiled us all!” - -“You mean that I should surrender him to Karl?” - -“If Karl demanded it.” - -“God forbid!” cried the King-Elector hastily. - -“Oh, Sweden would be merciful,” said Aurora impatiently, “as I told you, -it is his rôle.” - -“He would not be merciful to Patkul,” replied Augustus, “who, besides, -is Peter’s envoy, and sacred.” - -“Oh, bah!” exclaimed Aurora, with a flash of her gorgeous eyes. “What -is the Czar to you, or what has he done for you that he should be -considered?” - -“My honor and the law of nations----” began Augustus. - -The Countess speedily demolished this masculine defense. - -“Where,” she asked acutely, “was either, when you attacked the King of -Sweden?” - -As this action had been contrary to both, the King-Elector had nothing -to reply; rather pale, he stared at the ground. - -“You see,” added Aurora, anxious to soothe now that she had silenced, -“it is not, and never has been, any question of any law or any honor, -but simply of each man for himself in a desperate game.” - -Augustus sighed. - -“We need not raise the question of Patkul,” he said, with the evasion of -weakness. - -“We must,” replied the Countess. “For I believe it will be the first -thing the King of Sweden will demand, and we must know how to answer -him.” - -Augustus did not speak; he did not think it possible that he could ever -come so low as to deliver the man who trusted him to his enemy, but he -thought that Karl might be pacified with some apparent submission and -Patkul saved nevertheless. - -“As you said yourself,” continued Aurora, “matters are desperate, and we -cannot pause for niceties.” - -She cared nothing herself for anyone but the man who, at once her master -and her slave, was essential to her power and therefore to her -happiness; the terrors of war, the miseries of the peasantry, the -sufferings of the civilian populace, the bloodshed, the families ruined, -the lands laid desolate, did not touch Aurora von Königsmarck; her gay -and volatile nature did not even glance at the dark side of life. - -Already, in this bitter crisis, her spirits were rising at the thought -of the new exciting and brilliant part she intended to play with so much -success. - -Patkul was to her but a pawn in an elaborate and delicate game, and she -had completely forgotten Hélène D’Einsiedel. - -She went up to Augustus and laid her proud head against the laces on his -breast; tall as she was she hardly reached to his heart. - -Clasping him tightly in her lovely arms, and looking up at him, all soft -and smiling, she whispered: “I will be your envoy to Karl of Sweden!” - -Augustus remembered Peter’s words at Birsen, and caught hold of her -hands and held her away from him with a movement almost of anger. - -Aurora only laughed; she had foreseen this opposition and knew that in -the end, as always, she would have her own will. - - - - -CHAPTER II - - -Aurora von Königsmarck left the King-Elector’s presence more elated than -she had been since the Polish troubles began. - -Augustus had promised to allow her to conduct secret negotiations with -Karl; she was to travel as soon as possible to his camp, and through the -influence of Count Piper, an ancient friend of her family, she was to -obtain a private interview with Karl. - -The King-Elector was to offer to withdraw all claims to the Baltic -provinces and to renounce all alliances against Sweden, also, if need -be, to surrender Patkul, but this, Augustus stipulated, was to be done -in such a manner that Patkul should be enabled to escape to Russia. - -Aurora gave her promise; she was not greatly concerned for Patkul, she -thought that if she was able to influence Karl at all she could -influence him to be generous to the Livonian; but the thing weighed on -the mind of Augustus; his weakness, torn between honor and prudence, -caused him the acutest suffering his easy temperament had ever known. - -He went to attend one of the bitter stormy sittings of the Diet, sad and -sullen, unlike the gracious prince who had charmed Poland as much by his -gaiety and good-nature as by his gold and his soldiery. - -He was humiliated by the position in which he found himself, irritated -that Aurora had won his consent to expedients that he despised, and -tortured by inner doubts as to whether all concessions might not be in -vain, and Karl remain adamant even before the potent charms of Aurora. - -No such misgivings troubled Aurora von Königsmarck; neither the honor -nor the utility of what she had undertaken disturbed her, for she did -not perceive anything contemptible in what she did, and she felt assured -of her success. - -But as she turned up the narrow dark stairs to go to her own apartment, -she was startled by a slight figure leaning in an angle of the wall, and -a swift sensation, as of shame, touched her heart; the girl before her -was Hélène D’Einsiedel. Aurora had completely forgotten her, but now she -felt abashed before this child, her own favorite, to whom she had always -been a kind protector and patroness. - -“Come upstairs,” she said hastily, glad of the dark that concealed her -face. “You will get cold here; what a silly child it is.” - -The girl did not reply, she wore a dark pelisse over a dark dress, a -great hat that shaded her face and was but dimly seen in the shadow. - -“Come with me,” continued Aurora, her momentary uneasiness passing. “Why -have you been out this bitter day?” - -But even as she spoke she knew full well; General Patkul had been at -Varsovia to consult with Augustus, and was due to return to the theater -of war; Hélène had been to say good-bye. - -“You should have made him come to you--you are too fond of this man.” - -She took Hélène gently by the shoulder and led her upstairs. - -“He did come, he has been with me a long time,” said Hélène, in a -muffled voice. “And then I went with him a little way--it was good-bye.” - -“La, la,” replied the Countess, “one would think it was forever by your -voice!” - -They entered her apartments that clever French maids and valets had -arranged in tolerable imitation of the gorgeous chambers at Dresden. -Silk and wool tapestries covered the walls, delicate carpets the floors, -the graceful furniture, cushions, mirrors, and ornaments, without which -Aurora never traveled, were elegantly disposed, and a perfumed fire -burnt on the wide, old-fashioned hearth. - -A maid was just lighting the candles in their tall sticks of -tortoise-shell and gold, another was drawing the curtains of -sapphire-blue velvet across the windows, so shutting out the mournful -prospect of the winter evening. - -Hélène stood stupidly in the middle of the room looking at the fire; she -had neither gloves nor muff, and her little hands hung red and cold at -her side. - -Her face was pale and distressed, the black beaver hat falling -carelessly over her tangled curls, her pelisse was roughly dragged -together with a silver clasp fastened crookedly, and she wore her thin -house shoes which were slightly stained with dirty snow. - -“Come, child,” said Aurora kindly. “This grief and agitation are -useless. Nothing has happened.” - -“Things are terrible,” replied Hélène in a low, hurried voice. “You know -yourself that all goes as if to disaster. The armies broken, the country -in a turmoil--and he is leaving me.” - -On these childish words a sob broke her voice, and tears filled her eyes -already reddened with weeping. - -She seemed indifferent to the presence of the Countess and the two -chamber women, and continued to stare into the fire, raising her clasped -trembling hands to her quivering lips while the tears fell on to her -knuckles. - -Aurora wanted to say “Patkul is safe,” but the words stuck in her -throat, even though she quieted her conscience by the resolve that by -some underhand means the Livonian must be saved. - -She shivered a little in her warm coat, and spread out her fair hands to -the fire. - -“It is hard for all of us,” she said evenly. “Do you think, dear, that I -like Varsovia? And as for the Elector he is more ill-natured than I -have ever known him; I wish he would go to the war and rid me of his -moods. These wretched Poles are giving a great deal of trouble, and -there is no denying that for the moment the King of Sweden has the -advantage.” - -“Patkul thinks there is no hope at all for Livonia,” murmured Hélène. -“He saw in the battle of the Dwina what these Swedes are.” - -“I think my countrymen are tolerably good soldiers,” said the Countess. - -The Saxon girl disliked her for this remark, and turned away abruptly; -the beautiful, comfortable room seemed to her hateful; she ran to the -door, pulled it open, and fled down the dark stairs; she heard the -Countess’s voice half-laughing, half-angry, raised in protest, but she -took no heed; nothing mattered to her now in the world but the fact that -she must see her lover again before a separation that, some dreadful -premonition told her, would be long if not eternal. - -She could not explain to herself why she was so terrified and -overwrought; this love of hers, born amid the tumults of wars and -factions, had known many bitter partings and long absences, but youthful -hope and joy had hitherto kept her immune from the terrors that assailed -her to-night. She must see him again; it was as if her body moved -without motion, so strong was the force of the spirit within, as if the -cold night air carried her, a disembodied creature, to his side. - -It was now nearly dark, the town full of soldiery and discontented -civilians; Hélène did not notice these things nor yet the bitter cold; -she hastened along the frozen roads, the dried snow flying from beneath -her feet, the fresh snow, beginning to drift in flakes from the leaden -sky, falling on her dark clothes and chilled face and hands. - -She found the house where he lodged; it was not far from the residence -of the King-Elector. At the sight of the light in the windows the blood -seemed to stir in her body again; he was still there; she would see him -again, nothing seemed to matter but that the whole future narrowed to -this moment of their meeting. - -A Polish soldier was just leaving the house. Hélène brushed by him, -stepped into the dim-lit hall, and asked the Livonian servant standing -there for his master. - -Before the man had time to reply General Patkul appeared in the doorway -of a room immediately inside the entrance. - -They advanced towards each other, and he seized her in his arms and -almost carried her into the room. - -It was a small rough chamber, lit by an oil lamp and a log fire; some -half-packed valises lay on the floor and the table was strewn with -papers, portfolios, and maps. - -He expressed no surprise at thus seeing her again so soon after their -farewell, but, caressing her, led her to the great chair with arms by -the fire, threw back her damp coat, and chafed her cold hands. - -“I had to come,” she murmured, looking up at him in speechless joy. “You -know that, do you not?” - -“I have been thinking of you so it seems as if you had never left me,” -he answered; his whole face and neck had flushed, and his narrowed -short-sighted eyes had darkened till they looked black as he gazed at -her. “You come between me and everything, Hélène, even my unfortunate -country.” - -“You must not go,” she said, with sudden energy, “it is quite -impossible--do you hear?” - -“Darling--I leave to-morrow morning. Presently I will take you home in a -sledge and you will dream of me, knowing that I am happy in the thought -of you, and in that I am doing my plain duty.” - -As he spoke, with great tenderness and the gravity of an ardent -enthusiast, he went on his knees, and taking her little cold slippered -feet in his hands, rubbed them and held them nearer to the fire. - -“What do I know of duty?” asked Hélène desperately. “I want to be -happy.” - -“You have never spoken like this before, my dearest.” - -“I have never been so frightened before.” - -“Frightened?” - -He lifted his honest gray eyes, so shining with noble love to the frail -face bending towards him; she touched the curls of his blond peruke that -hung on his breast. - -“Yes, frightened, John.” - -“Why?” - -“That I could not tell. But you do not think these things are foolish, -do you? When I had left you just now I felt that I could not bear it--it -was like someone tearing my limbs from me--as if I had to follow you or -die--as--as if--I might never see you again----” - -Her words stumbled over one another. She grasped the lapels of his -soldier’s coat; her pleading eyes were fixed on his face with an -expression of passionate entreaty. - -“Oh, you will stay--you will not leave me!” - -“My dear, my dear!” he cried deeply moved, “this must not be--you will -unman me.” - -He rose and raised her to his breast, clasping her tightly; he dared not -voice the agony in his heart, how he entirely longed to keep her now -that she had flown back to him--how wrong and wicked all further parting -seemed, and how utterly paltry all his schemes and duties seemed beside -the fact that they were together, and the wish that they should be -forever together. - -For he loved her as stern men, engrossed in affairs and indifferent to -feminine influence, will sometimes love one woman--with complete trust -and devotion. - -He had never known what life could mean until he met her; she made his -former pleasures appear pale, his former work dry and purposeless; she -infused into his whole life color and joy and beauty. - -And she must be foregone. - -He looked ahead into the future and saw it dark and uncertain, and -wished that he did not enjoy such perilous greatness, and that his lot -had been cast in times less fierce and turbulent. - -Now that he held her, trembling, but content against his own -wildly-beating heart, the task he had undertaken seemed so difficult as -to be impossible; Livonia was in a worse plight than she had been when -he undertook her liberation; the huge conspiracy against Karl XII which -had cost so much toil and pains had only succeeded in rousing a captain -who made North Europe tremble, and in settling the Swedish yoke more -firmly on the necks of the wretched people of the Baltic Provinces. - -“Perhaps I had better have left it all alone--perhaps I was not born to -do my country this service!” he exclaimed. - -Hélène looked up at him, pressing her flushed face closer to the -braidings on his uniform. - -“You must not go, you are safe here,” she answered, as if reassuring -him. - -He laughed tenderly at her feminine point of view; he had not been -thinking of his personal safety, but of the fierce disappointment of his -apparent failure. - -“I am in no danger,” he said, to comfort her; and he believed what he -said; not only was he the Czar’s envoy but he trusted, without question, -the protection of Augustus, nor did he even imagine for a moment that -the King-Elector would enter into secret peace negotiations with Karl. - -Hélène also had faith in the people who had always been her friends and -protectors; it would have been impossible for her to suspect Aurora von -Königsmarck of treachery; yet she felt this tremendous though vague -uneasiness as to her lover’s safety. - -He saw the trouble in her sweet eyes which were wide and bewildered like -those of a child in pain. - -“Do you not think that I shall be as safe in Dresden as in Varsovia?” he -asked. - -“You are going to Dresden?” - -“Eventually, dear. I return to the army in Saxony with messages from -Augustus. Then I wish to see the Czar. My greatest hope is in him----” - -“God preserve him,” said Hélène simply. “What will he do for you?” - -“More than Augustus, I think. He is a man of genius. A tyrant, of -course--no more a lover of liberty than Karl--but he serves our ends. -Give him time and he will beat Sweden.” - -“How happy you will be that day!” smiled the girl. - -“If it means the freedom of Livonia,” he replied, looking at her -earnestly. - -Neither were paying much attention to what they were speaking of; they -were thinking only of each other, of the wonder of these few moments and -the long dark separation ahead of them; each in their heart was crying -out against this parting; clinging to each other they spoke quietly to -steady themselves and prolong these last farewells. - -But now she could talk no more of politics, not even of those with which -her lover’s life and happiness were bound up. - -“When shall I see you again?” she stammered. - -In silence he gazed at her; his short-sighted eyes narrowed as he dwelt -on every lineament of the beloved face. - -“What is the need of this?” whispered Hélène. “Why should one suffer?” - -“Love, we part to meet again--if it was forever you might weep----” - -“Supposing it was forever?” the dreadful thought transfixed her; she -drew herself away from his embrace, her face sharp and pale, “but, of -course, I should die,” she added, with a little sigh of relief. - -He could not trust himself to answer her; taking his hands from her -shoulders he turned abruptly away across the plain dismal room. - -The fire was burning low and the air was becoming cold; the outside -night showed in the black squares in the uncurtained windows; now and -then the red reflection of a passing torch or lantern glimmered across -the shadowed room. - -Patkul stared at the fine frost flowers hardening on the glass; he had -his back to Hélène; she took off her hat which had fallen back on to her -tangled hair, mechanically arranged her curls, and replaced the hat; -then with stiff fingers she fastened the pelisse. - -She was too young and simple to lament against destiny or to endeavor to -alter her fate with violent hands; her court training and the society of -Aurora von Königsmarck had not altered the direct outlook and -conventional point of view of her young girl’s heart and mind. - -She had been taken out of herself, inasmuch as she had come to him now -spurred by the awful desolation, the unexplainable sense of disaster -that had torn her soul; now she could do no more; she did not know how -to deal with the moment, but stood stupidly arranging her hat and -buttoning her pelisse in dumb wretchedness. - -He thought wildly of taking her with him, of marrying her without delay -or ceremony; his heart contracted as he imagined her always with him--as -Marpha was with Peter--or Aurora with Augustus--his companion, his -consolation, and his hope in all his adventures. Sweetening even -ultimate defeat, if it must be, or glorifying ultimate victory into a -happiness more than mortal. - -He looked at her, strode over to her, took her by the shoulders and -turned her round, forcing her to look at him; slender and frail she -quivered under his grasp. - -The agony of question in his gaze met no response from hers which was -full of nothing but blank, sad love. - -He knew that if he asked her she would come--he knew that he could not -ask her; “when the war is over I will marry her,” he thought, and -stilled his heart with that. - -Very gently he kissed her cold face. - -“I must take you home,” he said. - -“I will try to be brave,” replied Hélène. - -They went together to the door; the darkness was thick with snow; he -sent his servant for the sledge and they had another moment alone; but -neither spoke. - -Hélène felt suddenly very tired, almost drowsy; she was exhausted by her -strong emotion to the point of apathy. - -When the sledge came she stepped in obediently; there was a brief ride -through the cold and the dark; his chilled lips on her chilled cheek, -some stammering words and they had parted. She could hear the jingling -of his sledge-bells as she returned to her room; she seemed to be in a -world empty of everything but that one sound. - -Aurora von Königsmarck looked from the door of her brilliantly lit room; -she had gay words on her lips, but after glancing at the girl’s face she -went back silently to her place by the perfumed fire. - - - - -CHAPTER III - - -Aurora von Königsmarck, accompanied by a few servants and a small escort -of Saxon cavalry, traveled secretly to the Swedish camp in Lithuania. - -Karl was advancing on Grodno, and the affairs of Augustus looked daily -more unfortunate; at the last moment he had wished to stop this journey -of the Countess, and to send a formal embassy in his own name and that -of the Polish Republic to ask the conqueror’s peace terms. - -But Aurora was resolute that this depth of humiliation should not be -reached, and confident that Karl could be persuaded to private means of -agreement with Augustus. - -In any case she was determined to try her influence on a man so singular -and so famous. - -“It has certainly never seen a woman like me,” she repeated to herself, -not with vanity but as the calm statement of a fact. - -She had no difficulty in obtaining an audience of Count Piper. - -The minister was cynically interested in her mission; he was now no -longer in the confidence of his master (if indeed he had ever been so), -and performed his duties as a servant, not as a friend; perhaps he -faintly disliked the King; in any case he was grimly amused at the idea -of exposing Karl to the fascinations of a woman like Aurora von -Königsmarck and facing the fair Countess with a man like the King. - -He offered her little hope. - -“The King is bent on conquest,” he said. “He has no idea of a tame -peace, but intends to dethrone all his enemies.” - -“The dreams of a boy,” replied Aurora. - -Count Piper shrugged. - -“A boy who will carry out his dreams or perish, Madame.” - -“So obstinate?” she smiled, “and has he no weaknesses, this hero?” she -added, with an inflection of light scorn. - -The minister smiled; he saw her superb confidence in her radiant beauty -and brilliant intelligence, in her experience and charm; he thought that -her perfections would be wasted on the man who had received without a -change of color the news of the death of the only woman in whom he had -ever been interested. - -“I do not say that I do not wish you good fortune, Madame,” he said, -“for myself there are other things besides war. And I should be glad of -a peace. As for the King, I know little of him, for all that I have -watched him since a child--or else there is little to know. He has no -friends, and no favorites, and since the war began I have not known him -influenced.” - -“He is so young,” remarked Aurora, “do you think this military austerity -will last all his life?” - -“’Tis a hard race,” replied the Count, “but as you say--he is young.” - -“Let me see him,” urged Aurora, “my mission can but move and alter -him--if he would play Alexander he must be prepared for the family of -Darius.” - -“I will do my utmost,” said Count Piper, and with sincerity; but he was -soon piqued by finding that he had promised too easily; Karl absolutely -refused to see Aurora von Königsmarck. - -“Why should I talk to a woman on this business?” he said. “If Augustus -wants peace let him send a man to ask for it.” Without the least emotion -he resisted the Count’s efforts to persuade and induce him to see the -fair ambassadress. - -“She will think you are afraid of her,” remarked the Count, with some -malice. - -“I have no doubt a woman’s vanity would go that length,” replied the -King calmly. “Tell her I am afraid of her,” he gave his ugly smile, “if -that will content her.” - -“Nothing will content her but an interview with your Majesty.” - -“Then she must leave dissatisfied,” said Karl, with an indifference more -hopeless to combat than open anger. - -The minister reported his ill-success to the Countess; she had not -expected that the King would refuse even to see her, and angry -disappointment nerved her with yet greater determination to gain her -object. - -“I will achieve my end by other means,” she said, and thanked Count -Piper for his useless services. - -Though she had been a week near the camp, lodging, most inconveniently, -in one of the little village houses, she had not yet seen the King, save -once when he had swept by with a number of his guards, and she had not -been able to distinguish his person. - -But she soon ascertained that it was his custom to ride abroad -unattended in the early morning and the afternoon, and she resolved to -encounter him on one of these occasions, and one day stationed herself -in her little light carriage on the road the King took most frequently. - -As soon as her servant pointed out a solitary horseman coming towards -them, saying, “The King of Sweden!” Aurora descended into the road still -covered with frozen snow, and put herself in the middle of the way, -holding her black fur mantle up from the road, and looking steadily up -under the broad brim of her beaver hat. - -The King approached, and, as soon as he saw her, sharply reined up his -iron-gray charger, sending the scattered snow over the lady. - -“Sire,” said Aurora, “I have never been a supplicant before; will you -not make it a little easy for a beggar and--a woman?” - -It was not quite what she had intended to say, and her voice faltered -more than she had meant it to, for she was taken aback by the -magnificent appearance and curious personality of the man to whom she -spoke. - -The King, with his plain uniform, black satin stock, remarkable face of -immobile, almost displeasing beauty, was totally different to her -preconceived notions of Karl. - -He had himself so well in hand that he did not even change color at her -address; he touched his hat in a stiff military salute, turned his -horse, deftly, and rode back the way he had come. - -It was a long while since the angry blood had rushed into Aurora’s face -as it did now, coloring her fair skin from throat to forehead. - -“So that is the King of Sweden!” she murmured. She shivered in her heavy -furs and mounted her carriage, gazing after the figure of the departing -horseman, clear against the pale tints of a sky colored with the first -blue of a Northern spring. - -She could do nothing but leave the scene of her defeat, but she did not -accept her discomfiture as final; at least now she knew his person and -could judge him, perhaps manage him better in consequence. - -He was her own countryman, yet this type of the pure Scandinavian was -fresh to her, after the many years she had lived abroad, and the -fairness, hardness, and strength of this man repelled her; he was as -powerful as Augustus and far more healthy; he sat his horse like a -creature of steel and iron, at one with the magnificent creature he rode -in power and purpose. - -No passions had ever marked his face, which expressed nothing but an -unfeeling calm and complete courage. - -It would be impossible to believe that that countenance could ever look -on the thing it feared. - -Aurora sighed; in her heart she admitted that she had never dealt yet -with a man of that quality; it would be the greater triumph to make him -swerve, if only for a second, from his inhuman fortitude. - -The next time the King of Sweden went abroad he found himself some miles -from the village, and in a narrow road face to face with a horse-woman -who took off her traveling mask and revealed the lovely features of -Aurora von Königsmarck. “Now will you speak to me, sire?” she asked -gravely, almost coldly. - -At least he looked at her; she directly barred his path and he could not -have turned, as he had done before, without glancing at her; his steady -blue eyes stared at her with calm repugnance. - -She was wrapped in a heavy white horseman’s cloak, with gray fur -gauntlets and a black beaver hat; her bright curls fell into the heavy -folds of the cloth, and her face looked pale and delicate as a snowdrop -above her winter attire; she rode a fine black horse, and her saddle and -harness were ornamented, in the Polish fashion, with brilliant colors of -red, yellow, and blue. - -“I am Aurora von Königsmarck,” she added, in the same tone; her soft -eyes were steady as those that gazed at her so coldly. - -“Madame, I recognized you--there is no other lady would trouble to set -herself in my path,” replied the King. - -“Your Majesty is greatly to be feared and greatly to be admired,” said -Aurora. “Do you not wonder at my courage in venturing to address you, -sire?” - -“You consider yourself invincible, Countess,” he replied, “therefore -your courage is only a sense of security.” - -She was studying him eagerly under the broad lids that drooped so -indifferently over her brilliant eyes; her purpose had gone into the -background of her mind; she was not thinking of him as the King of -Sweden who held the fate of her master in his hand, but as a man who -might or might not be won, and she noted his size, his fairness, the -severity of his dress, his curious face, his colorless voice with a -growing sense of antipathy and hopelessness. - -“I only ask for the charity of a few words speech,” she said in French, -and then she recalled that though he was acquainted with that language -he obstinately refused to speak it, and she added hastily in Swedish, -“Will you not hear me, sire, a few moments?” - -He checked his horse that pawed the ground impatient to proceed, and -gave Aurora a chilling look. - -“On what subject should you have to speak to me?” he demanded. - -The Countess flushed, for all her self-command; she would liked to have -given him a glance as freezing as his own, and have ridden away before -he did so; she hated him for the disadvantage she was at--obliged to -conduct this interview on horseback, muffled in a heavy mantle, in the -open air and keen cold, half her graces concealed, half her charms -useless. - -“Has your Majesty’s success and glory taught you only to be cruel to the -unfortunate?” she asked, with a quiver in her voice. - -“On what matter could you have to speak to me?” repeated the King; he -gave a short unexpected laugh, and she was startled to see how it spoilt -and rendered unpleasant his handsome face. Aurora’s hand was forced. - -“I come from the King of Poland,” she said, with dignity. - -“You could not come on a more hopeless errand, then,” he replied. “I -discuss no politics with women, Countess.” - -“I am more in the King of Poland’s confidence than any of his -ministers,” she declared boldly. - -“That,” he said curtly, “is well known.” - -Aurora controlled herself, but her hands shook on the reins; never had -she been treated so boorishly by any man. - -“I come on a mission so delicate there was no one else could have been -trusted with it,” she answered. “You, sire, are not rendering my task -pleasant to me.” - -“Therefore I would have avoided you, Madame,” said Karl. - -“I have been trusted by King Augustus with this mission----” - -A look of scorn flashed over the Swede’s impassive face. - -“Does Augustus think I shall find you dangerous? Believe me, I do not.” - -Aurora quivered under the calm insult; all her weapons seemed powerless -before the freezing indifference of this boy; she felt as at a loss as -any inexperienced girl might have done. - -“Augustus offers peace,” she said desperately, almost choking over the -words. “Augustus begs for peace.” - -Karl’s proud eyes gleamed for a second, and his full lips curled. - -“Madame,” he replied, “I will discuss peace in Varsovia.” - -Before this implacable front Aurora shrank; he meant then to take the -capital? - -She knew that Augustus could not defend Varsovia, and her quick mind -foresaw the last misery of a flight to Saxony; she was quite aware that -the Poles would probably tolerate Karl at least as peacefully as they -did Augustus, and that the latter’s chances of retaining the crown were -indeed desperate. - -“Nay,” she said faintly, flinging back her head with a womanish gesture, -and holding out one little hand, from which she had stripped the heavy -glove, in an attitude of appeal. “Can one so great be so hard to the -fallen?” - -This was not the kind of compliment that flattered the iron pride of -Karl; it always irritated him that anyone should believe him capable of -being moved by fulsome flattery, and it was his particular weakness to -consider himself impervious to the wiles of man or woman. - -“Your horse will take cold, Madame,” he said. “I give you good day.” - -He saluted and was turning away; Aurora thought of her last card that -was to have been played in such a different manner, with so much more of -finesse and address. - -“I was empowered to treat on the subject of--General Patkul,” she -stammered. - -At that name Karl did stop and turn his head; he seemed amazed and -almost as if about to be betrayed into passionate speech, but he -controlled himself. - -“Would Augustus surrender Patkul?” he asked, in a curious tone. - -Aurora could not answer; she felt as if she had committed an incredible -baseness. - -“He would, eh?” added Karl, with a look that was like a blow in the face -to the proud woman to whom it was directed. - -“So that is your errand?” continued the King, still fixing her with a -hard and merciless stare that became increasingly contemptuous. - -“I have not stated my errand,” replied Aurora; her eyes flashed to meet -his and the blood stained her face. “From the manner in which your -Majesty treats a woman, I do not think you would be tender with a -rebel--need we therefore be so nice in discussing General Patkul?” - -“It is not in my nature to be tender,” said the King, with his ugly -smile. “I shall not be merciful either with Patkul nor yet with Augustus -of Saxony.” - -“Your Majesty makes a boast of cruelty, then? I had hoped one of your -nobleness would have been satisfied by having your enemy your -supplicant.” - -Her bosom heaved beneath the rough mantle and her face was beautiful in -her sincere indignation, flushed and vivid with feeling and emotion; but -she might have been a hag for all the effect she had on Karl of Sweden. - -“Peace in Varsovia, Madame,” he repeated sternly, and turned and -galloped away down the frosty road, this time without a salutation. - -Aurora gazed after the disappearing figure with eyes dimmed by tears of -passionate rage; she was cold and trembling, never had she believed -herself capable of any passion as strong as the hatred now inspired in -her haughty heart by this young man. - -“A hero!” she thought, “a boorish boy! a rude churl!” - -Slowly she turned back to her lodging; useless to expose herself to -further mortification--it would be only to repeat her failure, only to -madden herself for nothing. - -She must return to Varsovia and tell Augustus of her humiliation. - -The future appeared to her desperate; she did not even care to think of -it; this adamant and implacable prince clearly meant to conquer both -Poland and Saxony. - -Aurora saw her whole world tumbling into the dust of chaos; this man -would be the master of her fate; and she could do nothing with him; he -had looked at her with--first indifference, then contempt, and always as -if she had been old and ugly. - -In Augustus she had no hope; she knew that he was at the end of his -resources, and he had no personal qualities with which to inspire -confidence; she foresaw that his bewildered policies would lead to a -total overthrow of his fortunes, and that his submission would partake -of the nature of panic and thereby further gild the triumph of Karl. - -She felt angry with her lover for the failure that had placed her in -such a position of unendurable humiliation and insecurity. - -In her bitterness, as she rode slowly along the hard lonely road, the -cold skies above her and the unawakened landscape barren and still -frozen about her, her dominant thought was a regret, almost passionate -regret, that she had not attached her fortunes to those of a more -successful man than Augustus of Saxony. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - - -The unhappy Augustus went swiftly on the path of disaster; when Aurora -von Königsmarck failed and returned making the best she could of a poor -tale, the King-Elector appealed to the Diet still sitting at Varsovia, -by means of one of his partisans, the Palatine of Marienbourg. - -He asked that the army of Poland might be placed at his disposition, -promising to pay the men two quarters in advance, and requested -permission to bring to the defense of the country 12,000 Saxons. - -Cardinal Radziekowski, Archbishop of Gnesne, Prime Minister of the -Realm, and President of the Diet, the most powerful enemy of Augustus, -and the most active partisan of the Sobieski, the family of the last -King of Poland, was eager enough to seize this opportunity of insulting -a king elected against his wish and who was an object of his keen -personal dislike; the answer he returned to the Palatine of Marienbourg -was dry and hard. - -“His Majesty was advised not to bring any Saxons into Poland as the Diet -was on the point of sending an embassy to the King of Sweden.” - -In this extremity Augustus resolved to throw himself once more on the -mercy of Karl; he privately sent a chamberlain to the Swedish camp to -inquire how and where the conqueror would receive an envoy from himself -and from Poland. - -This secret ambassador suffered an even severer reception than that -which had been accorded to the Countess von Königsmarck; as the -formality of the passport had been overlooked Karl put the chamberlain -in prison without seeing him, declaring that while he might listen to -the Republic he would not hear anything from King Augustus. - -The only consolation that this unfortunate prince had in his disasters -was that of seeing that the Republic was treated almost as harshly as -himself. - -Karl received the five senators sent by the Diet in his tent near -Grodno, with a pomp that was unusual to him--surrounded by his dragoons -and generals, seated on a throne, and clad in a rich uniform with -damascened cuirass; but the two spokesmen, Tarlo and Galesky, could, -after all, only obtain from him the sentence with which he had sent away -Aurora von Königsmarck that he would “discuss peace in Varsovia.” - -Flooding the country with manifestos, in which he declared that his -cause was identical with that of Poland, and that his arms were directed -solely against the Saxon, Karl marched on the capital. - -His propaganda was insidiously aided by the Cardinal Primate, and by -those numerous senators who were either secretly of his interest or -actively opposed to Augustus, who remained abandoned by all save the few -nobles who were of his party and the envoys of Peter, the Pope, and the -Emperor. His orders to the Polish nobility to take arms with their -followers and come to his assistance were ignored while the Poles -hesitated, watching with more satisfaction than dismay, the daily -advance of the conqueror. - -Even those senators loyal to Augustus would not consent to his calling -in his Saxons, but he had secretly commanded the 12,000 he had asked for -to advance to his aid, and had recalled another 8000 that he had -promised to the Emperor to use against France. - -He knew that to do this was to violate the Polish law that did not allow -him more than 10,000 foreign troops, and that he was risking a revolt -throughout the country, but his necessity was desperate, and he believed -that he had now little to lose in Poland. - -While he was waiting for the arrival of these troops he left Varsovia -and went from one Palatinate of Poland to the other, endeavoring to -secure the nobility on his behalf, and to raise some sort of an army -with which to face the conqueror. Meanwhile, Karl arrived before -Varsovia, which, not fortified and without a garrison, opened her gates -at once. - -The victor contented himself with disarming the citizens and exacting -the moderate tribute of 100,000 francs. - -Among the first to present himself before the Swedish King was Cardinal -Radziekowski, who had left Varsovia to withdraw to his residence at -Lowitz. - -Karl received him, without pomp or ceremony, in his headquarters, which -he had established at Praga, near the capital. - -The Cardinal Primate looked at this youthful hero with a curiosity equal -to that with which Aurora von Königsmarck had first gazed at him, and -with the same desperate desire and eager hope to turn him to his own -ends. - -These ends were directly in opposition to those of the fair Countess; he -labored to overthrow the crown she wished at all costs to preserve. Karl -was standing with his brother-in-law, Count Piper, and several generals, -distinguished from the others by his height and the plainness of his -attire; he wore his heavy blue cloth coat with gilt leather buttons, -black satin cravat, white breeches, high boots, and leather gloves that -came to the elbows; he had his hair short, in contrast to the flowing -perukes of the other gentlemen, and his still beardless face was browned -above his fair proper complexion. He advanced to meet the Cardinal with -an air of friendliness, but there was but little change in his cold -countenance and the steady gleam of his blue eyes. - -The Cardinal felt chilled, and faltered a little in the high-flown -compliments that he had prepared to salute the conqueror. - -“You have come to speak of peace?” asked Karl, cutting short his speech. - -“Your Majesty,” replied the Cardinal, with some difficulty, rallying his -wits in face of this personality so unusual and so unexpected, “Your -Majesty promised peace in Varsovia.” - -“I promised to discuss peace in Varsovia,” replied the young conqueror, -“and I shall keep my word.” - -The Cardinal bowed his head; it was difficult to know what to say before -such imperious abruptness. - -“Your Eminence represents Poland?” added Karl. - -“All save that portion that remains with King Augustus,” replied the -cautious priest. - -“You are of the Sobieski party?” demanded the King. - -“Sire, I have striven to be of no party, but the servant of Poland.” - -Karl smiled; he was tolerably well acquainted with the intrigues and -factions of the Republic, and, though he disdained politics, on this -occasion he had allowed Count Piper to meddle in the affairs of Poland, -greatly to his own advantage. He glanced at the Duke of -Holstein-Gottorp. - -“We have not come to impose terms on Poland, have we?” he said briefly, -then turned again to the Cardinal without waiting for the young Duke’s -assent. “My quarrel is not with Poland.” - -“We are, indeed,” replied the Cardinal, with some dignity, “unconscious -of any offense towards your Majesty.” - -“But your King,” said Karl, “waged on me a most unjust and aggressive -war. He must make reparation.” - -“Sire,” answered the Cardinal, with secret exultation, “he is in no -condition to refuse your Majesty’s terms.” - -“We have not yet come to the discussion of my terms,” responded the -King, with an increase of his freezing hauteur. “If your Eminence is the -mouthpiece of your country--I have only this to say--that I will give -Poland peace when she has elected another King.” - -No words could have been more grateful to Cardinal Radziekowski, who was -the adherent of the Sobieski, and the man who had, in default of James -Sobieski, rendered too unpopular by the memory of his father’s faults to -be a possible candidate for the Polish throne, caused the Prince of -Conti to be elected, and would have crowned him but for the power of -Saxon arms and Saxon money. - -“You may tell, sir, your palatines and nobles this news,” added Karl -curtly. “If they require peace they know the means by which they can -attain it.” - -He moved away in a manner which seemed to terminate the interview that -had not lasted more than a few moments; but the Cardinal Primate hardly -noticed the abruptness of his dismissal in his satisfaction at the news -he could now carry all over Poland, with a fair certainty of dethroning -Augustus. - -“This priest,” remarked Karl to his brother-in-law, “will save us much -trouble. The Poles will themselves cast off the Saxon.” - -He looked as he spoke at one of the officers who had remained in the -window-place during his interview with the Cardinal. - -This was a young man of a frank and pleasing countenance and attired -very richly, Stanislaus Leczinski, Palatine of Posen, and one of the -first Poles to join Sweden; his behavior was stained by some ingratitude -towards Augustus, to whom he owed his fortune, but whose election he had -opposed on the ground that no foreigner should rule over Poland. - -Karl had already shown a marked interest in this young man, who was in -most things more youthful than himself though eight years his senior. - -It pleased his peculiar pride to give his friendship to one who could in -no wise requite it; and just because Stanislaus had little influence in -Poland and could be of no assistance worth considering to Karl, that -monarch favored him above the Sobieski and Sapieha whose power might -have been of immense service to him; Stanislaus had held the office of -treasurer under Augustus, but had little weight in politics beyond that -given by eloquence and hardihood. - -It was to this young noble who had so early reported himself at the camp -of the victor to whom Karl now addressed himself. - -“Do you not think,” he asked keenly, “that Augustus will soon be -dethroned?” - -“I think, sire, that he will, when he is desperate, fight,” replied -Stanislaus. “When the Cardinal Primate make public your Majesty’s -ultimatum, the Elector will make an effort to redeem his fortunes.” - -“I hope so,” said Karl dryly; “he needs a further lesson. Is he not now -at Cracovia?” - -It was Count Piper who answered. - -“The last advices are, sire, that he has gathered the nobility of that -province about him, and awaits the arrival of the Saxon troops.” - -“We will advance on Cracovia,” said Karl calmly, “and when we have taken -that city, we will decide the question of the crown of Poland.” - -With these words, spoken too dryly to savour of pomp or bombast, Karl -smiled at the young Palatine of Posen, and left the room with a brief -salute to the others. - -“He will make himself King of Poland,” said Stanislaus Leczinski, as the -door closed. - -“He will not,” answered Count Piper, with a touch of sarcasm in his -voice. “That would be too ordinary an exploit to please His Majesty’s -temper.” - -“What can he do more astonishing or more magnificent than to take a -crown from his enemy’s brow to place on his own!” exclaimed the young -Palatine, turning his frank, pleasant face towards the Swede. “And I for -the first,” he added, with genuine admiration in his voice, “would be -ready to acclaim him in the greatness that he has so nobly won.” - -“You do not know the King,” said Count Piper dryly. “His pride is to be -the arbiter of other men’s destinies--he would not consider himself made -greater by another crown; his is a lofty pride, and a strict if hard -code of honor; he would disdain to turn a defensive and punitive war -into one of conquest. You will see that, as in the treaty with Denmark, -he will ask nothing for himself--unless it be one thing.” - -“And that?” asked Stanislaus. - -“John Rheingold Patkul.” - -“The Czar’s envoy!” - -“To Karl a rebel--and undoubtedly the Livonian was the arch-conspirator -in this plot to despoil Sweden.” - -Stanislaus did not reply; his secret sympathies were with Patkul, whom -he believed to be sincerely working for his own oppressed country, but -his interest and his admiration lay with Karl; the strange figure of the -young conqueror fascinated his chivalrous and ardent nature, and he had -been flattered by the notice of so remarkable a man. - -His wish to see Karl King of Poland was sincere; this was the type of -king he desired for a country to which he was attached with a strong -affection; he had never liked the indolent good-natured Saxon. - -“Naturally,” added Count Piper, with a glance at the Swedish officers, -“I shall do my utmost to persuade His Majesty to accept the crown of -Poland if it is offered to him; it would be a safe, sound step that -would bring Sweden some return for the expense of this war--but the -King,” he added with meaning, “is not likely to take my advice.” - -The Palatine did not think any the worse of Karl for this; he was -headstrong and independent himself, and could appreciate that a man in -the position of intoxicating glory occupied by the King of Sweden would -refuse to be led by the advice of a mere politician. - -“Perhaps,” he said, with his native pleasantness, “we may be able to -move His Majesty to our wishes.” - -Smiling, he picked up his gaily-feathered hat, and went out to find the -King who he knew at this hour would be taking one of his lonely rides -round Praga. - -The action of Augustus was exactly that predicted by Stanislaus -Leczinski. - -When the Cardinal Primate informed the Diet that it was necessary to bow -to the will of the conqueror and dethrone the Elector of Saxony, that -Prince resolved on a desperate battle for his kingdom, and advanced to -meet Karl who was marching from Varsovia, the new capital, to Cracovia, -the ancient capital which had been chosen as the Saxon headquarters. - -Karl had 12,000 men, picked Swedish troops; Augustus, his own soldiers -having arrived, had 30,000, of whom 20,000 were those that had lately -arrived from his own electorate, and the rest the Poles who had remained -faithful to him during his reverses. - -In numbers he was therefore greatly superior to the King of Sweden, and -the Saxons were as well equipped, armed, and trained as the Swedes, but -such was the respect inspired by the invincible Karl that Augustus went -to meet his fate with a heavy heart. - -“Why does the Czar do nothing?” asked Aurora passionately, when her -lover took leave of her. - -“What of his hordes of Muscovites?” she added. - -Augustus smiled sadly. - -“Those troops he has sent I should be better without,” he replied. -“Peter trains his men--I know not when he will be ready. Think not of -aid from him, dear heart.” - -The proud-hearted woman clasped her fair arms round his bravery of satin -and steel, and raised her sad countenance to the kind handsome face that -looked at her so tenderly. - -But no words of love or softness left her beautiful lips. - -“If you do not defeat the King of Sweden, I think that I shall never -forgive you,” she said fiercely. - -Augustus, harassed, perplexed, and overwhelmed, took leave of her with -less than his usual affection. - -Hélène D’Einsiedel gave him a gentler “God-speed,” while she thanked God -in her heart that Patkul was in Russia; far away, but safe from the -approaching horror of battle, thought the poor girl, as she watched the -army leave Cracovia. - -In a few days came the news that Augustus had met Karl at Klissow, and -that despite a desperate resistance and heroic bravery, had suffered a -complete reverse, his stores, flags, artillery, falling into the hands -of the Swedes who drove him before them in headlong flight. - -Karl entered Cracovia as he had entered Varsovia, overwhelmed all by the -sheer terror of his arms, established a Swedish garrison, taxed the town -100,000 rix-dollars, and proceeded to follow Augustus who fled towards -Marienbourg. - -Livid with anger and despair Aurora von Königsmarck had rushed from room -to room of the palace, snatching her jewels, her gold and silver -ornaments, her tapestries and clothes, calling together her maids, -pages, dogs, and monkeys, and in hasty retreat with coaches and -baggage-mules, fled to Lublin, accompanied by Mdle. D’Einsiedel, whose -entire being was occupied in prayers for the safety of General Patkul. - -When the weary women reached their new place of refuge they were -relieved by the news that Augustus had a respite. - -Karl, hotly pursuing his enemy, had fallen from his horse and broken his -leg, which necessitated his return to Cracovia and would keep him -confined several weeks to his bed. - -“Now--if you have a man’s courage and a prince’s spirit--is your -opportunity,” wrote Aurora, in a fiery letter to the vanquished Prince, -who was striving to gather together once more his resources at -Marienbourg. - - - - -BOOK V - -THE ELECTOR AUGUSTUS - - “Victrices copias aliam laturus in orbem.”--LUCAN. - - - - -CHAPTER I - - -The Czar Peter listened in silence to the news from Poland; he had -appeared lately to have forgotten the war, and to have become entirely -absorbed in the building of his new city and fort on the mud-banks of -the Neva. - -Anxious to break the spirit of the Malo-Russians who had shown -themselves restive under his autocratic rule, he had transported -thousands of these men whose forced labor was draining the morass as a -preliminary to the foundations of the new city. - -That hundreds of them died through the unhealthfulness of the district -and the hard conditions of their life was nothing to the Czar. - -He had decided that the new capital was to be called St Petersburg, and -that the great fortress therein was to be named St. Peter and St. Paul -and used for the burial-place of the Czars of Russia, instead of the -church of St Michael in Moscow. - -When General Patkul joined his master at the little house called Marli, -he found, to his great disappointment, that Peter exhibited a moody -indifference with regard to the war and the astonishing conquests of -Karl XII. - -He was now often in his carpenter’s shed dressed like a Dutch skipper, -and working with his hands. - -“Karl could not do this,” he said one day to Patkul, who was surveying -his occupation with some dismay. - -“Do what, sire?” asked the Livonian. - -Peter touched the planes and lathes on the carpenter’s bench. - -“This,” he said. “No, he could not turn a table-leg--nor found a city.” - -“He can conquer kingdoms,” said Patkul bitterly enough. - -Peter leant back against the rough wall of the shed; his short, soft, -dusky curls were hanging over his eyes; his expressive charming face was -pale and tired; his large dark eyes full of a veiled fire; his blue -blouse was open on a fine cambric shirt (he was always very nice in his -linen) and his breeches and woolen stockings were covered with sawdust -and chips of wood. - -He looked at Patkul kindly. - -“Do you think that what that man does will endure?” he asked. - -“Conquests have endured, sire, nations have been enslaved for -generations through the exploits of a man like this.” - -The Czar was not thinking of the freedom of future generations; he meant -to build a great nation, not a free one. - -“Sweden can never hold the Baltic Provinces,” he replied. - -“Who is to prevent him?” - -“I shall,” said Peter. - -Patkul looked earnestly at the Czar, as if to discover if he spoke in -jest or earnest. - -“Well,” added Peter, with narrowed eyes and signs of a rising temper. -“Do you not think I shall yet utterly crush the Swede? I have had my -lesson, Patkul.” - -He seized a knife and stabbed moodily at the carpenter’s bench before -him. - -“Your Majesty has the genius to profit by it,” said Patkul gravely. - -“All my battles are not going to be like Narva,” continued the Czar. “I -have learnt something of war. The King of Poland is a fool. Why did he -not train my Muscovites?” - -“He told me, sire, that he had no officers, and complained that the -Russians were out of hand and ravaging Lithuania.” - -“I hope they may lay it waste from end to end,” said Peter. “At the same -time, if any ever return to Russia, I will have them knouted for -disobedience.” - -He frowned as he thought of Augustus, a character that intensely -irritated him; the elegant splendid Elector and the savage Czar had been -only able to tolerate each other when both had been intoxicated; only in -debauchery had they anything in common. - -“He is a fool,” repeated the Czar. “If he had kept to the treaty of -Birsen, Karl would have been ruined by now.” - -“He lacked both money and means,” said Patkul, who had a certain -friendship for Augustus, and a clear understanding of his difficulties. - -“I think, sire, you can hardly conceive how he was, and is, hampered by -the Polish Diet and families like the Sapieha.” - -“He should punish them all. Had I been King of Poland, by now there -would not be a rebel left,” answered Peter gloomily. “What is the merit -of governing if one cannot overcome opposition?” - -Patkul remembered the fate of the Strelitz who had ventured to oppose -the Czar’s innovations, and the vengeance he had taken on his own wife -and sister; certainly Peter knew how to make himself both feared and -obeyed. - -“Poland is in reality a Republic,” said the Livonian, “and Augustus is -not free, even to punish.” - -“Ah, Poland!” exclaimed the Czar impatiently. “What matter the laws and -constitution of Poland? She can be dismembered as easily as that,” and -he pulled apart a piece of wood he had snatched up in his strong -fingers. - -“The King of Sweden may take the crown of Poland,” said Patkul, thinking -to rouse the Czar. - -“And invade Saxony, and frighten the Elector’s fiddlers and dainty -ladies!” laughed Peter. - -“And invade Russia, sire.” - -Peter rose. - -“That is his design?” - -“I am sure of it.” - -“Well, we have a little time in which to drill our armies.” - -“Sire, not so long.” - -Peter smiled; he still did not seem greatly stirred by the account of -the exploits of Karl. - -“Is he not at Cracovia with a broken leg, eh, Patkul?” - -“He mends fast; he is a creature of iron, and, once he is in the field -again, Augustus will be driven before him as he was before.” - -“Curse the Saxon,” exclaimed Peter, with sudden violence. “Had I faced -Karl with 20,000 trained troops I had sent this Swede reeling backwards -in his tracks!” - -He spoke with a passion and a simple grandeur that warmed Patkul’s heart -with some glimmerings of hope, unlikely as it seemed to him that out of -the chaos that was Russia even Peter could raise an army that would -overthrow the Swede, before whose arms the finest troops in Europe had -broken. - -“Klissow was extraordinary, sire,” he said. “The Saxons had never a -chance----” - -“And the Poles?” - -“They broke and fled at the first cannonade.” - -Peter made an impatient gesture. - -“And Augustus still thinks to raise an army from these materials?” - -“He is at Lublin or Marienbourg, sire, endeavoring to rouse the -Palatinates.” - -“Oh, he had better return to Dresden and amuse himself with his toes,” -said Peter contemptuously. - -“Karl would not leave him in peace, even in Dresden.” - -“He will grovel?” asked Peter. - -“I think he will,” replied Patkul. “He sent the Countess von Königsmarck -to make terms. I know this, although the matter was kept secret.” - -“A fribble and a fool!” cried Peter. “Have I ever had a chance, Patkul, -with two such allies? This Saxon weakling--and Denmark, what does -Denmark do?” - -“He maintains a prudent silence, sire, and respects the treaty he dare -not break.” - -“A couple of dogs, of spiritless dogs!” said Peter fiercely. “But I, my -friend, do not need either of them. The issue lies between Sweden and -me.” - -He paused, and fixed his dark powerful glance on the slight, energetic -figure and resolute face of his general. - -“Do you think,” he asked, in a quieter tone, “that this man’s work is to -be compared to mine? I construct--he destroys. Is it easier to knock -down a house with cannon or to build it up, carefully, brick by brick, -with your own proper hands? And which is the more useful to mankind? I -make Russia and Karl destroys Sweden.” - -“But these conquests will enrich--as did those of the great Gustavus.” - -“Nay, he does not fight for trade, for liberty, for the advancement of -his people--for forts or markets, but for the empty fame of armies; he -drains Sweden of men and money--to the point of exhaustion--for what? -That he may make Europe stare at barren conquests.” - -Peter, roused, as was his capricious manner, suddenly from a gloomy -indifference to a deep enthusiasm--from melancholia, almost despair, to -firm self-reliance and confidence--spoke with a power and a force that -encouraged as it impressed Patkul, who hailed the man of genius and the -great ruler in this young man in the peasant’s blouse who paced amid the -litter of a workman’s shed; would to God, he thought, the Czar could -always have his faith in himself, this clear outlook, this patience and -calm judgment. - -“All these lands will belong to Holy Russia,” continued the Czar. “Aye, -and Poland too; his glory shall vanish, leaving but a name for -children’s tales. I shall leave a power that will fight the world.” - -He smiled, mournfully, almost tenderly, at Patkul. - -“Are you dismayed at the progress of this Swede?” he asked, “and at my -inaction? Do you think I show poorly beside his glory?” - -He stepped up to the Livonian and laid a hand on the sleeve of his rich -uniform. - -“Look you, Patkul,” he said, with a noble air far removed from boasting, -“he takes Varsovia and Cracovia--but I built St. Petersburg! He sets his -heel on Poland, I give my hand to Russia, and raise her up--a nation -among nations.” - -Patkul was both moved and comforted. - -“Ah, sire, would that you were always in this mood!” - -A shadow passed over the Czar’s expressive face. - -“Sometimes the devils get hold of me,” he muttered, “and nothing on -earth seems real. When this war is over, I shall travel again. I should -have seen Venice,” he added, irrelevantly, “had not that rebellion of -the Strelitz called me back--think, a city on the sea! I, too, will have -my city on the sea. A pity that Gordon died--he was a good man, a keen -soldier, a faithful envoy. Poor Gordon, but I gave him a fine funeral.” - -“Your Majesty is as well served now,” said Patkul gently. - -“I know,” replied Peter warmly and affectionately. - -“And those who serve me well shall be well rewarded.” - -“Your Majesty’s success would reward me sufficiently,” said the Livonian -simply. “Could I see the Swede defeated and my country freed----” - -Peter interrupted. - -“If you do not go down in these wars you will see Sweden ruined. As for -your country--I shall be an easier master than Karl, if only because of -my friendship to you,” he added, with a smile. - -With this Patkul had to be contented, nay, grateful; perhaps in his -innermost heart was a misgiving that Peter might prove as stern a tyrant -as ever Karl or his father had been; he admired the Czar, he was fond of -him, but he had not been able to deceive himself as to the terrible -aspects of Peter’s character; he knew of his excesses, his cruelties, -his fierce vengeances; it might have occurred to him that he was but -devoting his life to rescue his unfortunate country from one master to -place her under another, and that there could not be much liberty under -the autocratic rule of Peter, but he trusted, with something of the -faith of desperation, in the Czar’s love of progress and enlightenment, -and hoped that a man so remarkable would by degrees reform himself as he -reformed others. - -There was, however, a shadow on his pleasant expressive face as Peter -pronounced these words that referred to the future fate of his beloved -Livonia. - -The searching, though wild and mournful gaze of the Czar noted the shade -that clouded the ardor of his general’s look. - -“Patkul,” he said, “_believe in me_.” - -The Livonian eagerly seized and eagerly pressed to his lips the -work-worn hand of the Czar. - -“Did I not believe in you, sire, I could not live,” he said quietly, but -with intense feeling. - -Peter smiled. - -“Come into the house,” he answered. - -The two men, the Czar in his workman’s apparel and Patkul in the -splendid uniform of a Russian soldier, entered the little house called -Marli. - -In the room on the ground floor a meal was laid, roughly, yet many of -the articles were of carved gold and beaten silver. - -By the window where the late lilacs hung their blossoms from their -thicket of close-packed leaves against the casement, Patkul saw his -country-woman, now no longer Marpha, but baptized into the Orthodox -Church by the name of Katherina. - -She wore a handsome Russian dress of green velvet and orange-colored -silk, both embroidered with gold; a long white gauze veil with a pearl -edging hung from her stiff satin head-dress. - -She was seated in a clumsy attitude, eating sweetmeats; neither her -hands nor her face were clean, and already prosperity, idleness, and -good-living were coarsening and spoiling her opulent beauty. - -Patkul, looking at her, marveled at Peter; he was used to the refined -loveliness of women like Aurora von Königsmarck, and to a court where -women such as the Livonian would not have been tolerated as -chambermaids. - -Prince Mentchikoff entered, very splendid in European clothes, with a -great curling peruke and a star on his breast, and looking very much -like a courtier of King Louis. - -Peter eyed him with satisfaction. - -“My Lord Carmarthen had such a coat as that,” he said, fingering the -skirts of heavy gray silk. “Do you remember, Danilovitch, what a fine -gentleman he was? I should like to see him again--and his boat--that was -a fine boat, Danilovitch.” - -“When the war is over we will go again to England,” replied Mentchikoff. -“They are the most sensible people in the world, and live in the most -comfortable fashion.” - -“Yet in too confined and precise a way,” returned Peter. “Nothing is to -be changed or upset or altered.” - -“Having achieved a fortunate constitution, under which it is a happiness -to live,” said Patkul, “they are jealous to preserve it, and this temper -shows in small things.” - -The Tartar servant brought in the dinner; several kinds of drink, kvas, -and pungent liquors, boiled cabbage and beetroot, pickled cucumbers and -a great dish of parboiled fish, another of stewed meat. - -The four took their places. - -Katherina smiled pleasantly and placidly at every one; her breath -already smelt of brandy, and she began drinking before she ate; her -finery was stained with grease, for she was as often as not in the -kitchen among the pots, and stale sugar disfigured her veil. - -Patkul sat opposite to her, and his glance rested puzzled on this woman -who had so entirely fascinated a man like Peter--perhaps the greatest -man in Europe. - -She accompanied him everywhere he went now; it was believed that he was -going to marry her, even to make her his Empress if he could divorce -Eudoxia; she was his confidante, and it was said, his adviser, in -everything. - -Her birth and breed made her sympathize with his schemes for a reform -that would humiliate the nobility, and with the abolition of customs and -conventions that made her own extraordinary elevation possible; like -Mentchikoff, she was in favor of a new Russia where she could find her -own fortunes; unlike him, no motives of patriotism, no appreciation what -the task Peter was endeavoring to perform, mingled with her satisfaction -at her personal good luck. - -She was fond of the Czar; she had been as fond of Mentchikoff; she was -ready to be as fond of any man whom it was her interest to serve; but as -she could look no higher than Peter, her placid affections had -concentrated on him; she was in many ways a remarkable woman, shrewd, -well-balanced, quick and courageous; but it was difficult to know -wherein Peter found the supreme attraction that caused him to be -inseparable from her unless it was the immovable good nature and placid, -healthy calm that took all his melancholies and caprices with a smile. - -Patkul contrasted her in his mind with Hélène D’Einsiedel, so fair and -soft and gentle; she seemed in his memory like a creature of another -world, and his heart contracted with a sense of bitter loss as he -recalled how she had come to him through the dark, snowy streets of -Varsovia and placed her cold hands in his and offered him her chill lips -in a mute sorrow of farewell. - -And he had let her go, because he had shrunk from bringing her to -Russia, among such company as the Czar kept. - -But was she any happier now, in flight before the conqueror, and in what -way, save for outward grossness, was Katherina worse than Aurora von -Königsmarck, who pandered to a worse man, and exacted a higher price -than did this peasant. While he was asking himself, with some -bitterness, these questions, Peter, hitherto absorbed in his food, -suddenly spoke: - -“I shall keep you here, Patkul, Saxony is not worth your pains.” - -The General flushed and started, the words came so pat on his -reflections. - -“I wish to return, sire,” he said. - -“Why?” asked Peter, with a certain annoyance, but Katherina -good-humoredly interfered. - -“Why, let him go--his lady is there.” - -Peter gave him a keen glance. - -“You are safer in Russia,” he said. “Never trust a weakling,” he added -shrewdly. - -“Sire,” replied the Livonian, “as your envoy I am safe anywhere.” - -“Never trust a weakling,” repeated the Czar. - -But Patkul was resolute to return to Saxony. - - - - -CHAPTER II - - -Augustus, with more energy than might have been expected from his easy -nature, set himself to redeem the disaster of Klissow. - -Having taken advantage of the accident of Karl to spread the news of his -death, he summoned a convocation of the Polish nobles, and in the -reaction occasioned by the belief in the death of the terrible captain, -Augustus, by promises, smiles, and largesses, gained the support of many -of the Palatinates, who were only hesitating as to which was the winning -side. - -The Cardinal Primate himself, who had been so eager to point out to the -Diet the necessity of dethroning Augustus to placate Karl, came to -Lublin and took, with the other magnates, the oath of allegiance to the -Elector. - -A fresh army of 50,000 was raised before it became known that Karl was -alive, and even in the face of this news it was voted that six weeks be -given to the Swedes in which to declare their terms for peace or war, -and the same time to the rebel Sapieha of Lithuania, in which to lay -down their arms. - -Meanwhile Peter showed signs of coming to his ally’s assistance when -Augustus had despaired of help from that quarter; moved by the energy -and eloquence of Patkul, the Czar sent that General to put some spirit -into the wandering Muscovite troops in Lithuania and Ingria, and these, -reduced to some order and discipline by the efforts of the gallant -Livonian, began to make vigorous attacks on the garrisons the King of -Sweden had left behind in the conquered Provinces; and even Karl’s -veteran troops admitted that the Muscovites were not so entirely to be -despised as they had been led to believe by Narva. - -Count Piper saw his master’s glory stationary if not dimmed. - -He did not urge the King to seize this moment to conclude a favorable -peace, having already proved the uselessness of such advice; but he -represented to him, as coldly as possible, that the renown won by his -arms might suffer by his entry into the confused field of Polish -politics, his meddling with intrigues so involved as to be hardly -understandable by a foreigner. - -“While your Majesty waits to dethrone the King of Poland, Muscovy grows -stronger.” - -“After Poland, Russia,” replied Karl from the bed where he lay confined -with his broken leg. “But I shall dethrone Augustus if I stay here fifty -years.” - -And despite the advices of his generals he continued to support the Diet -of Varsovia, which, acting in opposition to that of Lublin, had been -called together by the intrigues of the Cardinal Primate, and endeavored -to give expediency an air of decency by searching the laws for -justification for actions sufficiently indicated by necessity, and so -giving a glow of dignity to the submissions exacted by the conqueror. - -Karl, whose sole amusement was hearing the Scandinavian sagas read to -him, and who bore his enforced idleness, so bitter to one of his active -spirit, without either irritation or lament, had received greatly into -his friendship the young Palatine of Posen, whose chivalrous spirit, -high courage, and honorable character were pleasing to Karl’s code of -manhood. His brother-in-law, the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, had been -killed at the battle of Klissow (thus in reality rendering null the -object of the war, which was to restore this prince to his domains), and -the stern young King had no companion of his own age beyond this Polish -noble. - -Stanislaus, frank, affable, and generous, neither presumed on nor -cringed for Karl’s favor, and cherished no ulterior designs; he was -content to see his country delivered from Saxon rule and hoped nothing -for himself from Karl’s conquests. - -The Elector’s gleam of prosperity was short-lived. As soon as Karl could -mount his horse he advanced on the remnants of the Saxon army who, in -this brief breathing space, had rallied from their defeat at Klissow. - -Gyllenstierna had sent from Sweden troops to the number of over 10,000 -of whom 6000 were cavalry, and twenty pieces of cannon. - -The Saxons, under Steinau, fell back on Russia. Karl pursued them, and, -swimming the river Bug at the head of his cavalry, fell on them at -Pultask and utterly defeated them, Steinau and his staff being among the -fugitives; then they marched on Thorn on the Vistula, where the again -defeated Augustus had taken refuge, and proceeded to besiege the town. - -The desperate Elector contrived to escape from the beleaguered garrison -and retired towards Saxony. - -Karl was now master of Poland; General Rehnsköld with one division of -the army holding the center of the country, the frontiers of Russia -being guarded by other army corps, and Karl, with the flower of his -troops, camped a few miles outside Thorn. - -Nothing disturbed his glory which seemed now at the apogee; Denmark -respected the treaty at Traventhal and accepted in silence the near -approach of his hereditary enemy to its frontiers; Swedish ships were in -possession of the Baltic seas; and the arms of Karl threatened at once -Saxony, the Empire, and Russia. - -North Europe awaited in silence the next step of this conqueror who, as -soon as his transports with reinforcements had arrived from Sweden, -proceeded to close round the imperial town of Thorn. - -After a splendid resistance the city capitulated on the third of -October; Karl made a display of generosity by his munificence and -courtesy towards Röbel, the heroic governor, and one of meanness by -taxing the town, already ruined by the war, far more than it could -afford to pay; it was becoming more and more apparent that this King -cared for little but war, and knew not how to appreciate any but -military merit. - -Dantzic and Ebling, two free and imperial towns on the Vistula, having -been too nice in granting consent to the passage of the Swedish -reinforcements, were soon made to feel the terror of the conqueror’s -arms, Dantzic being forced to pay a heavy fine and Ebling being entered -by the Swedes, soldiers quartered with the burghers, cannon packed in -the squares, and the inhabitants reduced to throw themselves on their -knees in the streets before his triumphal entry imploring mercy. - -Karl mulcted the town in a large sum, seized her arms, and left a -garrison there, proceeding, with unmoved grandeur, on his implacable -conquests. - -The intrigues of the Cardinal Primate, waxing bolder as the fortunes of -Augustus waned, succeeded in inducing the Diet to declare the Elector of -Saxony incapable of wearing the crown of Poland. The Diet, inspired by -the wish of the conqueror, would have crowned the life-long intrigues of -the Cardinal with success, by offering the throne to James Sobieski, son -of the last King of Poland, but this Prince, together with his brother -Constantine, was kidnapped by Saxon troops at Breslau and sent to close -confinement in Germany. - -The assembly at Varsovia therefore found themselves bound to find -another rival to Augustus. - -The Elector’s fortunes now indeed seemed desperate; there was little -more to be hoped from Saxony, where he had exhausted every resource, and -nothing to be hoped from Poland, where his party had dwindled to a -faction among factions, and where Karl was more absolute master than -Augustus had been at the height of his prosperity. - -The Swede had taken up his winter quarters at Heilsburg in Polish -Russia, and from there surveyed tranquilly his conquests and his -neighbors who regarded him with the respect of fear. - -The war, which had now lasted four years, had been for him a series of -unchecked victories; his arms had suffered no reverse and his reputation -flamed in Europe; there had been no such invincible captain since the -great Condé, and men could not remember a king who made a war of -conquest with justice and mercy; no outrage, no massacre, no pillaging, -or burning, no excesses, large or small, could be imputed to the -soldiers of Karl. - -He had attained, in a few years, a glory which is seldom the reward of a -long and splendid career. - -“Are you not now satisfied, sire?” asked Count Piper, with a real -curiosity. - -Karl smiled; he was in a good humor, for he had made an end of the -Polish intrigues and was on the eve of giving a new King to Poland; he -gave little confidence to his minister, but continued to employ him as -one useful in those matters so distasteful to his own spirit, now -entirely absorbed in war. - -“You think to get me back to Stockholm, Count?” he asked. - -Count Piper smiled in his turn; he knew too well the iron obstinacy with -which he had to deal to attempt to persuade Karl to any design. - -“Sire,” he counter-questioned, “on whom now do you intend to make war?” - -Karl lifted his cold blue eyes. - -“There is always the Czar.” - -“But he has withdrawn himself, sire. I believe he cares no more about -the war, despite the appeals of the Elector. He is absorbed in building -his new city.” - -“I will topple over the foundations of his city,” replied the stern -young King. “Piper, have you ever known me alter my mind? I told you -some while since that I had a mind to dethrone the Czar.” - -“The occupation of your Majesty’s life is to be war?” - -“What other occupation is there for a gentleman?” asked Karl. - -Count Piper did not attempt to argue with him nor to express any opinion -on this speech; Karl’s career had been so startlingly and dazzlingly -successful that it seemed useless to warn him or advise him; the -cautious and prudent minister did not even venture now to point out the -immense difficulties of an invasion of Russia, and the almost superhuman -task it would be to subdue such a country and dethrone such a man as -Peter. - -Karl could point to achievements so splendid that it seemed an -impertinence to hint at possible disaster, or to urge caution on one -whose exploits had been heroic to the point of miracles. - -“At least, sire, accept some of the fruits of your victories.” - -“You mean the crown of Poland?” said Karl thoughtfully. - -He rose and went to the door of the tent, and stood looking out into the -encampment that was fresh with spring breezes. - -The minister gazed at him with the questioning curiosity and amazement -that this young man had never failed to rouse in his heart. - -Karl was now twenty-two years of age; a temperate, active, and simple -life had developed his already splendid constitution into perfect -hardihood; physically he was like the ancient Vikings whose exploits -formed the subject of the sole literature he cared to read; tall, in -fine proportion, with powerful shoulders and slender hips, and with the -easy carriage of the soldier and the horseman, a creature of bone and -muscle, nerve and sinew perfectly attuned. - -His face had slightly changed, broadened and grown harder in the lines, -but the expression was the same, the full lips, the curved nostrils, the -blank eyes showed the same unmoved courage, the same indifference to -things about him that had once made Count Piper liken him to a god--or -an animal. - -He still wore a dark blue uniform of the plainest cut, a black satin -cravat, and was without peruke or lace or ribbons or jewels; never in -the slightest particular had he deviated from the austere conduct he had -vowed to follow; his living was of the simplest, his couch a straw -pallet or his own cloak; his food such as that eaten by the meanest foot -soldier; since he left Stockholm he had never tasted wine nor spoken to -a woman beyond the few words he had been forced to exchange with Aurora -von Königsmarck. He passed his life in the camp, his companions were all -soldiers, and little seemed to interest him beyond the things of war; -the affairs of Sweden he left entirely in the hands of the regency; he -cared nothing for the news from his capital, and never corresponded with -his sole surviving relations, the Queen Dowager and his sisters. - -Count Piper could not love him; perhaps because he had schooled himself -to be above human weakness, no one loved him; certainly he never asked -for anyone’s affections and disclosed to no one his thoughts; his -immense pride seemed to be satisfied by the fear he inspired even in his -friends and respect accorded him even by his enemies. - -“The crown of Poland, sire,” said the minister, who could not resist -looking upon the present situation from a statesman’s point of view. -“Your Majesty is aware how easily you might obtain this for yourself?” - -“Yes,” replied Karl dryly. - -“It is what policy indicates.” - -“I never loved your policy, Count,” said the King. - -“Yet it is not to be disdained, even by a conqueror.” - -Karl gave his short, ugly laugh. - -“I think I can dispense with it. As for this crown, I think it pleases -me more to give it away than to wear it.” - -Piper had been expecting this; yet he resolved to endeavor to turn -Karl’s fantastic pride in another direction, and inspire him with the -desire for a glory more useful to Sweden and mankind. - -“Your Majesty might be truly the liberator of this distracted country -and unite all factions in concord under your protection; the Romist -faith whose arrogant clergy have enslaved these people might in this -manner receive a shrewd blow, and your Majesty appear as defender of the -Evangelical faith.” - -Karl did not reply to this proposition with that rude coldness with -which he generally received suggestions not entirely in accordance with -his own preconceived plans. - -The truth was that the prospect held out by Count Piper tempted him. - -The great Gustavus had established the Lutheran faith in Sweden and had -banished forever from the North the corruption, the tyranny, and the -superstition of the Roman priests; to do the same in a country as large -and as important as Poland would be a feat that recommended itself to -the ambition of Karl. - -To take Poland not only from Augustus, but from the Pope, would have -been a triumph such as he would have keenly enjoyed, for, while religion -had had little influence on his life, he accorded his hereditary faith -full respect and always enforced the observances of Lutheranism in his -camp. - -Count Piper watched him in silence, seeing that he was at least -pondering the idea. - -“Where will your Majesty find a King for Poland?” urged the minister. -“Not even your entreaties will prevail upon Alexander Sobieski to accept -the crown while his elder brothers are prisoners--and where is there any -other pretender worthy of notice?” - -Karl knew that he spoke the truth; with the romantic chivalry -characteristic of the Polish nation, the youngest Sobieski had refused -to accept the crown that the fortune of war prevented the eldest from -enjoying, and there was, indeed, no one else especially indicated. - -But to take this throne for himself was not sufficiently glorious for -Karl; he wished to do the unusual, the extraordinary, to make the world -stare--not by what he accepted, but by what he refused. - -Even the design of appearing as champion of the reformed faith lost its -attraction for him, because a great prince lately dead had made his -chief fame in this part; Karl did not wish to follow in the footsteps of -anyone. - -“No,” he said sternly, suddenly letting the tent flap fall and turning -to look at his minister. “I have more pleasure in giving away crowns -than in taking them.” - -“You would, sire, sacrifice your interest----” - -Karl interrupted. - -“My interest!” he repeated as if offended, then with his ugly smile: -“You should have been minister to some Italian prince, Piper, you are so -fond of intrigues.” - -The Count bit his lip and was silent; he would have liked to have -mentioned Sweden and _her_ interests, but knew the cold repulse he would -meet with. - -The King crossed to his camp table and turned over some papers the -secretary had left for his inspection, but with an absent look and a -careless hand. - -Count Piper was about to take his leave when his soldier servant ushered -in the young Palatine of Posnania and Alexander Sobieski. - -This latter had waited on Karl to urge him to revenge the capture of his -two brothers by Augustus; it entirely suited both the temper and the -policy of the King of Sweden to promise him satisfaction, but he was not -now so cordial towards the young prince whose obstinate refusal to -accept his father’s crown had rivaled and perhaps shadowed the -generosity and strangeness of his own action. - -But he greeted the two young Poles pleasantly, and offered each in turn -the strong white hand from which he had drawn the long buffle glove worn -with rein and sword pommel. - -They were both brilliantly dressed, charming and graceful in manner and -looks. - -Karl’s eyes, blue and cold as frozen water, cast a strange glance on the -elegant figure of Stanislaus Leczinski. - -“Count,” he said, “here is the future King of Poland.” - -The minister was startled into an imprudence; staring at the amazed face -of the young noble, he cried impetuously: - -“The Palatine is too young, sire!” - -“He is older than I am,” said Karl dryly. - - - - -CHAPTER III - - -Karl, having given a new King to Poland, and satisfied his somber pride -by being an “incognito” spectator of the election of the man whose -elevation he owed entirely to Sweden, marched on Lemberg, the capital of -Galicia, and took this town by assault, enriching his army with the -treasures of Augustus that were stored here, and that the inhabitants -surrendered to troops that neither burnt nor pillaged; he had hardly -established his garrison in the conquered town when he was joined by -Stanislaus Leczinski, cast from his throne after a reign of six weeks, -and forced to fly for his life before the Elector of Saxony, who had -appeared before Varsovia with a new army of 20,000 men, and had -triumphantly entered the capital, scattering the Polish guard of -Stanislaus and the Swedish garrison under Count Horn. His reverse was -received with calm by the King of Sweden; it did not touch him -personally, as he had not been present at the disaster, and he was not -displeased at the opportunity to twice give the throne of Poland to the -man whom he called friend. - -“Let Augustus amuse himself,” he told Stanislaus. “How long do you think -he will hold Varsovia when I am before the gates?” - -The words, spoken quietly and in no spirit of boasting, proved to be the -truth. - -Karl, with Stanislaus riding at his side, marched back on the capital, -and the army of Augustus, consisting of lukewarm Poles, raw Saxon -recruits, and vagabond Muscovites, melted before the approach of the -terrible captain. - -Count Schulenbourg, in command of the Elector’s army, did all that could -be done with such an army, and by a series of masterly marches, fell -back into Posnania where Karl overtook him near Runitz, and in a sharp -action forced him to retreat, without, however, throwing him into -disorder. - -With the small remnant of his army he managed to escape, passing the -Oder in the night, showing a generalship so superb as to force a -compliment from the victor. - -“We are the vanquished,” said Karl. “M. de Schulenbourg has -out-generaled us.” - -He could afford to be generous, for Augustus had once more fled into -Saxony, and was engaged in fortifying Dresden, a task that showed his -fear of his enemy. - -Stanislaus was crowned with splendid ceremonies in Varsovia by the -Archbishop of Lemberg, the Cardinal Primate dying that very day after -having refused to perform the ceremony on the grounds of displeasing the -Pope who had threatened to excommunicate all those who elevated a -Protestant King in place of a Catholic. - -There was now only one person who dare even threaten Sweden, and that -was the Czar. The bands of wandering Cossacks that he had sent to help -Augustus had been easily subdued by the Swedish generals, and campaign -after campaign opened and closed without his taking any part in the war -beyond this feeble aid to Augustus. - -But he was building St. Petersburg and creating an army and a navy, and -when Augustus was forced to abandon Poland, Patkul, the envoy of the -Czar in Dresden, was entrusted to persuade the Elector to meet Peter at -Grodno, and once more contrive plans against the might of Sweden. - -Peter appeared at Grodno with 70,000 trained troops, engineers, -artillery, horse, and foot. - -Augustus had nothing but a few Saxons under General Schulenbourg, and -some bitterness mingled with his marvel at the change in their -respective circumstances since last they had met at Birsen. - -“Karl will not find it so easy to dethrone you as it was to dethrone -me,” he remarked to Peter. - -“No,” said the Czar. - -He was called from the conference to put down a revolt in Astrakan, but -his generals proceeded to put into practise the plans agreed upon by the -two kings. - -Schulenbourg advanced on Poland, and the Russian army, divided in small -groups, marched into the Baltic Provinces. - -There Karl met and defeated them, one after the other; he captured the -baggage of Augustus with great store of gold and silver, and a large -quantity of specie belonging to Prince Mentchikoff. - -In two months the Russians were entirely defeated, and Schulenbourg -again obliged to retreat; Karl drove the Muscovites before him to the -frontiers of Russia, and Rehnsköld utterly defeated Schulenbourg at the -battle of Fraustadt. - -Karl then turned and marched on Saxony, passing through Silesia, without -heeding the consternation of Germany and the protests of the Diet of -Ratisbon. - -Saxony was at his feet in a few weeks, and from the camp of Altranstadt -he dictated his peace terms, forcing the Saxons to provide food and -lodging and pay for his soldiers, but most strictly preventing these -from the least insult, outrage, or disorder. - -He passed his word to permit no excesses of any kind if the inhabitants -submitted to his orders, and as his honor was well known to be -unblemished a certain tranquillity took possession of the conquered -country, which waited, with more resignation than despair, the terms of -the invincible Swede. - -Augustus, a fugitive in Poland, sent a certain Baron D’Imhof and M. -Pfingsten to the camp at Altranstadt to demand terms of peace. - -These two envoys arrived at night, but were immediately admitted to the -presence of the King. - -Each, despite the desperate importance of their mission, felt all -emotion absorbed in a curiosity as to this man who had in a few years -laid North Europe under his feet, and behaved in a manner so -extraordinary for a conqueror. - -Karl, who had no personal attendant, valet, or servant, rose from the -rough camp bed where he took his few hours’ repose, and came at once to -meet the envoys of Augustus. - -If he felt any satisfaction in this moment, when the man who had so -carelessly and contemptuously affronted him was reduced to send to sue -for mercy, it was not betrayed in his passive countenance. - -He might indeed be used to triumphs; few men of his years had ever had a -career of such uninterrupted success, and perhaps he was already -indifferent to the haughty position of conqueror or at least too well -used to it; he stood a moment holding up a little lamp and looking at -the two Saxon gentlemen who stood, still in their traveling cloaks, -bare-headed before him. - -For the first second they did not know who stood before them; they were -used to the magnificence and display of Augustus that he maintained even -in his downfall, and Karl in his plain coat and short hair looked like -an infantryman. - -“The King,” said Count Piper, with a curious pride in the man whom he -disliked. - -Karl cut short their rather confused compliments. - -“You are from the Elector of Saxony?” he demanded sternly, and set the -lantern on the table. - -Baron D’Imhof was the spokesman. - -“Yes, sire,” he said. - -“And what does the Elector want?” asked Karl. - -The Saxon was a little taken aback; he had not been prepared to meet the -King with so little ceremony, to converse with him with this dry -abruptness. - -With a bow he handed Karl the letter of Augustus, in which that monarch -entreated for peace on any terms. - -Karl glanced at the seal. - -“Why this secrecy, gentlemen?” he asked, with his sudden, unpleasant -smile. - -The two plenipotentiaries were silent; they found themselves in that -position in which it is difficult to do anything with dignity or even -with grace. - -“The Czar of Russia knows nothing of these negotiations?” demanded Karl. - -“Sire,” said Baron D’Imhof, “my master wished this to be between himself -and you.” - -“He is ready then to abandon his ally who is not yet prepared to -submit?” asked the King, his face, still as smooth as a mask of stone, -unmarked by care or emotion, and radiant with the look of perfect health -turned full towards the two Germans, and his strange eyes, chill and -blue as his Northern seas, swept them with a glance of cold contempt. -Again the Germans were silent. - -“The Czar does not know of this letter?” demanded Karl. - -“No, sire.” - -“If he had known it would never have been sent, I think,” said Karl. -“Your master did well to keep this matter secret, seeing he is at the -mercy of the Muscovites.” - -“Sire, my master’s actions are dictated by necessity,” replied Baron -D’Imhof. “He trusts a conqueror whom the world knows clement.” - -“Clement,” returned the King. “I make no claim to be clement, sir. I am -just.” - -His glance flickered over both of them, then to the letter in his hand. - -“You have shown some courage in undertaking so unpleasant a task,” he -remarked. - -“I was entrusted by King Augustus,” replied the Baron, “to obtain from -your Majesty a peace on as Christian and reasonable terms as your -magnanimity would be pleased to grant.” - -“Why does your master,” asked Karl, “think I should be so merciful?” - -The Saxon disliked this last word, but had to take it; he flushed -slightly and bit his lip; this youthful conqueror was proving more -difficult to deal with even than he had imagined. M. Pfingsten took the -word. - -“King Augustus----” he began. - -“Call him the Elector,” said Karl. “It is the safer title--we give him -that out of courtesy since Saxony is as lost to him as Poland.” - -The envoy bowed, swallowed his humiliation, and began again. - -“My master trusted something in the blood that unites him to your -Majesty.” - -“Did he remember that we are cousins when he allied himself with Russia -to seize my provinces?” demanded Karl. - -With that, he turned his shoulders towards the two plenipotentiaries, -and broke the seal of the unfortunate Elector’s letter. - -Count Piper eyed him as he read. - -Half-leaning against the table with the lamp-light full over his figure, -the young King, with his perfect physique, air of strength and -hardihood, his noble face and soldier’s bearing, made a picture grateful -to the eye. - -“Generous and merciful!” thought the minister. “They think him that -because he punishes a soldier who steals a chicken, and gives away a -crown he might have worn--but we shall see if he knows even the meaning -of generosity and mercy.” - -Karl finished the letter, put it in his pocket, and glanced over his -shoulder at the two waiting Saxons. - -“Gentlemen,” he said, “you shall have your answer immediately.” - -He took up the lamp and went into a little cabinet that opened off the -chamber, closing the door behind him. - -The Saxons could not but stare at seeing the simplicity of the man who -had conquered Northern Europe. - -The plain room without hangings or carpet, the entire lack of servants -or guard, the King’s own appearance and the way in which he waited on -himself, caused them astonishment, and would, under other circumstances, -have roused their contempt and disgust. - -Count Piper noted their expressions and the glance they exchanged. - -“Ah, gentlemen,” he said, “you do not know with whom you have to deal!” - -“In what way, sir?” asked Baron D’Imhof, who felt more at ease in the -presence of the minister than in that of the King. - -“Your errand is desperate,” replied the Count, with some feeling for -fellow diplomats in a hopeless position, “and the success of it, -gentlemen, does not depend on any arts of your own.” - -“No,” said M. Pfingsten, “but entirely on the disposition of the King of -Sweden.” - -“Exactly,” said Count Piper. “Your only hope is that you may excite -compassion in the heart of a man who has never known a gentle emotion, -and turn from his course the most obstinate creature who ever breathed.” - -He smiled cynically, and made a movement with his hands as if he cast -away the responsibility of his master’s actions. - -“You give us good hopes,” said Baron D’Imhof, with some bitterness. - -Count Piper did not directly reply to this. - -“Gentlemen,” he said, “I will give you this advice--whatever the King -says accept it; take up your hats and begone with what good grace you -can, for he will never alter his mind.” - -As he spoke Karl entered from the cabinet, carrying a paper on which -the close writing still gleamed with the wet ink. - -He gave this to Count Piper and bade him read it to the Saxons. - -“I will give your master peace on these terms,” he said, “and you must -not hope that I shall alter any of them.” - -The minister bent nearer the two tall candles on the table that gave the -sole light in the rooms and read, in an even official voice, the terms -of the conqueror. - -The King had written his fiat with his own hand without troubling to -call his secretary, and the calligraphy was quick and flowing as that of -one whose thoughts move faster than his pen; as Piper knew Karl was only -now putting on paper the terms that he had in his mind from the first to -impose on Augustus. - -The conditions were four in number. - -“_Firstly._--The Elector must renounce forever the throne of Poland, -recognize Stanislaus Leczinski as King, and, even in the event of this -prince’s death, make no attempt to regain the throne. - -“_Secondly._--He must renounce all the alliances he has made against -Sweden--particularly those with Muscovy. - -“_Thirdly._--The Princes Sobieski and other prisoners of war are to be -sent with honor to my Camp. - -“_Fourthly._--He is not to seek to punish any one of his following who -have joined me, and he is to deliver to me all these deserters whom he -has with him, and especially John Patkul.” - -As Count Piper finished the two Saxons cried out in startled tones -against the hardness of these terms. - -Karl smiled. - -“Did you expect,” he asked dryly, “other terms? Think, gentlemen, what -Augustus would have exacted had he been at the gates of Stockholm as I -am at those of Dresden.” - -“Sire,” returned M. D’Imhof, in great agitation, “my master is honorable -and merciful--he would never have propounded such a condition as that -last.” - -“You question these terms?” demanded the terrible young conqueror, with -a cold and disdainful look. - -“I say, sire,” replied the Saxon firmly, “that my master can never in -honor surrender General Patkul.” - -The sound of the name seemed to anger Karl; his blue eyes darkened and -flashed. - -“I do not argue,” he said. “These are my terms.” - -“But General Patkul,” urged M. Pfingsten anxiously, “is an envoy of the -Czar, and as such sacred----” - -“Since when,” interrupted Karl, with a biting contempt, “has the -Muscovite claimed the privileges of civilized rulers? Patkul is my -subject, a deserter and a traitor.” - -“The conditions are very bitter,” said Baron D’Imhof. “Let your Majesty -reflect if they are such as a Christian Prince can accept.” - -“Well,” replied Karl, with his cold air of stubborn hardihood, “no doubt -I can find another Elector for Saxony as I found another King for -Poland.” - -“We may, sire, discuss these terms with Count Piper?” asked M. -Pfingsten, clutching at straws. - -“As much as you wish,” said Karl, with a stern smile. “Count Piper knows -my mind and if I am likely to change it.” - -“I have already warned these gentlemen,” remarked the minister. - -Karl now turned and with a rude coldness was leaving the chamber. - -Count Piper gave the piece of paper that had so tremendous a meaning to -the confused and humiliated deputies of Augustus. - -M. Pfingsten took courage to speak. - -“Our master can never surrender the crown of Poland or General Patkul.” - -Karl paused on the threshold of the inner room. - -“Why was John Patkul arrested in Dresden the other day, as soon as his -protector, the Muscovite, had left for Astrakan?” - -“It was of some mistake, sire----” - -“Ah,” interrupted Karl, with an ugly laugh, “it was no mistake. Your -master saw that he had the Livonian in his house before he asked for -peace--and why? Because he knew that I should ask for Patkul and that he -would surrender.” - -With these words, spoken with a cold indifferency more than any -passionate tone of insult, Karl, disdaining to hold further argument -with the envoys of his fallen enemy or to take any ceremonious leave of -them, bowed briefly to the Saxons and left the chamber. - -Baron D’Imhof could hardly contain himself. - -“So this is greatness!” he exclaimed ironically. He put up the paper in -his bosom. “We will wait on you to-morrow, Count, though I doubt if it -will be of any use.” - -“You have heard my master’s will,” replied Count Piper, “and he never -changes his resolutions.” - -In the small, bare inner chamber the man, who had upset kingdoms and -altered the face of North Europe for no other reason than pride and the -desire for military glory, laid himself again on his straw mattress and -hard pillow. - -Augustus was conquered as effectually as had been Frederic; it had taken -longer, years instead of weeks, but it had been done. - -And Patkul, the arch conspirator, would finally be punished. - -There remained only Peter.... - -Karl turned on his rude pillow and fell asleep, dreaming of the downfall -of the Czar, his last and greatest enemy. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - - -When M. Pfingsten returned to Poland with the articles of peace that no -amount of interviews with Count Piper had served to alter, he found his -master once again in Varsovia, in the midst of “Te Deums” and -bell-ringings for the first victory over the Swedes that had been -attained during the course of this long war. - -The envoy from Saxony, almost confounded by this change of fortune, -learned that the Muscovites under Prince Mentchikoff had defeated the -Swedes under General Mardenfeldt who found himself in the Palatinate of -Posnania with 10,000 men against the combined Saxon and Russian forces -amounting to nearly 40,000. - -But what surprised M. Pfingsten was the fact that the Elector had been -in this battle and had irritated Karl in this manner at the very moment -when he was imploring that monarch’s mercy. - -He hastened through the ruined capital now being pillaged by the -Muscovites to the ancient palace where Augustus was again in residence. - -The Elector immediately gave him audience; it was early in the morning -and he sat over a fire, for the autumn air was keen, and was drinking -coffee dashed with cognac, out of a pale porcelain cup. - -Some attempt at refinement and splendor still surrounded the man who had -been one of the most brilliant princes in Europe; he was wrapped in a -blue and gold brocade dressing-gown, wore a French peruke, diamonds in -his lace cravat, and long ruffles of Mechlin at his wrists. - -Elegant and beautiful articles were scattered about the room, and a -cardinal of violet silk and a pair of heelless white silk slippers -bespoke the presence of a woman. - -But the fair face of the Elector was haggard and pale; he looked at M. -Pfingsten with eyes full of a cruel distress. - -“Sire,” this gentleman hastened to say, “I rejoice to find you in -circumstances which can enable you to deal on terms of equality with the -King of Sweden.” - -“Do not mock me, Pfingsten,” replied the Elector, in a tone of -agitation. “You find me in the most miserable position, and whatever the -terms you have brought back I must sign them.” - -“Nay, God forbid!” exclaimed the envoy. - -Augustus set down his coffee cup with a shaking hand. - -“Are they then so hard?” - -“Sire, they are impossible.” - -Augustus gave a miserable smile. - -“You do not understand my position,” he said bitterly. “This victory is -futile and barren and will only further serve to inflame the Swede.” - -“Then, why did not your Majesty wait my return before giving battle?” - -The Elector replied with the useless impatience of a weak nature. - -“It was the cursed Muscovite! What was I to do? Mentchikoff would give -battle, no excuse would put him off. I knew that it would mean a defeat -for Sweden, they were so outnumbered. I had only a handful of Saxons, -and had those savages guessed that I was in treaty with the Swede they -had murdered me--cursed be the day when I was allied with such dangerous -rascals!” - -M. Pfingsten could say nothing; he saw that this new victory had indeed -put his master in a delicate and difficult position; he was forced -either to affront his dangerous allies in whose power he was or to -offend the conqueror on whose mercy he had thrown himself; his was the -common fate of the weak, who, lacking all qualities of resolution and -daring, find that concession and subterfuge lead them into a position -where no way is open to them with both safety and honor. - -“I sent privately to General Mardenfeldt,” continued the Elector, -pouring out another cup of the strong coffee, “warned him of his danger -and my secret negotiation, and advised him to retire--but the -hard-headed fool took it for a trap and would fight.” - -“At least the victory was complete?” - -“Yes. I was surprised myself. The Muscovites can fight as well as -marauder, it seems. Mentchikoff is sending the Czar a bombastic account -of it, but it is all futile,” he added peevishly. - -M. Pfingsten, a man of more nerve than his master, did not entirely -agree with this dispirited view. - -He thought that at least Augustus could now refuse the shameful terms -imposed by Karl XII. - -Taking the letter from his breast-pocket he put it among the delicate -coffee service on the tulip-wood table by the Elector’s elbow. - -Augustus picked it up with nervous fingers, glanced at it, and fetched a -groan, a look of real anguish distorting his handsome face. - -Each of the four conditions were bitterly hard, the last struck at his -honor as a gentleman; Patkul had been in his service, had trusted and -did trust him, and was, moreover, sacred as the envoy of the Czar. - -Augustus had shrunk from abandoning his ally; he felt it would be -impossible to betray him by delivering to his enemy a man who was -general and ambassador of Russia. - -He put the letter down and sat staring into the fire. - -“There was no possibility of moving the King?” he asked, in a broken -voice. - -“Not the faintest; he prides himself on his obstinacy and sternness. I -think he is quite implacable,” replied M. Pfingsten, with dreary -memories of the hardness of the young captain. - -“Then there is nothing for me to do but accept these terms,” said -Augustus. - -This complete and instantaneous submission startled M. Pfingsten; he had -not believed that Augustus would have been so subdued by his miseries -and disasters as to have no spirit left with which to meet this -extremity. - -“There is one thing your Majesty can do--you can advance into Saxony -with these Muscovite troops and attack the King of Sweden.” - -Augustus gave the speaker a wild look. - -“Take advantage, sire,” urged M. Pfingsten, “of this moment of good -fortune.” - -Augustus hesitated; the terms offered by Karl were so hateful that he -was glad to catch at anything that seemed to promise relief from the -necessity of accepting them. - -At the same time his reverses had been so continuous and terrible, he -had gradually lost everything and exhausted every resource, he was so -convinced of the invincible genius of Karl, so worn out in this long -combat with one in every respect his superior, that his spirit, by no -means firm or martial, though he was, in his way, brave and ambitious, -was completely broken, and his terrified imagination saw no escape from -his present difficulties save by throwing himself utterly on the mercy -of the man in whose hands his fate lay. - -“If I could see Karl face to face,” he began in a distracted tone, “I -could surely induce him to soften these terms.” - -“Let your Majesty put that out of your head,” replied M. Pfingsten -firmly. “The King of Sweden is as hard as one of his northern rocks--his -plainness and his show of courtesy to the vanquished but mask a spirit -without sentiment, a heart without feeling. Count Piper told me that his -preference for Stanislaus Leczinski is but based on his temperate -life--he has given that man a throne merely because he is his own body -servant and sleeps on a straw mattress! He admires nothing but Spartan -virtues and respects nothing but military glory.” - -“Well, then,” cried Augustus, a prey to the most bitter distress and -agitation, “there is nothing for me to do but to sign this cursed -paper!” - -“Your Majesty might strike another blow.” - -“You do not understand my position--the Muscovites have defeated -Mardenfeldt, they cannot defeat Karl--and if they discover that I am in -negotiation with him, they will abandon, if not murder me. You do not -know, Pfingsten, the ferocity of this Mentchikoff or his devotion to his -master. As for my resources,” he added, with a sigh as of one who had -too well calculated, often enough, his hopes and fears, “you know what -they amount to--Saxony is barren both of men and money--Poland lost.” - -“Some help might be hoped for from the Empire, sire.” - -“Not while Austria wars with France.” - -“And surely, sire, the Electorate is not yet exhausted,” protested -Pfingsten. - -“Ravaged by the Muscovites, occupied by the Swedes, what can be hoped -for from my wretched country?” exclaimed Augustus bitterly; he rose, and -thinking of the only friend and confidante he now possessed, he went to -an inner door concealed under a hanging of stamped and gilt leather and -called a woman’s name. - -Aurora von Königsmarck immediately entered the apartment. - -She had remained faithful to this King who was without a throne, men, -money, or friends, perhaps out of compassion, perhaps because she had no -choice of a more glorious destiny; certainly she had accompanied him in -all his flights and battles and distresses as closely as had Katherina -the Czar, though with a colder sympathy and a more disdainful endurance -of evil fortune. She was the only person besides the two envoys who -knew of the embassy to Karl; she had sent even her women away, and was -alone in the apartment of the King. - -“Well?” she demanded dryly, seeing by the Elector’s face that it was -further ill news. - -Her bold glance flickered to M. Pfingsten. - -“You have come on a disagreeable errand, sir,” she remarked, “but these -are disagreeable times.” - -She came, with her quick, graceful walk, to the fireplace, and stood -before the flames looking at the downcast faces of the two men. - -Since she had, in the height of her pride, lowered herself before Karl -XII, she had lost something of her beauty and all of her magnificence. - -Like everything belonging to Augustus, she was tarnished by continual -ill-fortune; nor did she care for the neatness and order possible even -in poverty; she would be either splendid or careless, and disdained -those shifts that labor to cover deficiency with artifice. - -She who had blazed in Dresden as the most gorgeous lady of the court, -now showed in a negligent undress of soiled sprigged silk over a -petticoat of yellow taffetas, with her rich hair fastened in a loose -knot without either art or neatness; her beauty was not of that radiant -youthfulness that can overcome these disadvantages, and she looked as -damaged in her fortunes, as eclipsed in her charms, as was proper to the -favorite of a fallen prince. - -In silence Augustus handed her the letter from Karl. - -He had a great faith in her intelligence, and even now cherished a hope -that her wit would point out some way of escape from his dilemma that -had not occurred to either Pfingsten or himself. - -Aurora read the letter and her nostrils dilated. - -Not Augustus himself knew a bitterer humiliation than she experienced as -she read the conqueror’s terms. - -She hated Karl with all the hatred of which her passionate nature was -capable. - -As he had so easily resisted her fascinations, so rudely refused her -advances, so completely scorned her, she did not regard him as a man, -but as some soulless creature, a werlion or wertiger sent on earth to -plague mankind. - -She fumbled at her laces with a quivering hand and darted a keen glance -at the gloomy countenance of the Elector. - -“Are you going to take these terms?” she demanded impetuously. - -“Do you see anything else for me to do?” asked the disheartened Prince. - -“Nothing a man like you _could_ do,” she replied sharply. - -“Madame,” said M. Pfingsten, “there is the Muscovite army.” - -“But where is the man to lead it?” asked Aurora, with a cruel glance at -Augustus. - -M. Pfingsten was encouraged by her presence, which breathed energy and -vitality. - -“Let your Majesty,” he urged, “tear up that paper--put yourself at the -head of the army now in Varsovia and march on Saxony--there is nothing -more to lose and everything to be gained.” - -“Sir,” said the Countess bitterly, “you discuss expedients only possible -with another prince--and with another prince we should not have been -brought to this pass.” - -Augustus flushed but could find no answer in his own defense. - -“What is it that you propose to do?” she added sharply. - -“To sign that paper and go to Saxony to entreat Sweden to soften these -terms,” replied the unfortunate Elector; he was indeed so absorbed in -the contemplation of his own misery as to hardly wince under Aurora’s -scorn. - -She tapped her foot in an angry silence; she saw this was the fatal way -of weakness, which would have neither the dignity of defiance nor the -advantage of concession, since she knew well enough that Karl would be -merely irritated by any attempt to dispute his terms. - -But she also knew the man with whom she had to deal, and that it was -hopeless to expect even the semblance of heroism from a Prince like -Augustus, overwhelmed by six years of a disastrous war that had stripped -him of everything, even faith in himself. - -“Well, you must sign,” she said. - -There was a little silence, then the Countess added in a hard tone: - -“Mdle. D’Einsiedel came here last night--hurrying from Dresden to beg -for General Patkul’s release.” - -“My God!” broke from Augustus, as he realized the baseness of the action -he contemplated. - -“And she has been to Prince Mentchikoff, who is going to ask for the -Livonian’s release in the name of the Czar.” - -Augustus stood in a wretched silence. - -“I never understood why Patkul was arrested,” continued Aurora, in a -curious tone. - -An uneasy flush stained the Elector’s distressed face; he did not look -up. - -“Was it because you foresaw this emergency?” added the Countess. - -M. Pfingsten was startled to hear her express the same question as had -Karl. - -He knew that General Patkul had been arrested, on some flimsy pretext of -having exceeded his duties, immediately after the Czar’s departure for -Astrakan, and that he had been kept in easy and honorable captivity at -Sonnenstein, but not even when Karl had flung his sneer had he thought -for a moment that there was any connection between the arrest of the -Livonian and the position of Augustus before the conqueror. - -Now, as he heard the sharp words of the Countess and looked at the -stricken figure of Augustus, it occurred to him as at least strange that -the very man, on the surrender of whom depended the peace, should be so -completely in the Elector’s power--so that no warnings by his friends, -no protection from the Czar, his master, could save him from being -delivered to Sweden. - -“If you had not had Patkul at Sonnenstein,” said Aurora, “you could not -have surrendered him to Karl, and there would have been no pacifying -this victor. You are fortunate.” - -Goaded, Augustus turned on her with a flash of impotent anger. - -“You talk so much of General Patkul, Madame--you do not seem to attach -any importance to the fact that I shall have to surrender Poland!” - -It was M. Pfingsten who replied--with great earnestness. - -“Sire, your Majesty, by the fortunes of war, may easily regain the crown -of Poland, but you can never regain what you lose if you surrender -General Patkul.” - -“You are a poor diplomat,” returned the Elector angrily. “Are there not -ways of saving General Patkul? I can appeal to the King of Sweden -personally.” - -His hedging weakness angered Aurora; it was true that she had suggested -the surrender of Patkul and even broached the subject to Karl, but that -had been while there had been something to gain by concession; now that -her side was thoroughly beaten her blood was up, and, if she had been -Augustus, she would have cast Sweden’s terms in his face. Also she was -naturally generous, and once she realized what the delivery of Patkul to -Karl meant she could not put her hand to it; she saw that Augustus would -yield, had always meant to yield, and she despised him for it, as women -will despise men for weaknesses and meannesses of which they are capable -themselves. - -“Very well,” she said, “sign those terms.” - -She came quickly up to him, putting her lovely hand on his brocaded -sleeve. - -“Patkul must escape,” she added, gazing into the trembling face of -Augustus. “Send an order to the Governor of Sonnenstein to let him, -secretly, go at once.” - -Augustus was relieved by this suggestion that seemed to suit both his -convenience and his honor, yet he hesitated; to do this would be to play -a trick on the man on whose mercy his very existence would depend; if -Karl, who would be already sufficiently irritated by the victory of -Kalisz, knew of this fresh attempt to fool him, he would undoubtedly -refuse any possible concession in the harshness of his demands. - -But Aurora had pushed pen and paper under the reluctant hand of -Augustus. - -“He trusted you,” she said, “and to give him to Karl is to give him to a -cruel death.” - -“Sweden might be merciful,” muttered Augustus. - -Aurora ignored this feeble futility and resorted to another argument, -more powerful to influence the distracted Elector than the last. - -“Sire, Prince Mentchikoff will demand Patkul, Mdle. D’Einsiedel will -rouse Russia--better, at least, compromise.” - -Augustus seized the pen and hastily wrote an order for the secret and -immediate release of Patkul; Aurora von Königsmarck took it from him and -left the room. - -Everything was lost, but the brilliant and wayward woman did not think -of that; she went to her bed-chamber, threw on a mantle, and hastened to -a little closet in her suite of apartments, now all dismantled and in -confusion. - -A pale girl stood with locked hands at the window, staring out at the -chill September morning. - -The Countess thrust into her hands the order for General Patkul’s -release. - -“That goes to-day, dear, by our fleetest courier.” In the evening -Augustus signed the terms dictated by Karl XII. - - - - -BOOK VI - -THE BETRAYAL - - “Il y a un vulgaire parmi les princes, comme parmi les autres - hommes.”--VOLTAIRE. - - - - -CHAPTER I - - -Prince Mentchikoff returned at once to Russia to put before the Czar the -new turn of events in Poland. - -Peter was still at Marli, superintending the building of his new capital -which was rising out of the filled dykes and drained marshes of the -desolate flats of the banks of the Neva. - -Mentchikoff was almost beside himself with fury at the news he brought, -but his rage was as nothing beside that of the Emperor. - -Peter glared at his friend with a wrath he could hardly sustain; but -contrary to his use, he made a terrible effort to control himself that -he might hear the tale to the full. - -He had been, at first, vexed at seeing Mentchikoff, thinking that he -should not have left the newly regained Varsovia, but now he admitted -that the Prince had done right to bring news so tremendous himself. - -He sat on a gilt leather arm-chair, in the little front room of his -cottage, dressed in a rough green frieze riding suit, his boots muddy -and a riding switch in his hand; he had just returned from a visit of -inspection of St. Petersburg, where streets, shops, palaces, and -churches were already covering the outlines of the city. - -Mentchikoff stood before him in the rich costume of a Russian general, -European in cut, but Eastern in color and embroidery, a diamond in his -sword hilt, a star on his breast, lace at his throat and wrists. - -His long brown and lean face, with the sharp bright black eyes and thick -lips, was pale with the intense passion of a fierce and uncivilized -nature. - -“This is what he did, Peter Alexievitch! I put him back in Varsovia; he -did not want to give battle at Kalisz--one knows why now! And one -morning he was gone--gone! With his woman and his valets--gone! To -Altranstadt--to the camp of the Swede!” - -“You were properly fooled,” muttered the Czar, in a stifling voice. - -Mentchikoff made not the least attempt to deny this. - -“There was one Pfingsten, one of his Germans, whom he sent to Karl--and -who brought his terms writ on a bit of paper, and he, this cursed -Augustus, signed and fled, to put himself at Karl’s mercy.” - -The Emperor’s eyes showed red, a faint dew besprinkled his forehead, he -bent his whip across his knee till it cracked, then flung it away and -buried his face in his hands, running his fingers into his dusky curls. - -“Mdle. D’Einsiedel came to me, the very day before--for months she had -been trying to find me--to tell me about Patkul. The whole thing was -kept secret, but it seems that he was arrested when you were called to -Astrakan. Of course Augustus knew the Swede would ask for him.” - -“_My_ ambassador--_my_ general!” groaned Peter. - -“When the Elector fled, this lady went back to vantage of his hurried -departure to order at once the release of Patkul, but there was much -delay, he having been moved from Sonnenstein to Königstein; the -messenger reached the governor of this place in time--the Countess von -Königsmarck was very active in this intrigue--but he tried to get -Patkul to pay ransom, knowing of his wealth, and while this argument was -in progress the Swedish officers arrived, and Patkul is now in -Altranstadt, fastened in a cellar with a great iron chain round his -waist.” - -Peter raised his face which was quite distorted, the eyes infected with -blood, the lips livid. - -“May the Devil overtake Augustus and torture him in Hell forever!” he -stammered. “May he be steeped to the lips in sorrow and bitterness, the -vile, false coward.” - -He ceased with a sob of sheer fury; he had always despised Augustus, but -never believed him capable of this; disloyalty and cowardice were the -two unforgiveable crimes in the eyes of the Muscovite; his primitive -nature did not recognize the usual excuses offered by diplomacy for the -actions forced by necessity on states and princes; nothing could -palliate the Elector’s conduct in his eyes; he considered that he had -been treated with black treachery and base ingratitude, and that -Augustus had behaved with the utmost villainy. He certainly was -incapable of such conduct himself; he would have died cheerfully sooner -than submit to an enemy, and though he might punish even his own family -with savage cruelty if he suspected them of treachery, he would never -have deserted a friend or have betrayed an ally. - -Through all the Elector’s misfortunes Peter had been staunch to him, -and, to the best of his ability, held out a helping hand; and when he -remembered that last Conference at Grodno, the amiable flattery of the -Saxon, the mutual promises, the sworn treaties, the vows of friendship -and mutual help against the Swede, and thought how the Elector had taken -advantage of his hurried departure to order at once the arrest of the -man who was a valuable asset in dealing with the enemy, he was shaken by -an excess of fury. - -“Danilovitch!” he cried, “I shall never forgive you that you did not -discover this traitor and bring him in chains to me!” - -“I shall never forgive myself, Peter Alexievitch,” replied the Prince -simply. “But who would have thought of such vileness? He has that smooth -Western way of lies and smiles.” - -“The woman Königsmarck is in this.” - -“I do not think so. I know that she did her best to save Patkul; she has -more courage than he, and I think, more honor. She is a friend, too, of -Mdle. D’Einsiedel--that child will die of this, Peter Alexievitch.” - -“What will they do with Patkul?” asked Peter fiercely. - -“He is to be tried by a council of war. Karl treats him as a rebellious -subject. He will suffer a cruel death.” - -In Karl’s place Peter would have behaved with the same severity; he had -never shown mercy to those whom he judged rebels, and therefore he did -not feel the fury of hate towards Karl that he felt towards Augustus, -but he was conscious of a certain wonder that this young king whom he -had regarded with secret admiration as being much greater than himself, -could indulge in the same bloodthirsty vengeances. - -“Is this Sweden’s famous clemency?” he asked bitterly. “Is he then so -magnificent?” - -He was silent, communing with his own soul; he thought he would have -been more chivalrous than Karl, and not taken advantage of the weakness -of Augustus to demand the surrender of a man in the employ of another -monarch. - -From that moment the cold knightly figure of the Scandinavian, vested -with all the virtues to which he himself might never hope to aspire, was -smirched in the eyes of Peter. - -“The Muscovite prisoners were slain after Fraustadt--by whose orders?” -he said. “And now this. This man is no better than I,” he added, with a -strange simplicity, “and I shall defeat him.” - -Then his thoughts turned to Augustus, and he flashed from brooding into -wrath. - -“How was the Elector received at Altranstadt?” he demanded. - -“The Swede met him privately, they say, and treated him with a cold -civility. Their talk was of trifles, mainly of the boots Karl wore, -which he had never been without, he said, for ten years, save to sleep, -and then Stanislaus Leczinski came, and Augustus had to salute him as -King of Poland.” - -“Is it possible there lives a prince so spiritless!” exclaimed Peter. - -“He must have suffered,” said Mentchikoff with satisfaction. “After -Kalisz Sweden’s terms became harder. Augustus had to send the archives -and State jewels to Stanislaus, cause his name as King of Poland to be -effaced from all documents and monuments, and write a letter of -congratulation to Stanislaus.” - -“And that is the mercy he obtained by throwing himself on the compassion -of Karl!” cried the Russian, “and I was allied with such a prince! What -does he mean to do now?” - -“Karl is supposed to retire from Saxony and leave him in peace,” said -Mentchikoff dryly. “As for the Palatine of Posnania, he has a poor gift -in the throne of Poland--the factious nobles, such as the Sapieha, have -laid waste what the Swedes and your Muscovites have spared. The country -is a smoking ruin.” - -“And that is what the King of Sweden has achieved by his conquest,” said -Peter grimly. “Why does he so favor Stanislaus Leczinski?” - -“No one knows--perhaps because he knows how to flatter him.” - -Peter gave his favorite an ugly look. - -“Do you think that is the sole reason for the friendship of kings?” he -demanded. - -Mentchikoff saw his danger and fell on one knee, kissing passionately -his master’s rough hand; he knew that there is nothing an absolute -prince dislikes more than the insinuation that he is ruled through his -vanity and adroitly influenced by flattery, even though he is seldom -led by any other means or persuasion. - -Peter was mollified by this act of homage. - -“If you flattered me, Danilovitch, I should love you no longer,” he -said. - -“If I had been a flatterer,” replied Mentchikoff, “I should not have -brought you this ill news, Peter Alexievitch.” - -The Czar rose, raising his favorite also to his feet. He did not feel -any ill-will towards the Prince for his failure to detect the secret -negotiations of the Elector; all the force of his ardent soul was -absorbed in fury against his faithless ally. - -“Patkul must be saved,” he said. “Am I to submit to this treatment? I -will appeal to England, to Holland, to the Empire!” - -Mentchikoff did not voice his thoughts, which were that the name of Karl -now sounded so terribly in Europe that it was doubtful if any nation -would dare to interfere with him, besides the fact that the countries -mentioned by Peter were engaged in a costly war with France. - -He frowned at the floor and was silent; he could see no way by which -Peter could come by satisfaction and vengeance save through his own -genius and might. - -“Patkul shall not die,” said Peter. “Karl would not dare.” - -“There are the Swedish prisoners who might be executed in reprisal,” -remarked Mentchikoff. - -This suggestion suited Peter’s breed and training, and, perhaps, his -disposition, but that prudence and foresight that distinguished him from -his predecessors caused him to reject a proposal that was useless and -dangerous. - -“There are more Muscovites in Sweden than Swedes in Muscovy,” he said -grimly. “I will take another vengeance. I will march on Poland.” - -He paused and tore at his neckcloth as if to loosen it and give himself -air. - -“Of all those who joined against Karl, there is only Russia left,” he -added, with a terrible look. “But Russia will defeat him--listen, -Danilovitch, I will not stop until I have crushed him, beaten him, -reduced him, as he has crushed, beaten, and reduced Augustus! And if he -slays Patkul----” - -He paused and added in a low voice: “I loved Patkul.” - -He took a turn about the room in a great and increasing agitation. - -“Seven years have I fought him--with no weapons but those that I could -forge myself well; he had everything to his hand, and he conquered. But -I am ready now. Are not things different, Danilovitch? I have built a -city and a fort, a navy; I have trained an army--can I not defeat Karl -of Sweden?” - -“I never doubted,” replied Mentchikoff, a look of fiery enthusiasm in -his little dark eyes, “that your Majesty would bring down this insolent -braggart.” - -“To break him, Danilovitch!” cried the Czar. “To smash his invincible -armies, to send his veterans flying before me, to make him fly--to drive -him to ruin, to exile, to make the glory of his victories disappear like -smoke before the sun! That would be an achievement, Danilovitch!” - -He paused, exhausted by his own passion, and caught hold of the back of -the chair in which he had been sitting. - -“I did not enter into this war for lust of conquest,” he said, as if -justifying himself, yet with an almost wistful dignity. “Not for hate, -as Denmark did--not for folly, as Saxony did. I wanted my Baltic -ports--the trade, the commerce, the prosperity. No one understands -that.” - -“These things must be fought for, Peter Alexievitch,” replied -Mentchikoff. - -“To that end have I built a navy and trained an army,” said Peter -sternly. “I perceive that I shall get nothing of what I want as long as -Karl of Sweden is master of the North.” - -He sat down again with something of a groan; rage at the defection of -Augustus so consumed him that he could hardly command his thoughts. - -“Sweden does not know,” remarked Mentchikoff, “what he has roused in -Russia. He thinks the Muscovites may be scattered by the whip and are -not worthy of powder and shot--he insults Augustus with impunity because -he does not think that we are to be feared.” - -Peter turned his inflamed eyes towards the dark, pearl-crowned ikon that -hung above the stove. - -“God, help me to do this one thing,” he muttered. “To smite Sweden.” - -His face assumed an expression of dark and lowering anger. - -“If Patkul is slain,” he added. “Now would Sweden dare?” - -Then, with a sudden and entirely unconscious pathos, “Europe will not -listen to me--I am only the Czar of Muscovy. They do not take me as a -power to be reckoned with, Danilovitch.” - -“They do not know you, Peter Alexievitch,” replied Mentchikoff. - -Peter pursued his own train of thought. - -“He breaks all international law--if Patkul had been the envoy of any -other country but Russia the world would have cried out against this -treatment.” - -Despite his passionate nature and his autocratic position he saw -shrewdly enough just how Europe held him. - -“I will make my protest, but who will take any notice of it?” he -continued. - -“Peter Alexievitch, you must make your own protest,” said Mentchikoff, -in an energetic tone. “Cannot you defeat Sweden?” added this fiery -Russian. - -“It has been done,” responded the Czar, with a sudden smile. “You beat -them at Kalisz!” - -He spoke warmly and without a trace of envy of his subject’s success in -a war where he had every time failed himself, thereby, had he known it, -showing himself greater than Karl, who had not been able to restrain his -jealousy on hearing of Mardenfeldt’s victory at Fraustadt. - -With equal generosity and selflessness Mentchikoff replied: - -“I was in a little way the forerunner of you, Peter Alexievitch--when -you strike, Sweden will quiver to the shock!” - -The Emperor fixed on him soft and lustrous eyes, tired and earnest. - -“I must call a council,” he said, “but I know what to do--I will descend -on Poland with my new army. Karl is likely to remain at Altranstadt?” - -“There is no talk of his leaving. The English are sending an envoy to -him--at least a rumor says so.” - -“They are afraid he will fall on the Empire,” said Peter instantly. - -“He will not,” replied Mentchikoff simply. “His design is solely against -Russia.” - -“He troubles himself not at all about the West?” - -“Not at all, I think. He would be Alexander--Saxony is but his -Thrace--Russia must be his Persia, and he thinks all his conquests -little things beside that battle that must be his Gaugamela!” - -“He would dethrone me, and I would break him utterly,” remarked Peter. -“It only is to be seen which is the stronger man.” - -He pressed Mentchikoff’s hand and left the room abruptly, seeking that -comfort which never failed to soothe him in his most gloomy and bitter -moods, Katherina, now his wife. - -He found her in the garden amid the lilac thickets that were just -beginning to be covered with their pale flowers. - -The Livonian peasant girl was now rather stout, heavy and indolent in -habit, slow in her movements, generally silent, with a good-natured -smile on her full lips. - -Her extraordinary elevation had in no way altered her disposition; she -was as unassuming as she had been when she was the servant of -Mentchikoff; she did not mingle in the least in politics of which she -understood nothing, but she was intelligent enough to at least feign an -appreciation of what Peter was trying to do for Russia, and her quiet -sweetness, her placid cheerfulness never grew stale to Peter; he looked -upon her almost as his savior, from the devils of melancholy and horror -that tore at his soul. - -He was not nice in his tastes. Her lack of refinement did not vex him; -her over-blown, untidy beauty still satisfied him, neither her manners -nor her past troubled him; with a certain grandeur he disdained -everything but the fact that she was the one woman he had found wholly -pleasing; she went everywhere with him and knew all his secrets; so far -she had been faithful to him, perhaps because in her heart she was -entirely afraid of him, and, for all her outward calm, very wary. - -The Czar flung himself on the seat she reclined on, and put his arm -round her shoulders, turning her fair countenance, framed in the long, -Russian veil, towards him. - -“Saxony has delivered my Patkul to Sweden!” he said. - -“Alas, poor gentleman!” cried Katherina, in genuine distress. - -Peter kissed her fiercely. - -“What do you think I shall do, my rose?” he asked. - -“Why, rescue him, Peter Alexievitch.” - -“That, if I can--if I am too late--” the veins stood out on his forehead -and a light foam gathered on his lips. “Do you not think I shall avenge -him?” he asked pitifully. - -Katherina answered as if he had been a child. - -“Why, of course,” she said. - - - - -CHAPTER II - - -Europe, absorbed in the war of the Spanish Succession, paid no heed to -the Czar’s bitter protests against Saxony and Sweden, and Patkul was -sent to Kazimicry. - -Peter, with an army of 60,000 trained men, officered by Germans, -obtained secretly from the Emperor of Austria, who was alarmed by the -near approach of the terrible Swede, marched into Poland. - -General Lewenhaupt was not able to guard the entries into this country -which was neither fortified nor united, and the Czar took Lublin which -had been left without a Swedish garrison, and there convoked a Diet on -the model of that of Varsovia, thereby further distracting an already -thrice distracted country. - -Augustus was now as hateful as Stanislaus in the eyes of Peter, and his -project was to give all that the Elector had renounced by the peace of -Altranstadt to a third king; he had in his mind Racoczy, Prince of -Transylvania. - -Russian gold and Russian promises soon gained a powerful faction in -Poland; Peter exerted himself to please. - -His portrait, enriched with diamonds, was presented to the officers who -had fought at Kalisz, and gold and silver medals to the soldiers; it was -the Czar’s great pride to mention that these records of his first -victory had been struck in his new capital. - -The Diet at Lublin, however, distracted by faction and intrigue, fearful -of Sweden and suspicious of the Czar, made little progress towards any -settlement of the affairs of Poland; it would recognize neither -Augustus nor Stanislaus, but was by no means agreed as to the man to put -in the place of these monarchs. Peter, with a slowness that led his -enemy into despising him, remained at Lublin watching these intrigues -and training his army, his sole encounters with the enemy being -skirmishes between wandering parties of Muscovites and detachments of -Lewenhaupt’s Swedes in Livonia and Lithuania; a kind of warfare which -ruined the wretched country without giving any advantage to either side. -Meanwhile the Sapieha and Oginski, again commenced pillaging and -burning, marauding friend and foe alike, causing Karl to send Stanislaus -with General Rehnsköld to Poland to endeavor to reduce these disorders. - -Peter, finding it impossible to maintain an army any longer in a country -so ruined and desolate, and pursuing his waiting policy, left the Diet -of Lublin to their deliberations and fell back on his base in Lithuania, -daily strengthening his forces and filling the courts of Europe with his -plaints against Karl and his demands for the return of Patkul. - -This left Stanislaus sole master of Poland, and the power of Karl was at -its height; his camp at Altranstadt held envoys from all the princes of -Europe, seeking his favor, endeavoring to discover his plans and to gain -his alliance. - -In this moment Karl gave little thought to Peter, save to issue scornful -orders for the suppression of his predatory bands of Tartars and -Cossacks. - -Karl now turned his attention to the Empire, and in revenge for a slight -he thought he had received at the hands of the Emperor’s chamberlain, he -demanded reparation from Joseph in the haughtiest terms, insisting not -only on the banishment of the offending Count Tobar, but on that -nobleman’s delivery into his own hands, and the surrender of the -Muscovite refugees that had escaped over the frontier into Austria. - -This abuse of the law of nations passed without a murmur in Europe, so -powerful was Sweden, as did also Karl’s demand that their ancient -privileges be restored to the Protestants of Silesia. - -Joseph humbled himself as Augustus had done, and the court of Vienna was -as humble as that of Saxony. - -“If the King of Sweden had asked me to turn Lutheran I should have been -obliged to do it,” said the Austrian, in reply to the papal nuncio’s -protests. - -Peter heard these things with outbursts of fury, but continued to accept -the German officers secretly sent him by the feeble Emperor. - -He was in Lithuania, occupying his days with training and hardening his -troops, endeavoring to rouse Europe to save Patkul, and watching the -increasing splendor of his terrible enemy, when Hélène D’Einsiedel, who -had made her way from Dresden amid incredible difficulties, forced her -way into the Czar’s presence and besought him, in the accents of a -creature distracted, to rescue her lover. - -“I am helpless,” said Peter, with a dreadful look at the livid face of -the wretched girl. - -“He will be executed--in the most horrible way,” whispered Hélène. “We -were to have been married this autumn.” - -“Child,” said the Czar kindly, “I have done what I could. I do not need -a woman to urge me to this duty.” He looked away from where she knelt, -huddled on the dirty floor at his feet, in her dusty traveling dress, -all grace and beauty crushed out of her. “I will break Sweden,” he -added. - -“What is that to me,” cried Hélène, “if Patkul dies?” - -“Would it not be something,” asked Peter, “to have revenge?” - -She appeared not to hear him; her distraught mind was concentrated on -one thing only that was stronger than her fatigue or her despair--the -effort to save Patkul. - -“Cannot you, who are an Emperor, do this?” she implored. - -Peter turned fiercely to Mentchikoff. - -“Take away this woman,” he said, “I cannot endure it.” - -The shuddering creature staggered to her feet before the officers could -touch her, and flung out her poor, feeble hands with a shriek. - -“They will break him on the wheel!” she wailed. “Oh, let me die first!” - -Peter had looked on many frantic women before, and heard similar words -often enough. The wives, mothers and sisters of the Strelitz executed in -the Red Square, many of them by Peter’s own hand, had comported -themselves in similar fashion, mad with grief and horror, and he had -given them never a glance, yet the anguish of this fond creature, who -had traveled so far and through such perils that she was half-crazed -with terror and fatigue, to demand a protection it was out of his power -to bestow, moved him terribly; he could not bear to look on her, and she -was forced from his presence and given to the charge of the servants who -had come with her on this desperate journey. - -“Let Katherina go to her,” muttered the Czar. “Katherina has a gentle -mind and a soothing tongue.” - -For himself he sought Mentchikoff, that firm and tireless friend. - -Throwing an old mantle about his shoulders, for this autumn was -unusually chill, even for the North, he mounted his great, rough horse -and rode to the quarters of the Prince that were far more comfortable -than his own. - -He was humiliated and struck to the heart; with an impatience and gloomy -bitterness he eyed his huge encampment; what use was it to train these -men who fled at the very name of the King of Sweden? What good his -pains, his example, his rewards, his punishments, to mold a nation -uncivilized in every art and science? - -The reactionary party was still at work; there were eager hands ready to -undo his every reform; his heir, son of the repudiated Eudoxia, was a -weakling, none of the children of Katherina, his chosen woman, had -lived. - -Almost his task seemed too great for the Russian; the war had been long -and entirely disastrous; if it had taught him the art of war, it had -done so in lessons rude and bitter. - -His allies had fallen away from him; his enemy was in every way -triumphant, had eclipsed his glory, dimmed his rising renown, made him -and his attempts at greatness a laughing-stock. - -Europe would not even listen to him when he complained of Karl’s breach -of international law and demanded his ambassador; instead they sent -their representatives to do homage to the conqueror in his camp. The -Emperor of Austria cringed, Europe was at the feet of this young man--in -truth a second Alexander, who had but to decide in which direction his -further glory should lie; and no one troubled about Muscovy and its -passionate ruler, so fiercely trying to educate his country into some -semblance of his ambitious dreams. - -“Sweden blocks me,” said Peter to Mentchikoff. “He must go, or all we -have done is in vain. He stops my progress, Danilovitch; he wants to -pull down, I to build. What am I to do--it seems that he is invincible.” - -He spoke without malice or hate now, only with a sadness that was -wistful in its sincerity. - -“And Patkul!” he added. “Patkul will be broken, Danilovitch.” - -“I would we could break Augustus,” said the Prince. - -“With my own hands,” remarked the Czar, “I would put him to the torture. -That little thing came from Dresden to ask me to save Patkul--and I can -do nothing!” - -It was the bitterest mortification to which he had ever been subject in -a life full of vicissitudes; Mentchikoff knew it and scowled; he could -not endure to glance at the cruel position in which his adored master -found himself; his own whole being was absorbed in a deep hatred of -Augustus and the Swede. - -But he had a greater faith in Peter than Peter had himself; the Czar -might be torn with doubts and fears, but the subject was certain of the -ultimate downfall of the Swede. - -Peter, with an effort, it seemed, to shake off the gloom that was -settling on him, asked Mentchikoff for a certain Pole who had been -employed as a spy in the camp at Altranstadt, and who had lately -returned to Lithuania. - -“I would like to see him,” said the Czar somberly. - -“But he knows nothing,” replied Mentchikoff; “nothing--I have already -examined him.” - -“He knows,” returned Peter, “something of the life of the King of -Sweden--bring him here, Danilovitch.” - -Mentchikoff was reluctant to do this; he felt that it was morbid for -Peter to be so interested in the habits of his rival and a certain -slight to his own dignity, but he did not dare refuse, and the Pole, a -tall, thin fellow with red eyes and sandy hair, was brought before the -Emperor. Peter eyed him gloomily. - -“Prince Mentchikoff tells me that you discovered nothing at -Altranstadt,” he said. - -“Sire,” replied the Pole, with a movement as if he would prostrate -himself before the Czar, “how can one discover the secrets of a King who -has no confidants?” - -“I think he has no secrets either,” remarked Peter, “his design is clear -enough. He wishes to dethrone me.” - -“Yet that is not clear, sire,” answered the spy earnestly. “All the -princes of Europe have envoys at his camp trying to find out his plans, -each begging for his favor and alliance. And he is dumb to all.” - -The Czar glanced at his friend. - -“A proud position, Danilovitch!” he said. “A proud position!” - -“They wonder,” resumed the spy, eager to show that he had not been -altogether useless, “why he lingers so long in Saxony--there are many -comments as to that. He cannot,” added the Pole, who knew that he might -safely speak of the humiliation of Augustus to Peter, “further lower the -Elector who has even written a letter of congratulation to Stanislaus -Leczinski.” - -“May every ill overtake him for it!” exclaimed Peter in a loud voice, -and with a suffused face. - -“He has even, sire, had the mortification of having to deliver his -favorite, General Fleming, to the King of Sweden who claims him as his -subject, and only the entreaties of Stanislaus Leczinski stayed Karl -from putting him to death.” - -Peter was not interested in General Fleming, and was impatient of -hearing of what he considered further vileness on the part of the -Elector, whom he regarded as one dead and damned--no longer to be taken -into account, and only to be remembered to have his memory cursed. - -“Tell me how the King of Sweden lives,” he demanded, fixing his soft, -dark, bloodshot eyes on the ferret-like face of the spy. - -“Sire--as he has always done--he is the worst housed, the worst served -and fed in his army. He never touches wine, and his food is plain and -scanty, his bed a straw pallet. It is his pleasure to inure himself to -every kind of fatigue and hardship. He rides out three times a day, and -has no amusements or diversions of any kind.” - -Peter looked at Mentchikoff, regardless of the presence of the Pole. - -“Think what a man I could be, Danilovitch!” he cried enviously, “could I -so control myself!” - -“Peter Alexievitch,” replied the Prince hotly, “do you seek to compare -yourself with this hard, heartless automaton?” - -“It is a wonderful thing,” insisted the Czar, “for a man to be so master -of himself.” - -“It is their manner in Scandinavia,” said Mentchikoff. “They have few -passions and dull appetites. But Karl boasts himself too soon if he -would be above humanity--he takes his revenge on Patkul!” - -The spy glanced furtively at the two Russians, not himself daring to -enter on ground so delicate. - -“Where is he better than us wretched mortals in that?” added the -hot-hearted Prince. - -“Indeed,” said the Pole, “he is quite hard in these things. He has never -been known to grant mercy to those who offend him. There was a Livonian -officer captured and sent to Sweden, sire, and there in Stockholm judged -and condemned to death. The King would not listen to any entreaties, but -this soldier persuaded the Swedes that he knew the secret of the -philosopher’s stone, and the Queen-Mother sent to the camp to know if -she might offer pardon to the man in exchange for his secret. But the -King replied that he could not do for interest what he had refused to do -for compassion. And the officer was beheaded.” - -Peter had listened intently, his eyes full of a dark fire. - -“Did the King believe that the man knew how to make gold?” he asked -keenly. - -“Sire, it is said that he did,” replied the Pole, “for a pure bar of -gold was sent him that the prisoner had made in his cell before the -Swedish councilors.” - -“Then,” exclaimed the Czar, “this action shows a certain grandeur in -him!” - -But Mentchikoff was quick to seize on another aspect of the tale. - -“Did you say this fellow was beheaded?” - -“Yes, excellency.” - -“And Patkul is to be broken on the wheel--and his crime is equal to that -of this man. Where is the grandeur in that, Peter Alexievitch? Not the -offense but the man is punished by this cruel sentence.” - -At this mention of his unfortunate general, Peter’s brow darkened again. - -“Whether such a man as this is to be respected or not, I cannot say--but -he is to be feared, Danilovitch!” - -The Czar then turned abruptly to the spy. - -“Is there no whisper in Altranstadt as to Sweden’s future designs?” he -asked. - -“Sire, there are many whispers. He has sent envoys into Persia and -India. The Sultan has sent an ambassador to him returning the Swedish -prisoners who fled into Turkey; his officers have always boasting -stories on their lips of what he will accomplish.” - -“And they are right!” exclaimed Peter. “What may not this man, -twenty-five, hardy, fearless, never defeated, and whose feats of arms -have astonished the world, expect to achieve?” - -“Nothing that you cannot thwart him in,” replied Mentchikoff, who did -not like his master’s attitude of admiration for his enemy. - -The Czar took no notice of this remark but continued to question the -spy. - -“He never looks at women, this Swede? There is no one who influences -him?” - -“No one, sire. For him it seems as if women did not exist. When he is -forced to meet them he treats them with a freezing coldness--and avoids -them when he can. They say he favored one woman when he was in -Stockholm, but she died soon after he left for the war.” - -“Indeed,” said the Emperor, who could hardly conceive of a life of such -austerity, “if he has never been drunk or in love or in a passion, he is -hardly human--and the more dangerous.” - -“He is neither invulnerable nor invincible,” remarked Mentchikoff. - -Peter suddenly flashed him a warm smile. - -“You are jealous for my dignity, Danilovitch,” he said. “I love you for -it. And it is true that I am not defeated yet, nor old nor sick, and I -have still to try conclusions with the Swede. Twenty times has he driven -me out of Poland--and twenty times have I returned.” - -But his heart was not as brave as his words; despite himself his -continued ill-success had induced in him a conviction of the -invincibility of Karl whom he admired for possessing all the qualities -he would have wished for in his own character, and whose glory, now at -its most dazzling height, a little blinded the eyes of Peter. He alone -knew the magnitude of the task that he had undertaken, the chaos of his -armies, and the factions in his court and among his people. - -Not even Mentchikoff could gauge the difficulties on which Peter labored -on that long hard road, unenlivened by any success or encouragement, -which he had set himself to travel. - - - - -CHAPTER III - - -If the splendor of Karl’s achievements dazzled even Peter, to the rest -of the world it was indeed overwhelming. - -This monarch, still in the first flower of his youth, found himself in a -position unique in the history of the modern world. - -Louis XIV had begun his reign by conquests perhaps as considerable, but -his victories had been won by proxy; his cause was not so fine nor his -behavior so remarkable, and his vanity had taken a form more ordinary, -his pride had assumed the proportions to which men are most accustomed. - -But both the achievements and the character of Karl were extraordinary; -his victories were owing to his personal genius, the discipline of his -army to his own efforts, the austere behavior of his men, so rare in the -soldiers of a conquering army, to his own example. - -There was no danger or hardship that he had not shared with his meanest -soldier, and if they did not cherish that warm devotion for him that men -have felt for leaders more human in their weaknesses, at least they -accorded him an awed respect that did not permit them to murmur at his -most severe regulations. - -They had come, too, to believe that while under his leadership they were -invincible, the one reverse they had received having taken place while -he was absent; they told each other that Mentchikoff would never have -beaten the Swedes at Kalisz had they been commanded by Karl; in his -heart Peter had thought the same. - -The summer was waning, and still Karl remained at Altranstadt; Count -Piper, now become a feeble and sickly man through the effect of a -sudden illness, watched with a dull, half-cynical eye the glory of his -master, and his place was largely taken by Baron Görtz, the -grand-marshal of the Bishop of Lubeck, whose daring spirit and military -enthusiasms entirely suited the peculiar temperament of the King. - -Stanislaus now reigned in Poland with as much security as was possible -to one who owed his elevation to a whim of fortune, and who ruled a -country so torn and exhausted by war; he had been recognized by the -leading courts of Europe, including that of Dresden, and in this -direction at least the ambition of Karl was satisfied. - -Among those who came to Altranstadt to endeavor to discover the policy -or gain the alliance of the redoubtable conqueror who had just humbled -the Empire was a man whose fame as a captain had rivaled that of Karl, -though in all save military genius he was different from the Swede. - -This was the English general, John, Duke of Marlborough, sent by the -English Government to sound Karl on the likelihood of his joining the -war of the Spanish Succession, either for or against the allies. - -This the Duke, as able a diplomat as he was a soldier, hoped to discover -by proposing Karl as a mediator between the allies of France, a design -that he thought would flatter the King into disclosing his real -intentions. - -Karl, who had treated with a cold indifference the other ambassadors and -plenipotentiaries who had waited on him, showed some eagerness to meet -this man who had never fought a battle that he had not won, nor besieged -a town he had not taken, and whose brilliant genius had broken the -mighty power of France. - -The Duke himself had applied to the Baron Görtz for an audience, and by -him and the English minister was taken to Karl’s plain and severe -quarters at Leipzig, where he then was. - -The King received him in a small room without hangings or carpets, and -with no furniture save a few chairs and a table of bare wood; he had -with him Count Piper, who looked ill and vexed; the minister was -prejudiced against the Englishman because he had applied to Görtz -instead of to himself for this audience. - -The Duke of Marlborough entered with a light step the poorest royal -chamber he had ever seen, and saluted Karl with a courtier’s bow; these -two remarkable captains faced each other with a flash of curiosity that -for a second obscured all other matters. - -The Duke was then nearly sixty years of age, but still of an unusual -handsomeness and an infinite grace in his person; he was attired in the -extreme of the fashion, black velvet brocade, white satin waistcoat -flourished in colored silks, a rich Mechlin cravat and ruffles, a black -satin cravat and a diamond buckle, a long curling peruke framing his -worn, charming, and vivacious face. - -He was both perfumed and powdered, and carried an elegant little sword -with brilliants in the hilt. - -The interest died from Karl’s blue eyes and a look of cold disgust took -its place; the Englishman was not the Swede’s idea of a warrior. Nor was -Karl in his old jackboots, worn blue great-coat with the rubbed leather -buttons, his black taffeta stock and soiled leather gloves, his stiff -air and ungracious look, the Englishman’s idea of a King. - -Karl wore a light peruke and a three-cornered hat; his face was -impassive and cold, and he gave a bare salute in return for the Duke’s -greeting. - -Marlborough was not in the least disconcerted. He had the perfect ease -of manner born of long acquaintance with princes and rulers, and was an -adept in dealing with all manner of men. - -He was as ready with his opening compliment as if he had met with a -gracious reception. - -“Sire,” he said in French, “I should be happy if I could learn under -your orders what I do not know of the art of war.” - -Karl received this in a freezing silence; it was the type of flattery -that he most disliked, and he had taken a complete aversion to the -elegance of the great Englishman’s appearance and to his courtier-like -manners. - -Marlborough, in no way discomposed, entered agreeably into further -compliments, since it seemed that it was he who must make the -conversation. - -He spoke in French, and Karl, who knew this language but would never use -it, replied in Swedish, of which tongue the Duke was wholly ignorant. - -The English minister interpreted, and the conversation on general topics -became slow and fatiguing. The English envoy was not in any way thrown -out by this. - -He wished to discover if Karl was likely to interfere in the war between -France and the allies; he was dangerously near and had severely treated -the Emperor, the most doubtful member of the league against Louis XII. - -This object the Duke believed he could attain by merely watching the -King of Sweden. - -Karl, who knew his design, and disdained all those whom he thought were -wanting his favor or alliance, broached the subject with a cold -bluntness. - -“I wonder your grace takes the trouble to concern yourself in this -affair. I gave my word seven years ago not to meddle in this war.” - -Marlborough bowed gravely; he did not believe that anyone would -sacrifice power and interest to their word; he was too well used to the -ways of princes to be greatly impressed by what Karl said. - -Perfectly at his ease and with a charming smile he studied this -imperious boy who had put Northern Europe under his foot. - -With that graceful composure so natural to him he began to talk of the -war with France, naming some of the victories of the allies. - -Karl could not listen without interest to any matter connected with -military affairs, and he had a natural prejudice against the French, so -he remained silent, resting his hands on the hilt of his great plain -heavy sword that he held in front of him, and followed with attention -what the Duke was saying. - -But he was as impervious to the charm of Marlborough as he had been to -that of Aurora von Königsmarck. - -Marlborough, who was used to swaying men and exercising a strong -personal influence, soon perceived this. - -“Sire,” he said suddenly, his fine eyes keen, alert, and slightly -amused, “why do I speak of these things to one who has accomplished so -many greater ones? Your Majesty, who has already dethroned one King, and -will another----” - -Karl’s eyes suddenly lit. - -“Whom do you think I shall dethrone, my lord?” he asked, and signed to -M. Robinson, the English minister, to quickly interpret his question. - -“So you are human,” thought Marlborough. - -“Sire,” he said aloud, “I was meaning the Czar of Muscovy.” - -Now there was no mistaking the fire that leapt into the cold eyes of -Karl; he would not answer, but Marlborough read him plainly. - -There was a little map of Muscovy, in colored paints, lying on a table -by the window, and the Duke glanced at it as he spoke again. - -“There can be no doubt,” he continued, “that your Majesty’s task will be -as glorious as it will be tremendous.” - -When this was translated to Karl he turned imperiously to M. Robinson. - -“Tell the Duke,” he said, “that my designs are not disclosed even to my -intimates.” - -This was a little softened in the translation, but Marlborough was fine -enough to catch the full meaning of the words. - -He was quite indifferent to this rude rebuff; he had discovered all he -wished to know and continued to discuss indifferent matters, soon -taking his leave, nor did Karl seek to detain him, but most coldly -accepted his adieux. - -As the two Englishmen went away in Baron Görtz’s carriage, Marlborough -whispered to the other: - -“We need not trouble at all about that young mad-man--his one design is -to dethrone the Czar--God help him!” he added, taking a pinch of snuff. - -“Your grace thinks he will not succeed?” asked the English minister, who -was secretly impressed by Karl’s immense success and inclined to believe -him invincible. - -“My dear Robinson,” replied the Duke suavely, “these heroes who feed on -military glory are bound to die of hunger some day.” - -With which remark Marlborough, who was quite satisfied now that Karl -would never trouble Western Europe, dismissed the famous captain from -his thoughts. - -Meanwhile Count Piper, left alone with the King, for Baron Görtz had -retired with the Englishmen, turned to Karl and asked his opinion of the -great Duke. - -The King seemed to have forgotten his presence, for he had not spoken -during the interview, and turned to him with something of a start, as if -absorbed in dreams. - -“What do I think of my Lord Marlborough?” he repeated; then he dismissed -the Englishman with nearly as few words as the Englishman had dismissed -him. “I do not think that he has the air of a warrior.” - -“He is very pleasant,” remarked Count Piper, in a quiet tone that might -have been sarcastic, “and so is Baron Görtz.” - -“Ah!” exclaimed the King, with a sharp look. “You do not like him.” - -With that Karl paused; he was just enough to know that Piper had no -cause to like the younger man who was supplanting him and whose views -were so opposed to his own. - -“Count,” he added, “I have always honored you and always shall. If I -have not always taken your advice I have at least respected you for -giving it--but I am one who goes his own way. As for Baron Görtz, he is, -and will be, what you are not, and will not be, my tool.” - -This was a long speech for Karl to make and he was suddenly silent, as -if he already repented having said so much and so exposed his feelings. - -Count Piper flushed; he knew that by these words the King had paid him -the greatest compliment and the greatest kindness that he was capable -of, and that he need look for no further recognition from his master. - -He had long ceased to care much what Karl did and entirely to cease to -hope to influence him; he could smile now at himself for ever supposing -that he could have done anything with this young man, or moved him by -means of Viktoria Falkenberg. - -He felt himself to be a man whose strength and position were both almost -lost, and he was, perhaps, a little indifferent now to what had gone to -make his life, but, for the last time, he resolved to sound the mind of -the King--on two matters that he, Piper, had much at heart. - -“Sire,” he said quietly, “all these princes and potentates come here -with one object--to discover your Majesty’s future designs.” - -“Yes,” answered Karl, “and you know better than any man that I have -disclosed these to no one.” - -“I do not seek,” replied the minister, “to endeavor to force your -Majesty’s confidence.” - -“But you want to know something,” remarked the King, with his sudden, -ugly smile. - -“Yes.” - -“Well?” - -Count Piper gave the King a straight look. - -“I want to know if your Majesty has any thought of returning to -Stockholm,” he said, and he could not keep a certain earnestness from -his tone. - -“That thought is ever uppermost in your mind,” replied Karl, not -unpleasantly. - -“It is seven years since you left your capital, sire.” - -“Well?” - -“Sweden needs her ruler.” - -“Sweden is well governed.” - -“Not by her monarch.” - -“I do better things than govern Sweden,” replied the King haughtily. - -“Ah, sire--these conquests cannot, will not, benefit Sweden. The scope -of the war was attained years ago.” - -Karl was silent; he narrowed his cold blue eyes and stared at the grave -face and commonplace figure of his minister. - -“And now you would risk all in a campaign against Russia.” - -“Risk?” exclaimed Karl. - -“There is a risk, sire.” - -Karl smiled contemptuously. - -“And if you lose, it will be disaster for Sweden,” added the Count. - -“If I lose?” repeated the King, with rising wrath. “Do you not know that -it is impossible for me to lose?” - -“Ah, sire!” murmured the minister sadly. - -Karl suddenly laughed, throwing back his head and showing his fierce -white teeth. - -“You think that the Czar of Muscovy can defeat _me_!” he said. - -The minister answered: - -“Marlborough thinks that you attempt the impossible, sire.” - -The King was really angry now. - -“What does Marlborough know of my designs?” he demanded. - -“It is the common thought that you march on Russia.” - -Karl rose with an impatient movement. - -“Let be this matter,” he said sharply. “What I do, I do, and am -accountable to no one.” - -This was what the Count had expected; he bowed gravely. - -He felt a sad certainty that the next subject he had to broach would be -received with even more displeasure by the King; he resolved that it -should not be on his conscience that he had not made the attempt. - -“I would presume to ask one other thing,” he said, with a certain -effort. - -“Ask what you will,” replied the King, who had now regained his icy -composure, “but it is useless, Count, to touch on my future designs.” - -“I would only speak on a small subject, sire--that of Patkul.” - -The King flashed him an ugly glance. - -“What of Patkul?” he asked, in a cruel voice. - -“Will not your Majesty think again of your orders to the -court-martial--that he is to be tried and executed with the utmost -severity?” - -Karl was silent. - -“That means,” continued the Count, “that he will be broken on the wheel -and quartered alive.” - -“You speak for a rebel?” demanded the King. - -“Other rebels have received a death less cruel--might not your Majesty -show the same mercy to Patkul?” - -“You know in what he has offended me, Count Piper.” - -“Therefore I ask your Majesty to be lenient. The man is brave--he has -served his own country--he is not a Swede--he was to have been married -this autumn. Let him die without torture.” - -The King’s face was ugly to look upon. - -“It is such a chance for your Majesty,” urged the minister. - -“A chance?” - -“To show the world that you disdain a vengeance only worthy of the Czar -of Muscovy.” - -“You are a sick man and I forgive you,” replied Karl, “but speak no more -of this affair if you wish ever to come into my presence again.” - - - - -CHAPTER IV - - -Karl, having sufficiently humiliated the Emperor and Augustus, and -having firmly established Stanislaus on the uneasy throne of Poland, had -no longer any need to prolong his stay in Saxony, and began that autumn -of 1707 to make preparations for his departure. - -At this moment everything seemed possible to him; no one knew what -project he might have in mind or to what enterprise he might be -directing his genius. - -He had already threatened the Pope, who had interfered with the -Emperor’s signing of the treaty in favor of the Silesians, which Karl -had wrung from him, and it was considered possible that he might -meditate a descent on Italy by way of Persia and Turkey. - -All the nations regarded him with terror and admiration, and most -trembled as they noticed his preparations for departure from the country -where he had completely triumphed over all his enemies. - -His spirits rose as the time came for him to leave Saxony where he had -been idle a year; even his own generals did not know what his -destination was. - -“Give me,” he said to one of these, “the route from Leipzig to----” - -Here he paused, not wishing to betray his secret, and added with a -laugh--“to all the capitals of Europe.” - -This was brought him; at the top of the list was _route to Stockholm_ in -large letters. - -Karl saw the meaning; he knew that the Swedes were longing to return -home. - -“I see,” he said, “where you would lead me--but we do not return to -Sweden so soon.” - -A few days after the army was in marching order, and proceeded through -Saxony towards Dresden. - -The forces of Karl consisted of 43,000 men, 8,500 cavalry, 19,200 foot, -and 16,000 dragoons. - -All the regiments were complete, and to many of them were attached -supernumeraries. These did not complete the resources of Karl; he had an -army of 20,000 men in Poland, under Lewenhaupt, 15,000 men in Finland, -and new recruits were on their way from Sweden. - -Karl had the satisfaction of hearing that on the first rumor of his -approach the Muscovites in Lithuania, where the Czar was endeavoring to -regain some of the ground Augustus had abandoned, had fled to Grodno, a -hundred leagues from Lublin. - -As the army approached the capital of Saxony, Karl, who always rode a -few paces in front of his guard, galloped off with a few of his -officers, giving no one a hint of his design, and throwing the whole -army into consternation by his sudden disappearance. - -The whim had taken him to visit Augustus, and within an hour of his -leaving the army he had presented himself at the private apartments of -the Elector, leaving his officers below. - -Augustus was then in his bed-chamber, in poor health and melancholy -humor, lounging in a white brocade dressing-gown by the wood fire, while -Aurora von Königsmarck, who had recovered something of her ancient -splendor, but who was also negligently gowned in pink taffetas, frothed -the chocolate over a silver lamp. - -Count Fleming, the Elector’s minister, had seen the King enter the town, -and had rushed to advise his master; but Karl, who had entered the gates -under an assumed name, and passed as a member of the King’s guard, was -before him, and had entered the chamber of Augustus before that prince -knew that he was in the town. - -Augustus vested himself in haste, being utterly bewildered and amazed. - -“The King of Sweden in my ante-chamber!” he kept saying. - -Aurora was deeply angry. - -“He comes to exult over you,” she said. “Before he goes on fresh -conquests he wishes to satisfy himself with the sight of the King he has -discrowned.” - -“It will give me an opportunity to speak for Patkul,” said Augustus. -“Surely he will not refuse me that favor.” - -“He will,” replied the Countess, “but he is in your power.” - -“Bah!” said the Elector, annoyed at this womanish point of view, “I am -in his.” - -Aurora could hardly restrain her impatient scorn; every time, according -to her ideas, that Augustus was called upon to show strength, he showed -weakness; she had long ceased to feel either affection or respect for -the Elector, and in secret scorned herself for the love of comfort and -luxury that induced her to stay with him, and accept the tarnished -splendor Augustus had secured by the treaty of Altranstadt. - -She had felt keenly the failure of her ruse to secure the release of -Patkul; day and night she was haunted by the last glimpse she had had of -Hélène D’Einsiedel, as, half-crazed by horror and fear, she had set out -on her wild journey to the Russian camp. - -“You could keep him,” she persisted. “It was one of his madman’s whims -to come.” - -“He has an army, an invincible army, at the gates,” replied Augustus. - -“Ah, you have not the courage,” replied the Countess, who had become -sharp-tongued in adversity. “But why do I speak to you? If you had had -courage you never would have signed the peace.” - -“God save me from your railing!” replied the harassed Elector. “Between -you and the King of Sweden I have had a merry life these last seven -years!” - -Aurora shrugged the fair shoulders that rose out of her ruffled lace -gown, and flung herself into a chair. - -“At least endeavor to save Patkul,” she said bitterly. - -She suddenly turned and looked at him over her shoulder, her beautiful -eyes fierce. - -“If Patkul dies--_that way_,” she flung out, “I shall never forgive -you.” - -The Elector did not answer; hastily dressed and red in the face he flung -open the folding doors that led into the room where the King of Sweden -waited. - -Strangely out of place in this chamber of gilt and satin, with the -rose-wreath cupids painted on panels and ceiling, the ormolu tables and -bric-a-brac of china and silver, looked the stern figure of the Swede. - -His worn high boots were covered with road dust; his attire, plain as -that of the trooper he had represented himself to be at the gates, set -off his tall, robust figure; his hands, in the long elbow gloves, were -clasped about the handle of his heavy sword; his light peruke was held -back by a black ribbon, and his hat hung on the back of the chair. - -He arose as Augustus entered, and gave him a brief salutation. - -“I did not think that your Majesty would have thus far honored me,” -stammered the Elector, flushing deeper. - -“I could not leave your Highness’s country without coming to bid you -farewell,” returned Karl calmly. - -He showed no trace of triumph over, or sympathy with, the man he had -discrowned; his manner was that of one casual acquaintance with another. - -“I would like to see your fortifications,” he added, and a flicker of -his unpleasant smile crossed his calm face. - -Augustus had to make an effort to preserve his equanimity; the -humiliations forced on him by Karl were too recent and too bitter even -for one of his good nature to endure without fierce resentment. - -But he knew that Karl, though seemingly in his power, had an army at the -gates that could reduce his capital to submission in a few hours. - -Also, all that was best in him longed to redeem the shameful delivery of -Patkul into the hands of Karl, and he thought this was an opportunity to -ask this one favor that the King of Sweden could scarcely refuse. - -The conversation became forced and general; the Elector invited Karl to -dine with him and the offer was accepted. - -Augustus and Count Fleming sat down to table with Karl and his general, -and some sort of conversation, embarrassed on the part of the Saxons, -and indifferent on the part of the Swedes, took place. - -The Conqueror ate bread and drank water, and Augustus drank heavily of -every wine that was offered to him, to give himself courage for the -coming interview with Karl, in which he would ask the life of Patkul. - -The meal being over the Elector conducted the Swedes round the -fortifications, and while the King was a little ahead took occasion to -ask General Hord, one of the Swedish officers, if he thought his master -would grant him a favor. - -“I think,” added Augustus, “that he will not refuse a small request to a -man from whom he has taken a crown.” - -“What is this small request of your Highness?” asked General Hord dryly. - -Augustus flushed; his whole position was one of cruel humiliation, and -he liked the Swedish officers little better than he liked their master. - -“I want the life of General Patkul,” he replied, with an air as easy as -he could manage. “I hardly think,” he added, with a forced smile, “that -your master will refuse me.” - -“You do not know him,” replied the Swede dryly. “He will certainly -refuse you.” - -“Why?” demanded the unfortunate Elector, with some sharpness. - -“First, because it is you want a boon that he will grant no one.” - -The Elector could not refrain from a bitter retort to this brusque -statement. - -“Is then the King of Sweden so cruel?” - -“Sir,” said the Swede, “he is just. Patkul is a traitor.” - -“Will not an easier death content your master?” asked Augustus. - -“You will find that he will alter nothing,” smiled General Hord. - -The Elector, however, could not believe that Karl could be so deaf to -all promptings of clemency, chivalry, and courtesy. - -“He is my guest,” he urged. - -“For that very reason he will refuse you more certainly. The fact that -he is nominally in your power will make him scornful of any concession -to you. He will also disdain to accord any favor to you that he would -not give to anyone else.” - -But Augustus was not convinced, and if he had been, possessed sufficient -nobleness to persist in his endeavor to save Patkul. - -When they returned to the palace he opened the subject, nervously, but -with a certain dignity. - -“I regard myself as doubly fortunate in this visit, as I have something -on my mind and conscience to put before your Majesty.” - -Karl gave him one darting glance, then seated himself, resting his -gloved hands on the plain hilt of his sword. - -He had flung off his hat, and his eyes shone cold and clear beneath the -straight fair brows and smooth low forehead, shaded by the curls of his -light peruke. - -Seen thus, in perfect composure and repose, the face was beautiful, -marred only by the slight overfullness of the lips and the little ugly -twist of them, half a smile, defects not noticeable in his extreme -youth, but now becoming permanent. His complexion, despite his outdoor -life, looked fair and clear as a woman’s above the black satin stock, -and there was no line or shade of thought or emotion to soften or -enlighten those cold and noble features. - -Augustus, richly though carelessly dressed, his soft handsome features -disturbed and harassed in expression, and worn with anxiety and -sickness, his laced and brocade clothes hanging loosely on the powerful -figure that had lost so much of its strength, was in piteous contrast -to the man who had ruined him so completely and steeped him in such -utter humiliation. - -“I think we have done with matters of business,” Karl reminded him. “I -came as one prince taking farewell of another; would it not be as well -for us to leave our meeting at this friendly point?” - -This was clearly meant as a warning, but Augustus would not take it; he -turned pale, and took a rapid step across the room; his heart swelled -and his pleasant eyes darkened with the inner emotion he kept in check. - -“It is against my conscience to remain silent on this matter,” he said. - -“Your conscience, Highness?” repeated Karl, without changing a muscle of -his face or altering a tone of his voice, yet conveying, by the very -impassivity of his attitude, unspeakable contempt for the man who had -been beaten into signing the peace of Altranstadt. - -Augustus flung up his head. - -“I wish, I must,” he replied, “speak on a delicate matter--one that I -shame to mention, one in which I am at the mercy of your Majesty.” - -“Ah!” exclaimed Karl, as if he suddenly saw what was coming. - -“I mean to speak of General Patkul,” said the Elector, steadily but -hoarsely. - -“You will speak in vain,” answered the King of Sweden, with the utmost -coldness. - -“I cannot think so, sire. I appeal to your chivalry, your clemency, to -have mercy on this man--and mercy on me,” added the wretched Elector, -clutching his hands in his ruffles. “If Patkul dies I am ashamed before -the world.” - -“Did you not think of that when you signed the peace?” demanded Karl -harshly. - -“Sire, is there any need to thus humiliate me?” - -“Humiliate _you_?” replied Karl, with the slightest possible stress on -the last word. - -The blood flamed into the Elector’s thin cheeks. “Sire, we are cousins,” -he said passionately. - -“Did you remember that our mothers were sisters when you plotted with -Patkul to seize my Baltic Provinces?” demanded the King. - -He spoke with the utmost calm, and with an air of moderation, but he -contrived to emphasize the fact that the relationship to which the -Elector had referred was on the female side only. - -“I belong to my father’s family,” he added, in a fashion that showed -contempt for all women. - -Augustus did not know in what way to appeal to this icy character, this -stern, harsh demeanor. - -“I am at your mercy,” he repeated in desperation, “a fallen and a ruined -man. Your vengeance should be satisfied. What would it mean to you to -save Patkul? But an added glory. He was to have been married--the lady -is of my court, young and delicate and good. To gain some hope for her -lover she has fled into the wilderness of Lithuania to appeal to the -Czar.” - -“I have heard this before,” replied Karl. - -“Think how she suffered before she was reduced to this wild journey.” - -Karl rose. - -“She has appealed to Peter,” he said. “Let Peter answer her.” - -“But I,” said Augustus, “appeal to you, sire.” - -The two splendid men, each drawn to the full of his great height, stood -facing each other in the toy room, amid the frivolous elegances of silk -and satin, china and gilt. - -“At least,” added the Elector, “accord him a death less cruel.” - -He spoke without fear and even with a certain authority, being -profoundly moved, and, like many weak, emotional people, being strong -enough in the actual face of what inflamed his passions. - -Besides, he could not but feel that he was of equal birth with Karl, -considerably older, and of wider experience, and that the young -conqueror was doing a cruel wrong. - -This tone, as of equal to equal, had never been heard by Karl since the -day he had forever silenced it in the Queen-Mother, and it inflamed him -to complete fury, which he did not betray, but which made his blood -tingle and his pulses bound. - -“I have nothing to give you but silence,” he said, in a terrible voice. -“I will take my leave, Highness.” - -Augustus, pallid to the lips with mortification, fell back before this -bitter rebuff, and, turning for a second, covered his face with his -hands. Karl picked up his hat and would have left without another word, -but the folding doors opened and Aurora von Königsmarck entered and -stepped straight up to him. - -This beautiful woman was in full court dress, white and silver, and -adorned with diamonds; she carried a long fan of white feathers which -she pointed at Karl with a gesture of supreme disgust. - -So full was she of vitality and passion that the King was stayed by her -entry and stared at her bright vivid face. - -“Patkul may die,” she said, in a loud voice, “but he will be revenged. -No man like you can triumph long. In the day of your disaster, sire, -remember me--and that there was one person to scorn you and your glory, -and know you for the little man you are.” - -She flung out this in a breath, then added, panting, “You vain, mad -boy!” in a tone of utter contempt. - -Karl stared at her, and the color slowly mounted up under his eyes; he -gave a harsh, short laugh, turned on his heel, and left the room without -a salute. - -Augustus caught the Countess by the arm. - -“What have you done!” he cried frantically. - -She flung him off with a passionate gesture of scorn. - -“I have done with you,” she said. “Pray God your son will be a different -man.” - - - - -PART II - -POLTAVA - - “Nous n’avons de propre que l’honneur; y renoncer, c’est cesser - d’être monarque.”--_Peter the Great to Chofiroff._ - - - - -CHAPTER I - - -Laden with the plunder of Poland and Saxony, the spoils of their -brilliant feats of arms, the Swedes, amid the January ice, marched on -Grodno, the several parties of Muscovites in the neighborhood flying at -the mere rumor of their approach. - -Peter, surprised in Grodno, fled with 2000 men, while Karl with 600 -entered the city. - -When Peter learned that the bulk of the Swedish army was still five -leagues distant he returned and tried to retake the town. - -He was, however, fiercely beaten back, and the Swedes pursued the -Russians through Lithuania and Minsk, towards the frontiers of Russia. - -Karl, after clearing Lithuania of the forces of the Czar, intended to -march towards the North and on Moscow, by way of Pskof. - -The difficulties in his way were terrible; huge stretches of virgin -forest, of desolate marsh, of barren deserts, lay between him and his -objective. The only food that could be found was the winter stores of -the peasants in the small tracks of cultivated land, which were buried -underground; many of these had already been ravaged by the Muscovites, -and in any case were insufficient for the Swedish army. - -Karl, who was to be deterred neither by prudence, reason, nor fear of -any kind, had provided bread for his men which they carried with them, -and on this they had to support the ghastly hardships of the forced -marches. - -The heavy rains kept back even the indefatigable Swede. A road had to be -made through the forest of Minsk, and it was early summer before Karl -found himself once more face to face with Peter at Borissov. - -The Czar waited with the main body of his forces to defend the river -Bérézina; Karl, however, brought his troops across this river and -marched on the Russians, who once more retreated, falling back on the -Dneiper. - -At Halowczin he defeated 20,000 Muscovites by traversing a marsh -believed to be impassable, the King himself leading, with the water at -times up to his shoulders. - -After this decisive victory he pursued the Russians to Mohilew, on the -frontiers of Poland; by the autumn he was chasing the Czar from -Smolensk, on the Moscow road. - -At Smolensk, narrowly escaping death in a hand-to-hand fight with the -Kalmucks, Karl inflicted another defeat on the Muscovites, and proceeded -another stage on the way to the capital, from which city he was now -distant only a hundred leagues. - -At this moment Peter sent to Karl suggesting the opening of peace -negotiations. - -But Karl replied as he had replied to Augustus: “Peace in Moscow.” - -And even Count Piper wrote to the Duke of Marlborough, whom he was -keeping informed of the progress of the campaign, that the dethronement -of the Czar was inevitable. - -But Peter, still unshaken after the defeats of eight years, again -gathered together his scattered and disheartened armies. - -“The King of Sweden thinks to be a second Alexander,” he remarked, when -Karl’s haughty answer was brought to him, “but I have no mind to be -Darius.” - -The second winter of the Russian campaign was now setting in; it -promised to be of unusual severity even for these bitter regions. - -Even the Spartan endurance of the Swedes began to blench at the thought -of the almost unendurable hardships of the long Russian winter, with -neither sufficient food, firing, or clothing. - -But there was no murmuring, for the King supported all privations -equally with the poorest foot soldier. - -The scouts brought in news that Peter had torn up the roads, flooded -them from the marsh lands, cut down huge trees and flung them across the -way, and burnt the villages on the route to Moscow. - -There was barely a fortnight’s provisions in the Swedish army and not -the least prospect of obtaining any more in the ravaged, frozen wastes. - -Karl called a council of war in his rough tent amid the giant pines. - -There was no fire, and, as the tent flap swayed on its cords in the icy -wind, a few flakes of snow drifted in and melted on the frozen earthen -floor. - -Karl sat in a folding camp-chair, a mantle of rough blue cloth over his -usual uniform, his hands, covered by the long elbow gloves, employed in -turning over a few notes and maps on a plain pine table. - -The arduous labors and unceasing fatigues of this last campaign had told -even on his superb physique. - -He was thinner and pale, under the brown of exposure; his blue eyes -seemed slightly tired, but had lost nothing of their calm, courageous -stare. - -Near him sat Count Piper, looking ill and old, wrapped in a heavy cloak -of marten skin, lined with scarlet and gold brocade, the spoil of war of -some flying Russian Prince. - -Only a few of Karl’s generals, such as Rehnsköld, Gyllenburg, and -Wurtemberg, were present; it was his habit to confide his designs to as -few as possible. Piper, whose forebodings had been silenced by the -splendid success of the Swedish advance into Russia, had now begun to -feel uneasy and to rediscover all his objections to the campaign. He -thought that Karl should have accepted Peter’s offer to treat for peace; -the barbarous country and the arctic climate told severely on his -spirits; he was in poor health and homesick. Whatever sentiment he may -have had left for his master had vanished when the cruel sentence on -General Patkul was carried out, and he was broken on the wheel, -suffering a death of frightful torture. - -Piper had heard that Hélène D’Einsiedel had not lived to hear this news. - -She had died in a Russian camp soon after her arrival there, and the -messages Patkul had sent to her by the chaplain who attended him on the -scaffold had been sent to one beyond the reach of comfort. - -Piper never spoke of these things, but he often thought of them now that -misfortune seemed at last to be overtaking his master. - -He considered now that Karl was in the most dangerous position he had -yet found himself in, and he did not hesitate to say so, unpalatable and -unacceptable as he knew his advice must be. - -“Your Majesty, in common prudence,” he remarked, shivering a little in -his furs, “can do nothing but await the arrival of Lewenhaupt.” - -This general, who was coming to Karl’s assistance with 15,000 men and a -quantity of provisions, was believed to be within a few days’ march of -the present Swedish camp. - -He had, indeed, been some time expected, and his retarded arrival had -been a matter of vexation to the stern King. - -“I most strongly beseech your Majesty to consider this advice,” added -General Gyllenburg, with an earnest glance at the King. - -Karl turned over the maps and papers without looking up. - -His full mouth was set in an obstinate curve; to this arrogant -conqueror, now face to face with his first check, any council of -moderation was displeasing. - -“We cannot, sire,” urged Gyllenburg, “advance on Moscow with barely -fifteen days’ food.” For he, in common with the entire army, believed -this mad project to be the one Karl had really at heart. - -“There is nothing we cannot do,” replied Karl, who had indeed often -achieved what had seemed to others the impossible. - -But Piper was vexed. - -“If your Majesty advances on Moscow, you advance on disaster!” he -exclaimed. - -The King gave him a cold stare. - -“Are you not yet convinced that I never take advice?” - -His bitter rebuke caused the minister’s worn cheeks to flush. - -It was long since he had given Karl any cause to silence him, so utterly -had he refrained from counsels that were useless. - -Karl took his face in his right gloved hand, with his elbow on the -table, and looked up and round his little council. - -“I propose,”, he said, in a manner that left no loophole for argument or -suggestion, “to neither march on Moscow nor wait for Lewenhaupt.” What -third alternative there could be no one knew. - -“I intend,” added the King dryly, “to advance into the Ukraine, to pass -the winter there, and continue the route to Moscow in the spring.” - -The haughtiness with which he made this announcement covered an inner -mortification; he had thought to dethrone the Czar in a year; he had -never meant to turn back once on the road to Moscow. - -But having reviewed his army and taken stock of his provisions, even his -daring could not advance to what was certain destruction. To his -listeners the present project seemed as mad as an advance on the Russian -capital, but they did not venture on any comment. - -With the fewest and barest words Karl proceeded to explain that he had -made an alliance with Mazeppa, Prince of the Ukraine, the country of the -Cossacks, who was in revolt against the Czar, and hoped to profit by the -alliance of the Swede to defeat Peter. - -This man, who dreamed to do for the Ukraine what Patkul had dreamed to -do for Livonia, was a Polish nobleman of considerable parts; cast out of -his own country by the vengeance of a compatriot, he had taken refuge -amid the Cossacks, grown to be their ruler, and now in his old age -essayed to play some important part in this momentous war. - -“Is he to be trusted?” asked General Rehnsköld, who did not dislike the -project as it was unfolded to him. - -“As for that I do not know,” replied the King coldly, “but his interests -lie with me, and not with the Czar, for if Peter discovered his secret -plans of revolt he would certainly impale him as he has threatened -before. Mazeppa knows what to expect from the mercy and justice of the -Czar.” - -Piper, thinking of Patkul, was silent, but Gyllenburg, thinking of -nothing but the present crisis, ventured to remonstrate with the -imperious King. - -“Whether or no the Cossacks can be relied upon, were it not well to wait -Lewenhaupt and his reinforcements--above all, his provisions?” - -But Karl was, as always, obstinate; he had, he said, a rendezvous with -Mazeppa on the banks of the Desna, whither that prince had promised to -come with 30,000 men, treasure, and provisions. - -Rehnsköld was prepared to credit that this was better either than -pressing on towards Moscow or waiting for Lewenhaupt. - -Piper and Gyllenburg were for remaining at Smolensk in expectation of -reinforcements; Karl listened coldly to all arguments, and remained -fixed in his original plans. - -The next day the army, to its intense surprise, received orders to march -into the Ukraine. Messengers were sent to Lewenhaupt to tell him to join -the main army on the banks of the Desna and the painful progress -commenced. - -It was yet autumn, but the cold had set in early, and the troops had to -suffer the rigors of extreme cold. - -Nature seemed bent on throwing obstacles in the way of the Swedes. - -The forests, deserts, and marshes were nearly inpenetrable; Lägercrona, -in charge of the advance guard, went thirty leagues astray, and only -after four days of wandering was able to find the route. - -Nearly all his artillery and heavy baggage he had been obliged to -abandon in the marshes or among the rocks. - -When after unheard-of troubles and privation, Karl reached the banks of -the Desna that the Prince of the Cossacks had appointed for a -meeting-place, the ground was found to be occupied by a party of -Muscovites. - -The Swedes, though fatigued by twelve days’ travel, gave battle, -vanquished the Russians, and continued to advance into this desolate and -unknown country. - -Now even Karl himself began to be doubtful of the fidelity of Mazeppa, -and uncertain as to his route. - -Perhaps feelings of doubt and apprehension were beginning to touch him -for the first time in his life, when Mazeppa finally joined the Swedish -army. - -He had, however, the worst of news to tell; Peter had discovered the -plot in progress in the Ukraine, had fallen upon and scattered the -Cossacks, capturing all the gold and grain and thirty Cossack nobles -whom he had broken on the wheel. - -Towns and villages had been burned, treasures carried off, and the old -Prince had with difficulty escaped with 6000 men and a small quantity of -gold and silver, of little use in a country where there was no one to -be bribed with gold and no commodity to buy. - -Karl would have found a few wagon-loads of grain more to his liking. -However, the Cossacks were useful if only from their knowledge of this -wild country, though Karl despised them as soldiers and waited -impatiently for the arrival of Lewenhaupt. But when this general finally -made his way to the Swedish encampment, he had a tale to tell as -disastrous as that of Mazeppa, and far more mortifying to the pride of -the King of Sweden. - -At Liesna he had been met by the Czar, and, after a fierce battle of -three days, severely defeated. - -He had continued to effect a magnificent retreat, but he had lost 8000 -men, seventeen cannon, and forty-four flags, together with the entire -convoy he was bringing to Karl, consisting of 8000 wagons of food, and -the silver raised in Lithuania by way of tribute. - -He had the satisfaction of knowing that Peter had lost 10,000 men, and -that he had held him at bay for three days, but this could not balance -the fact that he arrived at Karl’s encampment with his army depleted and -without either provisions, ammunition, or treasure. - -Karl received this reverse with his usual cold gravity; he neither -blamed Lewenhaupt nor took anyone into his confidence. - -His situation, so lately that of an all-powerful conqueror, was now -indeed dangerous, if not desperate. - -He was cut off from Poland, and an attempt on the part of Stanislaus to -reach him failed utterly. - -No news came through from Sweden, and it seemed as if this army, lately -all-powerful, was isolated from the rest of the world; they could -neither communicate with, nor receive help nor advice from, any part of -the globe. - -But the worst of their distresses was the weather; this winter of 1709, -long to be remembered, even in Western Europe, as one of the most -terrible on record, was almost insupportable in these arctic regions. - -Karl, who ignored human needs and human weaknesses, forced his men to -march and work as if it had been midsummer and they well fed. - -Two thousand of them dropped dead of cold in their tracks. - -The rest were soon reduced to a state bordering on misery. - -There was no replenishing their clothes, half were without coats, half -without boots or shoes; they had to clothe themselves in skins as best -they might, and suffer and die as best they might, for the mad King -tolerated no murmur, and such was his authority and the awe and respect -that his very name inspired that his troops endured what perhaps no -other general had induced men to endure before. Such food as kept them -alive was provided by Mazeppa, who alone prevented them from perishing -miserably. - -The old Prince of the Cossacks had remained faithful to Karl despite the -offers Peter made to him to induce him to return to his allegiance. The -Czar, not wishing to appear inferior to his enemy in spirit or daring, -advanced into the Ukraine, regardless of the frozen country and tempests -of snow. - -He did not, however, attack the King of Sweden, but merely harassed him -by small raids on his camp, thinking that hardships and cold would have -reduced them to extremity before succor could reach them. - -News from Stockholm finally came to the isolated army. - -Karl learnt that his sister, the Duchess of Holstein-Gottorp, was dead -of the small-pox. This gentlewoman was but a faint memory to the King; -it was eight years since this terrible and bloody war had been -undertaken to replace her husband on his throne. - -Karl had almost forgotten Stockholm; almost forgotten the cause of the -war; the young Duke was dead, and had but a small place in the stern -King’s mind, compared to the vast designs that had grown out of his -quarrel. - -Not till the first day of February did the snow permit the Swedes to -move, and then it was amid terrible weather that Karl advanced on -Poltava, a fort full of supplies that Peter held across the Moscow -route. - -The taking of this place was a necessity to Karl pending the arrival of -his reinforcements, as his army was deprived of everything, and the -resources of Mazeppa almost at an end. - -The Swedish army was now reduced to 18,000 men, but besides these Karl -commanded the Cossacks of Mazeppa, and several thousand Kalmucks and -Moldavians, free lances attached to his standard by the love of booty -and of glory. - -With this force Karl advanced on Poltava; he had the mortification of -finding that Mentchikoff had outmaneuvered him, and flung 5000 men into -the town. - -The King pressed the siege and had taken several of the outworks when he -learnt of the approach of the Czar with 70,000 men. - - - - -CHAPTER II - - -Karl, returning to his camp after having beaten one of the advanced -detachments of the Czar’s army, was noticed by General Rehnsköld to be -colorless as a man of stone, and when he came to dismount at the door of -his tent, those who accompanied him observed that his boot was dripping -blood, and the side of his horse soaked. - -The Prince of Wurtemberg ordered his servant to run for a surgeon, and -General Lewenhaupt caught the King’s arm. - -“Sire, you are wounded!” he exclaimed. - -Karl, in his proud obstinacy and his desire to endure everything in -silence, would have denied the fact even now, but the pain was so -intense that he could not conceal it any longer, nor could he put his -foot to the ground. - -“A ball struck my heel,” he said sternly. - -“How long ago, sire?” asked General Rehnsköld anxiously. - -“Soon after I left the camp,” replied Karl. - -The officers glanced at each other; they knew that this meant that the -King had been over six hours on horseback since his wound, giving orders -as usual, and not in any way betraying his pain. - -Leaning on General Lewenhaupt’s arm he entered the tent, his officers -crowding in after him. It was still only early summer, but the air was -dry and arid, and in the tent hot and close and full of a fine dust. - -Karl seated himself on the plain folding-chair he always used, pulled -off his gloves, and asked for a glass of water. - -“This is an ugly mischance,” he said coldly. “I should have liked to -have met the Czar on horseback.” - -No groan or sigh passed his pallid lips, but his left hand gripped the -side of the chair, and beads of agony stood on his broad forehead. - -The surgeon entered, a little man with an eager face, one Neumann, well -known for his great skill and learning in his profession; he was closely -followed by two others, and the King’s personal domestics. - -“Gentlemen,” said the King, lifting his blue eyes now dark with pain, -“let us see how far I am unlucky.” - -He held out his foot to the servant as if he wished him to draw the boot -off, but Neumann was instantly on his knees, and had taken the injured -limb delicately between his capable hands. - -It was necessary to cut the boot from the leg; when this was done it was -found that the heel had been completely shattered, and that gangrene had -set in; the instant opinion of the surgeons was that there was nothing -but amputation to save the King’s life. - -Karl sat silent, his foot covered with towels, and resting on a chair; -the pain was beginning to make him giddy, and, for the first time in his -life, he was realizing what it might be to be unfortunate. - -Hitherto he had deemed himself immune from such a chance as this; he had -never conceived of his splendid body as in any way failing him, and now -perhaps he was a maimed man for life. - -The officers looked dubiously at each other; to them this came as a -crowning misfortune; only the spirit, presence, and fame of the King had -kept the army together amid all its miseries, and now, at the climax of -their disasters, when their very existence depended on the taking of the -stores and ammunition of Poltava, the King was struck down. - -Count Piper came hurrying to his master’s side; the minister felt that -his worst prognostications, that for a time had been silenced by the -steady successes of Karl, were now about to be realized, and he felt a -deep inner anger at the obstinacy that had landed them in this lost -country, cut off from help, without resources of any kind, threatened by -an enemy who was in his own country, and three times their number. - -Karl perhaps read some of these thoughts; he looked at his minister with -his usual coldness. - -“Piper,” he said, “they want to take my leg off.” - -Neumann looked sharply at the King, who he knew must be suffering -torture. - -This self-control will cost him something later on, thought the surgeon. - -He lifted the towels and looked again at the wound from which the purple -blood was welling, and staining the piles of linen laid beneath. - -“If one cut, and cut deep enough, the leg could be saved, sire,” he said -boldly. - -Karl looked at him straightly; it was one brave man facing another; the -great King and the great surgeon met on the common ground of fortitude -and daring. - -“Do your work then at once, M. Neumann,” said Karl. “Cut deeply and fear -nothing.” - -M. Neumann bowed, and directed his assistant to bring him his case of -instruments. - -Karl asked for another glass of water, and leaning back, drank it -slowly. - -Several other officers had now entered the tent including Poniatowski, -the commander of King Stanislaus’ Swedish guards, who had followed Karl -into the Ukraine out of affection for his person. - -Karl showed some pleasure at his arrival, and held out his hand. - -“Any news?” he asked. - -“Nay, sire, the last scouts sent out have not returned.” - -“To-morrow we will attack again,” replied Karl. “We must,” he added, -with an unusual earnestness in his tone, “take Poltava.” - -“If we do not,” thought Count Piper cynically, “we are dead and damned.” - -He left the tent and passed to his own more luxurious quarters; he was -much too sick a man to be able to watch the operation to which the -heroic King was so calmly submitting, and too full of an increasing -agitation and consternation to be able to command his feelings. - -“Yet why should I care?” he asked himself, “Patkul was shattered like -that sixteen times.” - -The news of the King’s wound had now spread through the army, and there -was a growing uneasiness among these hitherto invincible veterans, now -ill-fed, ill-clothed, and ill-armed. - -Returning presently to the King’s tent Count Piper met General Rehnsköld -with whom he was on bad terms, but who now stopped to tell him that the -incisions had been made in the King’s foot, which was now being dressed. - -The minister, pale, restless, and dispirited, passed again into the -presence of the King. - -Karl, who had held the limb steady with his own hands while the surgeon -used the knife, and had displayed not the least emotion, now sat on his -bed while Neumann bandaged the leg. - -He had just given orders for an assault on the morrow; his voice had not -shaken or his hand trembled, but his face was pallid and damp, his lips -curved in a slightly distorted smile. - -Count Piper advanced, but before he could speak the Prince of Wurtemberg -entered the tent with every sign of agitation. - -“Sire,” he said briefly, “I have just been informed that the Czar is -advancing on us with his entire army.” - -Karl, with unshaken calm, looked at Rehnsköld. - -“How many will that be, General?” - -“We think, sire, about 70,000 men.” - -Karl had known this; he had merely spoken to gain time; the intolerable -pain was making it difficult for him to think clearly, and he realized -that never had he needed to think clearly as he needed now. - -Even his haughty spirit was forced to face the fact that he was in a -desperate position, and one which most men would have judged as -hopeless. - -Cut off from all reinforcements or supplies, lacking everything, half -his troops starving or sick, many bandits, untrained and unreliable, -shut in between two rivers with no shelter or cover in a country so -desolate and barren--and now helpless with a hideous wound--it might -well seem that he was about to lose the fruits of nine years’ victories, -and be deprived, in one sharp moment, of that glory for which he had -sacrificed himself and his country. - -“Seventy thousand men,” he repeated; he had himself but 32,000, of which -only 16,000 were trained troops, but he remembered Narva, where the odds -had been greater, and forgot the genius of Peter that in nine years had -created a nation. - -There was no council of war. - -When Count Piper came to see the King that night he found him on his -camp-bed, fully clothed, even to the boot on his uninjured foot, with -sword and pistols, and a lamp on the table beside him. - -The night was hot and breezeless; the sky cloudless, behind Poltava the -moon was rising. - -Karl lifted his eyes to glance at it as the tent flap was lifted. - -“Are you wondering when you will see Stockholm again, Count?” he asked -irrelevantly. - -“I dream no more of Stockholm,” replied Piper. “I came to see how your -Majesty does.” - -“Very well,” said Karl. - -He moved the lamp so that the rays did not fall fully on his face; he -was shivering and burning with fever, and knew it; he did not wish Piper -to notice his condition. - -“Have you seen Rehnsköld?” he asked. - -“Yes, sire.” - -“He told you nothing?” - -“Nothing.” - -Karl put his hand to his head, pushing back his short locks of fair hair -that were wet with sweat; his whole body ached with pain, and his -wounded foot was a fiery agony. - -“Ah, well,” he said, “I will tell you myself. We give battle to-morrow.” - -Count Piper lifted his head and looked sharply at his master; so -desperate a resolution was what he might have expected from the King, -yet it startled him, as a general may be startled by the trumpets -sounding the retreat he has himself ordered. - -In silence the minister stared at the King, whose noble face was in the -shadow beyond the deep glow of the oil lamp. - -“At last we are face to face!” cried Karl, with an excitement that he -would never have shown but for the fever in his blood. “Peter -Alexievitch and I, after nearly ten years! He has always fled from -me--ever since Narva.” - -Sitting up in his bed, Karl reached out his hand for his sword, then let -it drop while he stared at Piper. - -“I met a man crying because he could get no news from his wife,” -remarked the King, “and another who was sad for fear he should not see -Stockholm again; those who follow me must learn to forget family and -country--” pausing, he again put his hand to his forehead. “Aurora von -Königsmarck once foretold disaster for me,” he added. “Had I been a -greater prince if I had spared Patkul?” - -Piper thought that the King must be delirious to talk like this; never -had he known him to so unbosom himself, or to refer to these personal -matters, or to speak in this tone of excitement; it frightened him to -see his stern monarch thus reduced to ordinary humanity, and he went up -to the bed and caught Karl’s hand, which was burning hot. - -The King, however, had again perfect command of himself. - -He gazed at Count Piper with the usual serenity in the blue eyes now hot -and blood-flushed with pain. - -“I am still Karl XII,” he said grimly, “and my men are still Swedes. Go -to your prayers, Count, and leave me to my rest.” - -With this he lay down, and put his head on the hard pillow. - -A faint, half-stifled sigh escaped him, then he lay silent and still, -and either was or feigned to be asleep. - -Count Piper did not leave the tent, but stood at the open door, looking -sometimes at the tall figure of the King stretched on his narrow bed, -and sometimes at Poltava, dark against the paling midnight sky up into -which the moon was rising. - -A sadness was on Count Piper and yet a calm; at that moment his was the -clear vision of a man who has a premonition that his work is over, and -looks back quietly and steadily on his life. - -How differently he had dreamed it all! - -What had he not meant to do for Sweden. Karl XI, his beloved master, had -left his country greater than she had ever been before, and Count Piper -had resolved to continue his work, to carefully add stone to stone till -the fair edifice was complete--to do in his way and with his means what -Peter was doing for Russia. - -Instead there had been this nine years’ war, empty of all but that glory -that a day’s mischance might eclipse forever. - -Nothing had been done for Sweden--she had been drained of men, of money, -left unprotected, her King a mere name. - -There was no direct heir; it seemed as if a grandson of Karl XI would -never rule in Stockholm, as if the fine line was at an end. - -The King began to toss in the heat of the fever, and in his sleep a -groan of pain now and then escaped him. - -“Ah, you, what have you done for all of us with your heroic deeds?” -muttered Count Piper; he came into the tent and looked at the tall -figure in the blue coat, with the flushed fair face and loosened -neck-cloth, sleeping the heavy slumber of an utter fatigue that was -stronger than the torture of his wound. - -Count Piper was certain of complete disaster on the morrow; he did not -believe that there was the least chance of a success against the Czar. - -He saw better perhaps than his master, how Peter had labored towards -this moment, how he had learnt bitterly and painfully the art of war -from many defeats; he knew that the Russians at Poltava would not be as -the Russians at Narva. - -He was aware also in what a desperate condition were the forces of Karl, -how two winters in this terrible country had tamed their pride and -lowered their faith in their own good fortune. - -And if this bubble of Karl’s invincibility was pricked, what then? - -Nine years’ brilliant success would be, in a moment, valueless; Europe -but yesterday at Karl’s feet would soon forget him, and Sweden, depleted -of her men, penniless and abandoned by her King, would be a prey to the -vengeance of her enemies. - -Peter, bitterly offended by Karl’s brief “peace in Moscow,” and with -many humiliations to avenge, would be no gentle foe. - -In that moment Count Piper almost hated the King. - -He was foolishly glad of the twinges of agony that caused Karl to moan -in his slumber, and when the King gave a half-unconscious murmur for -water the minister made no movement. - -It had been his own wish that he should be left alone till the dawn when -he was to be roused for the battle. - -“I will not interfere with his Spartan habits,” thought the minister -grimly. - -He went to the door again and looked out on the fair night, opal pale, -and the long encampment, colorless light and dark shade under the moon. - -Count Piper thought as he had never thought before on the eve of any of -the many battles at which he had been present, of the men sleeping now -for the last time, of the distant homes they would never see again, of -the Swedish blood that would water this arid soil to-morrow, and the -Swedish bones that would crumble into the dust of this lost country. - -Already the camp was full of movement; the beautiful horses of the -Kalmucks and Cossacks could be seen moving among the tents, and here and -there the moonlight fell on the steel of cuirass or the bosses of -leather trappings, as the Swedish officers rode from one point to -another fulfilling General Rehnsköld’s orders. - -Count Piper was preparing to go to his own tent for an hour’s rest, if -indeed his body could repose when his heart was so heavy, but a sudden -exclamation from the King startled him into turning. - -Karl was sitting up, his right hand flung out and grasping his sword. - -His face showed ghastly in the mingled lamp and moonlight, his wet hair -looked dark on his forehead, and his eyes were staring and congested -from fever. - -“I thought I was being broken on the wheel,” he muttered in a low tone. - -He tried to move, and the pulsing anguish the effort brought him made -him remember his crushed limb. - -“Faugh!” he exclaimed, in a tone of angry disgust. The sword dropped -from his hand on to the earthen floor; he started, then peered at the -silent figure by the door. - -“Is that the dawn, Piper?” he asked, in a quiet, natural voice. - -“No, sire, the moon.” - -“Send one to bid Neumann come and dress my wound. I would sooner be -abroad than abed to-night.” - -“I, too, could not rest, sire.” - -“There will be time enough to rest when we are in Poltava,” replied the -King; there was a note of wildness in his voice foreign to his -character; he seemed aware of this himself for he added fiercely: “Curse -this fever--I have Peter’s devils on me to-night. Fetch Neumann.” - -Count Piper bowed and turned away. - -Thus, without a word or handshake parted King and minister on the eve of -the Poltava fight. - - - - -CHAPTER III - - -For the second time the horses drawing the King’s litter were -killed--only three were left of the four-and-twenty guards who -accompanied him. Other soldiers hurried up, and began fastening fresh -horses to the litter. - -“Make haste,” commanded Karl, “make haste.” It was the thick of the -battle; the beginning of the second attack which had begun at nine in -the morning. - -The first battle had been successful for the Swedes with a fierce -onslaught of their famous cavalry; they had scattered the Muscovite -horsemen, and taken the outposts of the Russian camp; General Creutz, -however, who had been sent to reinforce the victors, lost his way, and -the Czar, having time to rally, drove back the Swedish cavalry and -captured Slippenbach, their general. - -Karl was then about to send for his reserves that had been left with the -camp and baggage when, with a brilliant movement, Prince Mentchikoff -threw himself between the Swedes and Poltava, thus isolating the King’s -forces, and at the same time cutting to pieces a detachment that was -coming to his assistance. - -Meanwhile the Muscovite infantry were advancing on the main body of the -Swedish army. When Karl heard of Mentchikoff’s exploit he could not -refrain from a bitter exclamation. - -“Too well has he learnt from me the art of war!” - -Quickly regaining his habitual composure he gave orders for a general -battle, arranging, as best he might, his diminished forces. - -He had now only four pieces of cannon, and was beginning to lack -ammunition; Peter had at least 120 guns. - -It was one of the first volleys from these that had killed the King’s -horses and guards. - -Karl shivered with rage as his glance swept over the battle, and he -thought of the artillery that he had been obliged to abandon in the -marshes and forests of the Ukraine, either through the weather or -because the horses had perished, and he remembered with a pang the men -who had dropped from cold and hunger on those terrible marches. - -It was burning hot as the sun rose higher into the pale cloudless sky; -the air was foul with dust and smoke, and full of curses, shouts, and -orders, and the irregular booming of the Russian guns. - -Before the horses could be harnessed to the King’s litter, another -cannon-ball fell near; again several of the guards were killed and the -litter this time reversed, shattered to pieces, and flung on top of the -King who was cast on to the trampled ground. - -Four of his officers dragged him from the ruins; he was covered with -dust and blood, and almost speechless. - -The first line of the Swedes was beginning to fall back. - -The swooning King perceived this, but he was almost past speech. - -The Muscovite cannonade was so continuous and fierce that those about -the King thought of retreating also, to get their master to a place of -safety in the rear. - -A stretcher was hastily constructed of pikes, and the King was raised -shoulder high. - -He raised himself on his elbow and cried out for his sword which he had -dropped; they gave him this, and a pistol which he grasped in his left -hand. - -His blue eyes, inflamed with rage and pain, shot a desperate glance over -the battle-field. On every side the Swedes were giving way; each line -falling back on the other, and the cavalry breaking at either wing. - -“Swedes! Swedes!” cried the King. - -Rallying his strength with a mighty effort he directed his bearers to -take him to the head of several regiments, mentioning these by name. But -it was too late; already everything was in irredeemable confusion; -General Poniatowski forced his way through the mêlée to the King, and -ordered the soldiers to take him to the rear. - -Karl made a sign with his head that he would not go, but he could not -speak. - -“Sire,” said Poniatowski, “the day is lost--Wurtemberg, Rehnsköld, -Hamilton, and Stackelberg are prisoners.” - -It was doubtful if the King heard; he lay like one insensible, though -his blue eyes were open wide and staring through the battle-smoke. - -They were now being hotly pursued by a charge with bayonets, pikes, and -swords; the intrepid Pole, though he held no rank in the Swedish army, -rallied some of the Swedish horse round the person of the King. - -Some of those supporting him had fallen, and he lay on the ground. - -Poniatowski dismounted and shouted to the King’s valet whom he saw -pressing close; the little band of horsemen, guards, officers, and -troopers, who did not number in all 500, but who were all that were left -to Karl of his hitherto invincible army, kept off the fierce attacks of -the Muscovites, while Poniatowski and the valet, with the help of a -horse soldier, got the King up and on to Poniatowski’s horse, a noble -dark Arab. - -Karl did not speak a word; he had tried to mount a horse at the -beginning of the engagement, but had been unable to do so, and now the -agony of his wound, the shock of his fall, the passion of rage and grief -he was in, had so weakened him that he fainted twice while they were -getting him on to the charger. - -At last it was accomplished, and the valet, mounting behind his master, -clasped him round his waist. - -The anguish caused to his shattered foot by the movement of the horse -brought Karl to his senses; but he was incapable of anything; he had -dropped both his sword and pistol, and his head sank on to the breast of -the young man behind him. - -In this manner did the Swedish cavaliers, fighting off the fierce -Muscovite attack every inch of the way, escort their unhappy master. - -They had not reached their objective, the baggage camp (the other -Swedish camps being already in the hands of the Muscovites), when Karl’s -horse was killed under him; one of the officers with him, Colonel -Gierta, though sorely wounded himself, gave the King his mount, and -again with infinite difficulty Karl was helped into the saddle. - -The little troop, fighting through ten Muscovite regiments, at length -brought the King to the baggage of the Swedish army. - -The Russians were hotly pursuing them, and Poniatowski saw that a -moment’s delay might be fatal. - -Among the baggage was the only carriage in the Swedish army, that of -Count Piper. - -The King was helped into this and the Pole, who by tacit consent had -taken command of this band of fugitives, ordered a retreat with all -haste towards the Dnieper. - -He and the valet, Frederic, entered the carriage with the King, and -supported him, as best they could, against the jolting on the rough -roads. - -Karl had not spoken a word since Poniatowski had conducted him from the -field of battle; he now sat up, drew out his handkerchief, and wiped the -sweat and dirt from his face, at the same time glancing at the blood -that was soaking from his reopened wound on to the cushions and floor of -the carriage. - -“Where is Count Piper?” he asked. - -His voice and face were calm, but the ghastly hue of his usually fresh -and glowing face told of his intense suffering. - -“Sire,” replied Poniatowski, “Count Piper is taken, with all the -ministers. He came out to look for your Majesty, and wandered into the -counterscarp of Poltava where they were taken prisoners by the -garrison.” - -Karl gave not the least sign of emotion. - -“And the Prince of Wurtemberg and General Rehnsköld?” he asked. - -“They also are prisoners,” said Poniatowski mournfully. - -The King shrugged his shoulders. - -“Prisoners of the Russians!” he exclaimed. “Let us rather be prisoners -of the Turks!” - -He said no more, and the flight towards the Dnieper was continued. - -Another misfortune overtook the unhappy King; a wheel of the carriage -was wrenched off on the barbarous road, and there was no time to stop -and repair it; he was therefore obliged to continue his journey on -horseback. - -The day was insufferably hot; they could find neither food nor water, -nor was there any prospect of obtaining any in this desolate country, -arid and uninhabited; several of the men were lost on the way or had -dropped with fatigue; only a small number remained with the King. - -These, towards evening, lost themselves in a vast trackless wood that -was believed to stretch to the banks of the Dnieper. - -Here, while they wandered about in the endeavor to find some road, the -King’s horse fell under him with fatigue, and no efforts could get Karl -any further. - -Blood-stained and soiled with dust and powder, without food, drink, or -repose, maddened by the pain of his wound which increased with his -fatigue, his spirit tortured equally with his body by the agony of -defeat at the hands of the man he most hated, even the courage and -endurance of Karl could support him no longer, and though he was told -that the Muscovites were searching for him in this very wood, he made no -effort to move but crept under a great tree and lay there motionless. - -Poniatowski put a horse-blanket under his head and sat beside him to -watch, together with the few horsemen who now comprised the royal -bodyguard. - -As soon as the moon was up another body of fugitives, by rare good luck, -came up with them. - -These were Cossacks, headed by their hetman, General Mazeppa. - -From them the Swedes learnt some further particulars of the battle. - -The Muscovites had taken everything; baggage, guns, stores, such as -there were, and the treasure consisting of 6,000,000 crowns in specie, -the remains of the spoils of Poland and Saxony, together with many -thousand men taken prisoners and many more slain. - -Lewenhaupt, Mazeppa added, was flying towards the Dnieper with the -remainder of the army; and he himself, added the old Cossack chief, had -managed to bring away some mules laden with provisions, and a number of -carts loaded with silver and gold. - -Karl did not hear this news, either good or bad; he lay in a swoon of -fatigue and pain, the moonbeams striking through the thick summer -foliage on to his low fair head and blood-stained uniform. - -Mazeppa glanced at him; their mutual disaster was so complete that any -lamentation or even comment seemed grotesque. - -The Prince said nothing, therefore, but with the fortitude that belonged -to his character and his mode of life, directed that the food and water -that he had brought with him should be distributed among the Swedes, -then lay down on the grass and slept. - -The next day the painful march was continued, and a juncture effected -with Lewenhaupt on the banks of the Dnieper almost at the same moment as -news was received of the approach of the Muscovites. - -Lewenhaupt’s men had not eaten for two days; they lacked powder, -provision--everything; they had no means of crossing the river. - -But their spirit did not fail them; they had been the victors in a -hundred fights that even Poltava could not efface from their -remembrance, and there was not a man among them who did not believe -that, now their King had rejoined them, they would once more conquer, or -else completely perish, selling their lives dearly. But the man on whom -they relied was no longer the man who had led them to victory; Karl, -whose wound was become poisoned and who was in a violent fever, -unconscious of his actions, was hurried into a small boat that the army -had with it, and taken across the Dnieper with Mazeppa and his treasure, -which was afterwards obliged to be cast overboard to lighten the boat. - -A few other craft having been found, a certain number of officers -managed to cross the river, but the desperate Cossacks who endeavored to -swim on horseback or on foot were all overwhelmed and drowned. - -While the army was in this pass, Prince Mentchikoff, having found his -way by the broken bodies of the Swedes along the route, arrived and -called upon Lewenhaupt to surrender. - -One colonel of this army that had been so long glorious hurled himself -with his troop at the ranks of the enemy, but Lewenhaupt bade him cease -his vain defiance. - -It was all over now; everything was lost, even the chance of a glorious -and splendid death; several officers shot themselves, others leapt into -the waters of the Dnieper. - -Lewenhaupt surrendered. - -The remnant of that triumphant army that had so confidently marched out -of Saxony was now in the hands of the Russians; slaves henceforth who -might come to envy their compatriots who had perished of misery in the -forests of the Ukraine. - -The news of the end of his nine years’ war was brought to Karl by the -last fugitives who were able to cross the Dnieper. - -He seemed incapable of understanding what was taking place, but lay -silent in the poor carriage which was all that had been able to be -procured for him. Without food, save the scantiest, and almost entirely -without water, the little party traveled for five days across a desert -country until they arrived at Oczakow, the frontier town of the Ottoman -Empire. - -The bureaucratic delays of the local officials hindered the progress of -the fugitives into Turkey. - -All the able negotiations of Poniatowski were unavailing, and pending -the permission that was to come from the Pasha at Bender, the Swedes -were forced to take what boats they could lay their hands on and cross -the river Bug that lay between them and safety. The King and his -immediate suite reached the opposite shore, but 500 men, the bulk of his -little army, were captured by the pursuing Muscovites, whose cries of -triumph echoed in the ears of the flying King. - -So, sick, penniless, without hope or resource, his glory shattered in a -day, his prestige gone forever, Karl XII entered Turkey, to throw -himself on the mercy of the infidel. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - - -Peter Alexievitch now found himself in the position hitherto occupied by -his rival. - -The army that had foiled and humbled him ever since Narva was no longer -in existence; the terrible Karl was in exile, without allies and with -nothing to rely on but the exhausted resources of a distant and -dispirited country. - -The astute minister, Piper, the dreaded generals, Rehnsköld, Lewenhaupt, -Wurtemberg, were all prisoners. - -The Czar in one day had won the fruits of nine years of toil. More than -half the Swedes were slain or slaves and there was no one to prevent his -claiming the disputed Baltic Provinces. - -Of the Poles he had no fear; he knew that Stanislaus could not stand -without Karl, and that, if he had a mind, he might set up Augustus -again. - -In brief, he had made himself, in one battle, Arbiter of North Europe. - -It was possible that Karl might endeavor to inflame Turkey into a -revival of her old quarrel with him; but he had the remembrance of Azov -to render him confident of mastering the Turks. - -Not that it was in his nature to think and act other than prudently. - -He had not begun this war for glory nor fought any battle for display, -but always with the idea of some solid advantage, of taking some step -towards the attainment of his final objective--the raising of Russia to -a great place among the nations of the world. - -The building of St. Petersburg and Kronstadt had already shown his -intention of making his empire not Eastern but Western, and he had now -demonstrated that he had mastered the art of war sufficiently to defeat -utterly the greatest captain of the age. - -He was not unduly elated at this success which was so much more than he -had dared to hope for. - -At first he had thought the Poltava battle lost; he had been in the -thick of the fight and twice a ball had pierced his hat; perhaps Karl -himself was no more surprised than Peter at the final issue of the -combat. - -The Czar’s manner of celebrating his victory was at once generous and -savage. - -He treated the Swedish generals with courtesy and consideration, -drinking their health as “My masters in the art of war,” but the -Cossacks and Kalmucks were broken on the wheel and the Swedish soldiers -sent as slaves to Siberia. - -He would have liked to have taken Karl, not from pride, but because he -wished to know personally so remarkable a man, and he wished to capture -the old hetman of the Cossacks that he might impale him alive. - -“I wonder Sweden tolerates such a villain near him,” he exclaimed. “It -must have been by his advice he came into the Ukraine.” - -He spoke to his two generals, Mentchikoff and Alexis Golowin, as he took -his ease after dinner in the fortress of Poltava. - -“Sweden is insane,” said Mentchikoff calmly. “No man in his senses would -have come so far from his base.” - -“Nor turned into the Ukraine without guides or provisions,” added -Golowin. - -Peter made no reply; leaning against the frame of the open window he -stared out into the sunny, dusty courtyard. - -He was now thirty-six years of age and had lost all the bloom of youth; -he was getting stout and his excesses had left their mark on his face, -which, though still soft and handsome, was lined and swollen and an -unhealthy color. - -The thick locks were tinged with gray and his eyebrows and lips twitched -with incipient disease. - -He was now unbuttoned because of the heat; his green coat was -grease-stained, his linen soiled. - -In his right hand, coarsened by manual labor, he held a glass full of -some sweet liquid round which the flies buzzed. - -A star of the purest brilliants hung by a common ribbon from one of his -buttonholes, which gleamed as his breast rose and fell with his heavy -breathing. - -The two generals were magnificent in satin coats, perukes, stars, and -laces, but neither had clean hands or linen. - -The air was heavy with the odors of the sour, greasy Russian cooking and -the smell of brandy. - -The room was roughly and coarsely furnished, but a valuable ikon hung in -one corner adorned with pigeon blood rubies and still garlanded with the -wreaths of wax fruit from the Easter offerings. - -Peter’s thoughts were far away. - -He was not dwelling on the personal advantages likely to accrue to him -from this great victory, nor even on its military aspect; he was -thinking that now at last he could secure his Baltic ports and gain for -Russia that enormous trade once in the hands of, and so jealously -guarded by, the Hansa League. The Russians, long treated as barbarians -by the industrious and crafty Germans, had sold their goods to the great -Hansa station at Novgorod always at a great loss, despite their -persistent efforts to cheat, or bartered them for the English and -Flemish cloths which could have been made in Russia. - -Peter, who admired as much as he disliked the Germans, intended now that -the Russian woods, metals, furs, wax, and honey should be traded direct -with Europe. - -He meant also to get the trade with Asia, and by this -intercommunication with nations to teach arts and crafts to his own -people. While he drunk his kvas, regardless of the circling flies, and -stared absently into the sunny courtyard, Golowin and Mentchikoff were -discussing the present plight of Karl XII. - -The fugitive King had gone to Bender in Bessarabia, and was being -treated with generous courtesy by the Porte. - -He was, however, for all the pomp that surrounded him, nothing but a -prisoner, and it was doubtful if, even had he wished, he could have left -Turkey. - -“He will give no further trouble,” remarked Prince Golowin. - -But Mentchikoff was not of this opinion. - -“A man of those lion-like qualities,” he said, “is not so easily -subdued.” - -“He may not be,” replied the other shrewdly, “but without resources he -can do nothing.” - -Peter turned his head and listened to this conversation. - -“How many men has Sweden with him?” he asked, setting down his glass. - -“They do not know, Peter Alexievitch,” replied Mentchikoff, “but it -cannot be many--only those fugitives who contrived to escape across the -frontier.” - -“No one of importance?” - -“Not beyond Poniatowski, Müllern, his chancellor, and a few -officers--and the old Mazeppa,” said Mentchikoff. - -At the mention of the hetman of the Cossacks Peter’s face twitched with -fury. - -“May the devil overtake that ancient traitor,” he cried, “and roast him -to all eternity!” - -He did not care to dwell on the thought of the escape of this rebel, who -had indeed behaved with ingratitude and falsity to the monarch who had -so warmly befriended and protected him. - -Without any more words he left the room and went to the apartments of -his wife, who accompanied him on all his campaigns. - -He intended soon to marry her publicly and proclaim her as Czarina. - -Not that Katherina had ever demanded this of him (indeed she had not -expected him to marry her at all), but to please his own passion for -this woman, who still continued to entirely please his curious fancy. - -There were those who believed that if she had had a living child he -could have disinherited Prince Alexis in favor of the offspring of -Katherina, since the heir was not only the son of a disgraced and -imprisoned mother, but showed already strong reactionary tendencies -towards the barbaric customs Peter was so painfully eliminating from -Russia. - -Katherina was now clothed in Western fashion; a tight bodice and full -skirt of blue silk, a pearl necklace, and her hair rolled into long -curls. - -She was now very stout, and her teeth were ruined through eating -sweetmeats; her complexion was greasy, and her hands ill kept; she had -acquired no air of dignity, but an expression of complete good nature -showed still on her handsome features. - -A Tartar maidservant with Asiatic features was seated on a scarlet -cushion, singing as she worked a piece of orange and gold embroidery on -a frame. - -Peter spoke to neither but seated himself on the low covered chair -beside his wife who knew better than to speak to him when he was silent. - -The little maid, with an unchanged countenance, continued singing, in a -low, melancholy, and monotonous voice, an old Tartar song: - - The gentle baby died, mother, died when it was born. - He will never saddle horse, mother, nor eat the cakes of corn, - Or ride before his soldiers in the glory of the morn, - Nor chase the bitter tiger or the fleet and lovely fawn. - The gentle baby died, mother, died when he was born. - -Peter stared at the singer, as if fascinated by her flat, brown face. - -Katherina was not thinking of the song nor of him; it was very hot and -she was almost asleep in her comfortable chair. - - They wrapped him in a silken swaith and in a golden shawl, - And laid him ’mid the tulips, him the fairest of them all. - I saw him as a chieftain, magnificent and tall, - Riding red from combat or playing of the ball. - They wrapped him in a silken swaith and in a golden shawl. - - And I am left so lonely, all in the twilight clear, - A-holding of my bosom where lay my tender dear, - A-watching of the tent door when the first stars appear, - Crying for my baby in the great desert near. - And I am left so lonely, all in the twilight clear. - -Katherina glanced rather uneasily at the Czar; she had hoped that now he -had achieved this great victory he would be less moody and melancholy. - -Even her placid good-humor did not always find Peter easy to manage; -sometimes her ease-loving temperament was inclined to regret the days of -her comfortable prosperity with Prince Mentchikoff. - -“The King of Sweden has not been captured?” she asked gently. - -“Nay, he crossed the Bug and is safe in Turkey, flattered by the -Sultan.” - -“Well, he will trouble you no more,” said Katherina pleasantly. - -The little Tartar maid rose and crept away, with a furtive look at the -terrible Czar. - -“I do not know,” replied Peter. “He is a very able man. But I think I -have secured the Baltic Provinces.” - -Leaning forward with a sudden eagerness he began discoursing of this -Baltic Empire and what the acquisition of it would mean to Russia, what -she could do when she commanded the town and gulf of Riga and all the -islands, of the new naval base of Kronstadt, and the new arts and -sciences already beginning to flourish in St. Petersburg. - -As he spoke, his rough voice, suffused face, and swollen eyes became -inspired; he forgot the ignorant woman to whom he spoke, and declaimed -as if he was before a nation of men. - -All that he said Katherina had heard before; she, who was not able to -read or write, was not interested as to whether Esthonia, Livonia and -Lithuania were in the hands of the Czar or not. As for his new city, she -preferred Moscow to the new buildings that had risen on the marshes of -the Neva. - -It seemed to her a thing sufficiently tremendous to be Czar of Russia, -and in her heart she wished that Peter would leave his ambitions and be -content with the greatness he already had. - -She was slightly disappointed that he was not satisfied with the great -success he had just gained; she had hoped that when Karl was defeated -Peter would enjoy the greatness and power he possessed in that peace and -quiet and comfortable pomp that were her ideals of happiness. - -Therefore a certain weariness came over her at hearing him once more -expound the schemes she had never understood and now was tired of; even -his project of making himself Emperor of All the Russias and her his -Empress did not excite her; ease and tranquillity were what this lazy -woman wanted, and she would sooner have been left in a secure obscurity -than be dragged forward to a dubious and perhaps dangerous greatness. - -Peter, talking vehemently and absorbed in these matters so near his -heart, rose and began to walk up and down the room without noticing -Katherina. - -And she, half dozing, did not trouble to reply, but began to nod in her -chair. - -The Czar, suddenly turning to enforce some point, saw her heavy attitude -and half-closed eyes; as he stared at her she yawned. - -Peter instantly flamed into terrible wrath. - -“Ah!” he cried. “You sleep while I talk, eh?” - -She sat up at once, wide-awake and pale. - -“I heard every word you said, Peter Alexievitch,” she stammered. - -“You lie,” returned the Czar fiercely, “but what does it matter if you -heard or no? It was all beyond your pitiful understanding.” - -Katherina began to whimper. - -“I have always been faithful,” she murmured, twisting her plump hands -together. - -Peter looked at her with contempt. - -Anger would sometimes give him a clear-sighted vision of the creature -who had so long infatuated him; he saw her now as a stupid peasant -woman, and despised himself for the dominion she had over him. - -His anger dropped to gloom. - -“It is not your fault, but mine,” he said, “for putting you where you -are.” - -Katherina, grateful that his wrath had passed, dared not risk inflaming -him by another word, but sat meekly pulling at the folds of her blue -silk skirt. - -Peter shrugged his shoulders and left her abruptly; his mood had been -crossed and he had no wish for the company even of Mentchikoff, who was, -like Katherina, a creature of his own creating, and accordingly -sometimes despised by the Czar, who, despite his Western reforms, -remained Eastern in his ideas of autocracy and his own almost divine -power and privileges. - -He went heavily downstairs, called for his horse and rode, alone, round -the counterscarp of Poltava. - -Karl would molest him no more--North Europe lay open to his armies; he -could pull Stanislaus down as quickly as he had been set up, and put -whatever puppet he chose on the throne of Poland. - -He had accomplished his army, his navy, his port, his capital--and yet -in his half-savage heart was still this brooding melancholy, this -lingering dissatisfaction. - -His own cruelties, his own excesses, seemed even to himself to mar his -triumph. - -The wife and the friend he had chosen dragged him down and he knew it, -yet he could have no more avoided them than the diseases that hampered -his body and clouded his brain. - -He reined up his beautiful black Arab on the ramparts and gazed across -the plain where he had broken Karl XII. - -And even at that moment he felt a half-wistful envy of the man whom he -had vanquished--the man who could conquer himself. - - - - -PART III - -EXILE - - “Que craignez-vous encore? Dieu e moi nous sommes toujours - vivants.”--_Medal of Karl XII._ - - - - -CHAPTER I - - -Nearly four years after the battle of Poltava on a cold clear day of -early spring the Pasha, who was governor of the Turkish province of -Bender, turned sadly away, followed by his suite, from three stone -houses, strange in structure and design, that stood near the village of -Varnitza, near the banks of the Dniester. - -These houses had been recently built by the King of Sweden, whose camp -in Bender had been threatened by floods. - -One was occupied by the King himself, one by his friend Grothusen, and -the third by his ministers, and these plain buildings looking so -incongruous in the eastern landscape, had become an eyesore and a terror -to the Porte. - -Ever since Karl had flung himself on the mercy of the Turks, sooner than -fall into the hands of Peter, intrigue and counter-intrigue had -distracted the Ottoman government. - -Count Poniatowski, able, subtle, and tireless, had used every art to -persuade the Sultan to take up arms for the defeated King, and the -Muscovites had done their best to check him at every turn. - -Viziers had risen and fallen, plots had become complicated and bitter, -war had been declared on Russia, peace made, war declared again, then -peace once more, and finally the Sultan had wearied of his guest, and -every effort was made to induce Karl to return to his own country. - -After long and involved negotiations Karl had consented to go if his -expenses were paid; more than the sum asked for had been sent him -thankfully by Ahmed II, but Karl, after receiving the money, had again -refused to depart, alleging that he suspected a plot to deliver him into -the hands of his enemies. - -Even Eastern hospitality was now exhausted, and on Karl’s cool demand -for more money an order came from the Sultan that if he would not go -willingly he was to be moved from Turkish territory by force. - -It was this order that the Governor of Bender, grieved to his courteous -soul by the turn of events, had just delivered to Karl, without making -the least impression. - -Four years of what was in truth but an honorable captivity, of idleness -and exile, had by no means lowered the lofty spirit or softened the hard -obstinacy of the King of Sweden. Through all the ramifications of the -intrigues of which the Porte was the center, his one purpose had -remained clear and unshaken. - -He wanted an army to lead against Peter, and latterly he wanted the -punishment of Mahomet Baltadgi, the vizier who had let the Czar escape -with the easy terms of the Peace of Pruth. - -While Ismail Pasha was galloping, a thing unusual in a Turk, away from -Varnitza with the news of the King’s obstinacy to the Khan of the -Tartars who, conjointly with him, had received the Sultan’s orders, he -met M. Fabrice, the envoy of the Duke of Holstein, who had his residence -with Karl, and reined up his sweating steed. - -“What news, Ismail Pasha?” asked M. Fabrice anxiously. - -The Turk’s expression was mingled grief and indignation; he knew that -this affair might cost him his place and perhaps his life, since he had -given the twelve hundred pieces to the Swedes trusting to their honor to -depart. - -“Your King will not listen to reason,” he replied, “and we shall see -strange things.” - -M. Fabrice rode on through the sunny afternoon and, by the time he -reached the camp at Varnitza, found that the Governor was carrying out -already the instructions brought him that day by the Sultan’s grand -equerry. The guard of janissaries that had attended Karl during his -exile had been removed, the supply of provisions stopped, and all the -followers of the King told that if they wished for food they must leave -the Swedes and go to the town of Bender. - -Consequently, M. Fabrice met a stream of Poles and Cossacks, hastening -from the village of Varnitza, and the huts and tents they had raised -round the King’s house, to put themselves under the protection of the -Porte. - -The heart of M. Fabrice sank; long and weary had been the exile, bitter -the hope deferred, the suspense, the waiting, fatiguing, the long -idleness to those used to an active life, deadening this suspension of -all part in the affairs of Europe, and he for one could not understand -why Karl should have preferred to prolong such a life sooner than take -his part in the politics of the world, nor how he could have so long -permitted himself to be misled by the chimera of Turkish assistance. - -Sadly he went to the King’s house; the domestics were depressed, the -Swedish soldiers eyed with gloomy contempt the departing crowd of -Russians and Poles, as if they regretted the good food that these -people, so worthless in the hour of need, had for so long consumed. - -The King had just risen from the table, and it was in his ante-chamber -that M. Fabrice found him. - -Poniatowski was still at Constantinople, endeavoring to serve Karl by -his endless intrigues among the ministers and favorites of the Sultan, -but the rest of Karl’s few faithful friends were with him, as if they -all took counsel together. - -There was M. Grothusen and the Baron Görtz who between them had taken -the place of Count Piper, now miserably dead in Russia, General Hord, -and General Dahldorf, and Colonel Gierta, who had saved Karl’s life at -Poltava, and several other officers and ministers together with the -King’s chaplain, and another Lutheran priest. - -The house, contrary to the King’s tastes, was furnished magnificently, -to impress the Turks who were not apt to respect a monarch entirely -without pomp, and this room was richly hung with silken tapestry, -covered with Persian carpets, and filled with Eastern and European -furniture of costly material and pattern. - -All of this had been bought out of the Turkish bounty, which had been -generously lavished on Karl until these disputes about his departure -arose, and only lately withdrawn; Karl was now subsisting on borrowing -the money his reckless munificence had enriched his friends with, and -raising loans at 50 per cent from Jew and English bankers in -Constantinople. - -Karl was seated in an ebony chair with sapphire-blue velvet cushions; -his own dress was unchanged; he was booted, spurred, wore a black -taffeta cravat, and no peruke but his own hair, now close-cropped and -scanty on the forehead. - -He had never altered the stern austerity of his life, nor his rigorous -exercises, and was in perfect health and superb strength. - -He was now thirty-two years of age, and his noble face, unlined, and -fresh and clear in color, still had the look of extreme youth; his -figure was heavier but yet active and graceful, he had hardly reached -the flower of his strength, and began to show the magnificent -proportions of a Viking, deep-chested, long-limbed, strong, without -being coarse, and powerful, without being clumsy. - -Adversity had given him neither a sense of humor, gentleness, nor -gaiety, yet in some way he was more attractive than he had been, and the -uncomplaining fortitude with which he had endured his cruel fortune -inspired a noble pity in the hearts of brave men. - -Not by a hair-breadth had he deviated from the code of pride, of honor, -and endurance that he had followed when North Europe trembled at his -feet, nor in any way faltered from the serenity that had been his when -his conquests had dazzled mankind. - -Nor was his obstinacy, a less admirable virtue, in any way abated, as -his present attitude showed. - -M. Fabrice found that the generals and ministers were engaged in -persuading the King to abandon the design of opposing to the utmost the -wishes of the Sultan. - -Karl’s blue eyes, that had more fire than formerly, glanced at once at -the new-comer. - -“Ah, M. Fabrice,” he said, “have you come to join your prayers to those -of these gentlemen who want me to run away?” - -The envoy from Holstein did not know what to say; despite what he had -heard from Ismail Pasha, and his knowledge of the character of Karl, he -could hardly believe that the King meant to make an armed resistance -with 300 men against 26,000, which was the number of the Tartars and -Turks in Bender. - -“God knows,” broke out Councilor Müllern, with tears in his eyes. “Your -Majesty does not need to prove your courage to the world, and it would -be a nobler part to submit.” - -“Submit! submit!” repeated the King angrily. “You tire me with words!” - -General Hord, who had fought by Karl’s side at Poltava, and who was -still maimed as a result of his wounds, now addressed the King. - -“Sire,” he asked, “will you condemn to a miserable death, at the hands -of the infidel, these poor Swedes, the remnant of your victories?” - -“I know, by those victories, that you know how to obey,” replied the -King sternly. “Till now you have done your duty, General Hord--continue -to do it to-day.” - -M. Fabrice now found his voice. - -“Sire,” he said, “I was with the Khan, and on leaving him met Ismail -Pasha; from what I learnt it is but too true that they have received -orders from the Porte that every Swede who resists is to be slain, even -to your Majesty!” - -“Have you seen this order?” demanded the King quietly. - -“Yes,” replied M. Fabrice, “the Khan showed it to me.” - -“Well,” said Karl, “tell them from me that I give another order--and -that is that no Swede leaves Bender.” - -M. Fabrice was in despair; he glanced at the sad faces of Karl’s -faithful friends who had suffered such pains and hardships for him, and -he felt it was unendurable that all should end in a useless death. - -He fell on his knees, grasping the skirts of the King’s coat. - -“For the sake of these others, sire, who are all that are left to you, -out of so many who have perished for your sake----” - -“Get up, M. Fabrice,” said Karl kindly, “and return to your lodging. -There is no need for you to remain to share my fortune.” - -M. Fabrice sprang to his feet, angry and agitated. - -“This obstinacy is not worthy, sire. You have no right to fling away so -many lives for a whim!” - -Karl only smiled; he was not easily angry with M. Fabrice. - -Holstein-Gottorp had always been specially under his protection, nor had -he ever forgotten the young Duke for whose sake he had first gone to war -and who had been killed at his side. - -It was his nature to be most tenaciously faithful to any cause or -friendship he had once undertaken, and he had never faltered in his -resolve to uphold the rights of his brother-in-law; he intended to make -the little orphan Duke, his elder sister’s son, his heir, and to that -end kept M. Fabrice near him, and gave him as much of his confidence as -he accorded to any man. - -Therefore he endured calmly the reproaches, the anger, and the pleadings -of the excited envoy who was listened to with approval by the others, -yet they, who had tried the like arguments in vain, had little hope from -the eloquence of M. Fabrice. - -All, as the listeners had foreseen, was useless. - -“Return to your Turks,” smiled the King. “If they attack me, I shall -know how to defend myself.” - -M. Fabrice had not the heart to reply, and in the little silence that -followed the King’s speech, Jeffreys, the English minister, entered the -chamber. - -He advanced and kissed the King’s hand with the air of one bringing good -news; he also had been trying his good offices with the Khan, and had -obtained this favor--that an express should be sent to Adrianople, where -the Sultan then was, to demand if in reality extreme measures were to be -taken against the King of Sweden, and in the meanwhile permission to -allow provisions to be sent to the King. - -Karl received this very coldly. - -“You are a voluntary mediator, sir,” he said. “I ask for no favor at the -hands of the Sultan.” - -“Nor did I, sire,” replied the Englishman. “But it is possible that the -Porte may repent of the delayed severity of these orders, and in any -case this gives your Majesty time to leave with dignity.” - -“M. Jeffreys,” remarked the King, with freezing coldness, “as you leave -my house you will see my entrenchments.” - -“Can it be possible----” began the minister. - -“Sir,” interrupted the King, “more things are possible than you may -dream of. I do not want your mediation. Nor do I want the provisions of -the Turks. What I need I can pay for.” - -The Englishman, who, in common with every man present, had lent the King -money and knew the difficulty Poniatowski had in raising forced loans in -Constantinople, thought this pride as ill-timed as the King’s obstinacy, -but he knew that it was in keeping with Karl’s character, and that he -did not speak out of flaunting vanity but from that superb disregard of -money that he had always possessed; gold and human life, worldly -dignities, and common prudence had alike been always too utterly -disregarded by the King of Sweden. - -“I will mingle no more in the affairs of a monarch so inflexible,” said -the Englishman, with a slight smile, as he prepared to retire. - -“A wise resolution, M. Jeffreys,” replied the King gravely. - -The clergy now essayed to attempt what ministers and soldiers had alike -failed to effect. - -Karl’s chaplain, coming forward, addressed him in stern tones. - -“Has your Majesty considered how long and generously these Turks have -succored you? What Christianity is it that so rudely returns such -generosity? Have you considered your poor subjects who yet hope, after -these weary years of wandering and of exile, to see their homes?” - -In this the chaplain was seconded by some other pastors who threw -themselves on their knees before the King. - -Karl started to his feet; though the discipline of the Lutheran religion -was peculiarly suited to his temperament, and the observance of its -rules had always been a factor in his success, still there was little of -the fanatic in him, and his long sojourn in Turkey had induced a -considerable indifference towards Christianity in the heart of one who -had always admired pagan virtues and pagan heroes. - -He therefore viewed with real anger the interference of these pastors -whose appearance at the conference he had hitherto hardly noticed. - -His face flushed, and his blue eyes darkened ominously. - -On the heads of the clergy broke all the anger the other remonstrants -had failed to provoke. - -“I keep you,” he said, with cutting anger, “to say prayers, and not to -give me advice.” - -With that and a general glance of contempt for the entire company he -left the chamber, and the only man who dared follow him was Baron Görtz, -a man of a spirit akin to his own. - -“I wish Poniatowski was here--he might do something,” remarked Grothusen -despondently. - -“Not an angel of God could do anything,” said the chaplain, who, in -common with the other clergy, found himself in the ridiculous position -of rising from his knees in front of an empty chair. - -“He will be massacred!” cried General Hord in despair. - -“We shall all be massacred,” said Müllern. “How long do you think 300 -men will resist 26,000?” - -“I know,” put in Colonel Gierta, “that the King will suffer the roof to -be pulled over his head sooner than surrender.” - -“The Sultan may grant a respite,” suggested M. Fabrice. - -But Grothusen shook his head. - -“His patience has been too greatly tried--and the vizier dare not risk -our presence here long.” - -“But Poniatowski may do something,” urged Müllern, who had much -confidence in the tireless and resourceful Pole. - -The words had hardly left his lips before several shots rang out, and -all started to their feet, thinking this the signal for an attack on the -house. - -But immediately after, Neumann, the King’s surgeon, entered. - -“The King is having all the Arab chargers given him by the Sultan shot,” -he announced, “and the carcases flung to the Tartar troops.” - -The Swedes were silent. - -In their hearts they knew there was no excuse for Karl’s behavior, and -that reason, right, and justice were all on the side of the Sultan, who -had from the first been forbearing, chivalrous, and generous to a -stranger whom he neither liked nor understood, and who had been the -cause of much annoyance to him and of many distractions in his court. -Yet they all loved Karl, who till the days of his exile had awakened -little affection in any heart, and who now exhibited few lovable -qualities. - -But his unyielding determination, his iron inflexibility, his austere -life, his high ideals of heroic virtues had inspired a feeling that was -almost reverence in the hearts of those who had shared his dreary exile. - -And in this bitter pass to which his obstinacy had brought them it was -not of themselves they thought, but of the King--it was his peril, not -their own, that forced the tears to their eyes. - - - - -CHAPTER II - - -The answer from Adrianople was to the effect that the Swedes were to -leave Bender at all costs and that all who resisted were to be forcibly -ejected, and, if need be, slain. - -Their commands were not at all to the liking of the Khan or Ismail -Pasha, both of whom had come to like Karl, a type admirable in the eyes -of a Mussulman, and M. Fabrice again tried his talents as mediator. - -All these efforts, like so many others, proved fruitless, and for the -same reason--the inflexibility of Karl. - -Even Baron Görtz thought the King went too far, and he knew, better than -any man, the real cause of Karl’s bitter obstinacy. - -And this was the treaty of Pruth. - -When, after years of dreary waiting, the endless intrigues of -Poniatowski had at last succeeded in causing the Porte to declare war on -Russia, Karl had believed that his patience was rewarded and that his -downfall would be avenged. - -And it seemed as if fortune was again favoring him; Peter, marching into -Turkey as recklessly as Karl had marched into the Ukraine, found himself -on the banks of the Pruth, isolated, outnumbered, without provisions or -stores, in a position as desperate as that in which Karl had found -himself at Poltava. - -So terrible was the prospect, so certain seemed defeat, slavery, the -triumph of his defeated rival, and the failure of his own life’s work, -that the Czar fell into a state of despair which brought on a fearful -attack of convulsions. - -While he was thus helpless a council of war was called at which -Katherina presided. - -By the advice of this ignorant but astute woman, now roused from her -usual placidity, all the available treasure in the camp was gathered -together and sent as a present to the Grand Vizier in command of the -Turkish army, together with a demand to know his terms of peace. - -The result of this was the treaty of Pruth or Ialciu, by which Peter -ceded all the advantages he had gained in his previous war with Turkey, -including the town of Azov, and agreed to withdraw his troops from -Poland and to renew the tribute to the Tartars that he had long ceased -to pay. In return he was allowed to retire with his army, cannon, flags, -and baggage, furnished with food by the Turks, and Karl, hastening to -the battle and hoping to find the Czar as he had been himself before -Poltava, found that the Russians had retreated untouched. - -Nor had Poniatowski, who was with the vizier, been able to obtain a -single advantage for his master in the signing of the peace, beyond an -article by which Peter engaged not to trouble the return of Karl to his -dominions, should he choose to come through Russia. - -Karl, who had ridden fifty leagues from Bender, swum the Pruth at the -risk of his life, and dashed through the Muscovite encampment, had been -driven beyond his usual control at the news which he received on -entering Poniatowski’s tent. - -In a cold fury he went to face the vizier, but received no satisfaction -from the calm Turk, who, having as he believed secured his master’s -interests, cared little for the rage of the fugitive King of Sweden. - -“I have the right,” he said, “to make war and peace.” - -“But you had the whole Russian army in your power!” cried Karl. - -“Our law,” replied Mahomet Baltadgi, “tells us to give peace to our -enemies when they demand our mercy.” - -“And does it order,” retorted Karl, “that you make bad treaties when -you might make good ones? Do you not know that you could have led the -Czar prisoner to Constantinople?” - -The vizier replied gravely and dryly in words that Karl never forgot. - -“We cannot shelter all the Kings of Europe in Turkey.” - -The King, turning with disdainful haste, caught his spur in the Turk’s -long robe, purposely tore it with an angry movement of his foot, and -galloped back to Bender, blacker despair in his heart than there had -been after Poltava. - -He then resolved that he would not leave Turkey until he had secured the -punishment of Mahomet Baltadgi and another army with which to march -against Peter. - -The vizier took care that his plaints and protests should not reach the -Sultan; all letters from Bender were intercepted on the road, but after -a while Karl’s hopes were flattered by the Porte which became indignant -at the behavior of the Czar. The Keys of Azov did not arrive, the -tribute was not paid, and Poniatowski was able to convey to the Sultan -the news that Muscovite troops were still in Poland. - -Peter, however, had soon accommodated matters with the Porte, and -Mahomet Baltadgi was more resolute than ever in insisting on the removal -of the man whom he now knew to be his enemy. - -He obtained from Vienna a safe-conduct for Karl if he chose to return -through the territories of the Empire, and he put galleys at his -disposal if he wished to go by sea. - -But Karl, bitter and humiliated, had been from the first resolute not to -be chased from Turkey, but to leave at his own convenience. - -He had been confirmed in this attitude by the discovery of a -correspondence between the Khan of the Tartars and General Fleming, the -minister of Augustus of Saxony, in the ambiguous phrasing of which he -and Baron Görtz had thought they had discovered a design to deliver -Karl to the Saxons on his return. - -M. Fabrice had satisfied himself that the Khan spoke the truth when he -denied these allegations, but Karl was not to be convinced. - -The express having arrived from Adrianople, the predictions of M. -Fabrice and the English minister having failed, and Karl being still -inflexible, there remained now but to expect an assault of the Tartars -and janissaries. - -The King had already entrenched his 300 troops and disposed his -household for the defense of his house. - -Müllern, with Karl’s secretary, the clergy and the other ministers were -to defend the chancellor’s house; Baron Fieff was to command the little -garrison of cooks and servants and grooms in the house of Grothusen. - -The King assigned to every one his post, and promised rewards to those -who should conduct themselves bravely. - -The Turks came to the attack with ten pieces of cannon, but Grothusen -rode out to meet them, unarmed and bareheaded, and appealed to these -janissaries, who had so often enjoyed Swedish bounty, to desist from -this attack on helpless and brave men, and to grant a delay of three -days in which to ascertain if in reality the orders of the Sultan were -so severe. - -These words produced a revolt among the janissaries, who swore to accord -the three days to the King, and rushed in a tumult to the Pasha of -Bender, declaring that the orders of the Sultan were forged. - -Despite the protests of the Khan, Ismail Pasha postponed the assault -till the next day, and drawing aside sixty of the oldest janissaries -showed them the positive order of the Sultan, at the same time telling -them to go peaceably to Karl and request his departure, offering -themselves as his escort; so anxious was Ismail Pasha to avoid hurting -Karl or any of his suite. - -While these veterans were proceeding, armed only with the white wands -they bore in times of peace, to the King’s camp, M. Fabrice, who could -not now come to see the King in his state of siege, sent him a letter by -the hands of a Turk, enclosing one from Poniatowski, then at -Constantinople. - -Baron Görtz took this dispatch to the King who was then (it was an early -hour of the morning) alone in his chamber. - -A great sadness filled the heart of this faithful friend as he looked at -the King. - -Karl, despite his strength and pride and obstinacy, was in a piteous -position. - -There was something heartrending, almost ridiculous in the King’s -attitude; this useless heroism, this futile defiance--all that had been -splendid at Poltava was pitiful at Bender. - -And all the more so because Karl saw neither the pathos nor the tragedy -of his situation, and disposed his cooks and grooms, his pastors and -clerks, with as much gravity as he had disposed his veteran troops -before Varsovia or Klissow. - -Yet he was more moved than Grothusen had ever seen him, save in the -Turkish camp at Pruth. Something of the old Viking fury that could only -be satisfied by an orgy of blood was upon him, apart from his real -conviction that it would be dishonor to depart peaceably; he lusted to -fight. - -A warrior by birth, inclination, and training, these four years of -idleness had been almost unendurable to his fierce spirit. - -He longed to draw his sword once more and feel that atmosphere of -excitement and peril that was the breath of life to him. - -Added to this he was deeply angry with the Turks; no one could tell the -bitterness of his disappointment in having failed to achieve a Turkish -army to lead against Peter. - -And the news from Europe could hardly have been worse; all his enemies -had attacked his estates during his absence, Augustus was once more -King of Poland, and Russia occupied the place Sweden had so lately held -as Arbiter of the North. - -All these reflections weighed on Grothusen as he addressed the King. - -“Sire, there is a party of janissaries on their way to your Majesty, and -I beseech you to listen to them.” - -Karl looked up as if he had been startled from a reverie. - -Without replying he took the letter from M. Fabrice, broke the seal, and -read the enclosure from Count Poniatowski. - -The intrepid Pole had fallen into disfavor with the Sultan after Karl’s -imprudent demand for more money and was not permitted to be with the -Court, then at Adrianople; he had, however, managed to keep in touch -with affairs, and he now wrote to inform the King that it was but too -true that Ahmed had ordered the Khan to proceed to extremity if Karl -refused to move from Bender. - -In impassioned words of love and respect Poniatowski implored the King -to relinquish his mad design of resistance, to think no more of -assistance from Turkey, and to return to his own country, trusting to -his own genius to retrieve his fortunes. - -The King put down the letter and rose. - -“All, all so ready to persuade me to my own dishonor!” he exclaimed. - -He was deeply moved, and his eyes showed dark in a pale face as he flung -back his head and stared at Grothusen. - -“On my soul,” cried that nobleman, “these Turks mean no dishonor.” - -“Have you not yourself seen,” returned Karl, “the letters to the Khan -from Count Fleming? I believe they mean to sell me to Augustus.” - -“I am sure, sire,” replied Grothusen, with some heat, “they do not. I -know truth when I see it, and I am convinced that the Khan and Ismail -Pasha are acting as honorable men.” - -“Very well, then,” said Karl, “I also will act as an honorable man. I -refuse to be forced to do what I would not do willingly.” - -“You know that this may mean your life, sire, which is sacred to your -people? That all your friends, servants, and guards, so long faithful to -you, and looking to you for protection, will be either massacred or -taken into slavery?” - -“Grothusen,” replied the King coldly, “if you fear to share my fortunes, -join the Poles and Cossacks who have gone to Bender.” - -At this cruel remark the Swede flushed hotly all over his fair face. - -“That you are beyond reason, sire, does not mean that I am beyond -loyalty.” - -“No,” replied the King more gently, “I have no doubt as to your -loyalty--nor as to that of any with me.” - -“The generals are in despair, sire.” - -“They have rusted too long--like my sword,” remarked the King briefly. -“Have you any other news, Grothusen?” - -He spoke as if he would dismiss the subject of their present position, -and Grothusen endeavored to follow his humor, though indeed there was no -subject on which he could speak that would be particularly pleasing to -either. - -“M. Müllern had an express this morning to say that King Stanislaus was -still on his way to the Turkish frontier.” - -“He is my friend,” replied Karl. “Were he not I should call him weak and -foolish.” - -In truth, the inflexibility of the King of Sweden had for some time been -forced by the pliability of the man whom he had made King of Poland. - -Stanislaus, faithful as Karl to an ancient friendship, had, on being -driven from the Polish throne, gone to Pomerania to defend the dominions -of his benefactor. - -After many vicissitudes he had resolved to abandon the crown that was -the real cause of contention between Karl and his enemies, and by -admitting the claim of Augustus to pave the way for a peace for Sweden. - -To this end he had written to Karl several times begging him to leave -him in retirement, and not for his already lost cause to risk blood, -treasure, or his own advantages. - -In acting thus the generous Pole showed that he did not know the man -with whom he dealt; Karl was merely angry at this self-sacrifice; he was -haughtily decided never to permit Augustus to keep the throne of Poland, -and equally to never permit Stanislaus to resign it; he had never, in -the dreariest, most hopeless hours of his exile relinquished the dream -of unthroning the Czar, and the chivalrous withdrawal of Stanislaus -Leczinski from the combat merely irritated the indomitable Swede. - -Learning his humor, but still convinced of the wisdom of his own -decision, Stanislaus had decided to come himself to Bender to inform -Karl of the state of Europe and the desirability of his resigning the -crown of Poland. - -It was this journey, that the Pole was making incognito, that Grothusen -now referred to. - -It was not a happy change of subject, for it vexed Karl almost as much -as that of the deputation of the janissaries. - -“He too comes to dissuade me from what I have already set my mind on,” -remarked the angry King. “Well, let him come. If I meet him, I shall -tell him that if he will not be King of Poland, I can find another who -will.” - -He walked up and down the room, slowly and in a controlled manner, but -the heaving of his bosom, the pallor of his face, and the dark flash in -the eyes usually so cold, told that he was angry in no common fashion. - -He suddenly stopped before his friend. - -“And you, Grothusen!” he exclaimed, “you too would wish to see me a -laughing-stock for the Czar--turned from this country at his pleasure.” - -His emotion overpowered him as he mentioned his chief enemy; he turned -to the window and leant his sick head against the mullions. - -Peter Alexievitch! - -That name was the cause of all his wrath and soreness, all his stubborn -pride and deep fury; the Czar, the only man who had been worthy of his -steel--the man who had defeated him--the man, who, through what Karl -considered the baseness of Mahomet Baltadgi, had escaped vengeance on -the banks of the Pruth. - -In many bitter ways had Peter made Karl feel the sting of defeat. - -Piper, Rehnsköld, Wurtemberg, and other ministers and generals, famous -and glorious for their part in Karl’s great victories, his close -companions for ten years, had marched in chains, two by two, through the -streets of St. Petersburg, following the barbaric triumph with which the -Czar impressed his people. - -And the Muscovite ambassadors at Constantinople had flourished with -Swedish slaves, the heroes of Klissow and Poltava, in their train. - -And Karl had the humiliation of knowing that the rest of his veterans, -the flower of the army, were working as slaves in Siberia or teaching -their masters their native handicrafts. - -Every way Peter was prosperous; his navy rode the waters of the gulf of -Riga and the gulf of Finland; his armies spread all over the Baltic -Provinces, and held Poland at their mercy; his ambassadors were received -at every Court; the arts and sciences grew apace in Russia. - -It was no wonder that his name inspired with despair the proud young -warrior who had thought to dethrone him in a year. - -“Do you think,” he suddenly asked aloud, “that I shall leave Turkey till -I secure the punishment of Mahomet Baltadgi?” - -He now hated this man, who had snatched his patiently waited-for -vengeance from him, almost as much as he hated Peter Alexievitch. - -“Count Poniatowski does his best----” began Grothusen. - -“Cease to weary me with that useless talk,” interrupted Karl fiercely. - -Grothusen looked mournfully at the strong noble face; he felt an -overwhelming pity for this life that was so strong and brave and -steadfast, and so lonely and so thwarted, for this nature that had -greatly dared, greatly achieved, and then had to endure the humiliation -of complete failure. - -Karl was not lovable, but in that moment his friend yearned over him as -if he had been a woman. - -Before either could speak again Baron Görtz entered. - -The sixty janissaries, white-bearded veterans, unarmed and on foot, had -arrived. - -They sent the most humble, most respectful message to the King. - -If he would only leave Bender they would themselves escort him anywhere -he wished, even to Adrianople, so that he might put his case to the -Sultan. - -“I will not see them,” said the King. - -“Sire, I fear they will never leave until you have spoken with them,” -replied Görtz. - -The King gave a deep sigh and rang the bell; Frederic the valet, who had -held him on his horse at Poltava, appeared. - -“Go to these old Turks,” commanded Karl, “and bid them leave my house, -or else,” he sought for the worst insult one could give a Mohammedan, “I -will send my soldiers to cut off their beards.” - - - - -CHAPTER III - - -The janissaries, utterly outraged at this insult, retired muttering in -anger: “Ah, head of iron, head of iron, if you will perish, you shall!” - -The Turks and Tartars were now again advancing to the attack. - -Karl ran out, mounted and galloped, in company with three generals, -towards his little camp. He was in time to see the 300 Swedes surrounded -and overwhelmed by the Turks to whom they surrendered without firing a -shot. - -When the King beheld his veterans thus delivering themselves into the -hands of the enemy, in his very presence, the deep color sprang into his -cheeks. - -For an instant he covered his face with his hands, then, throwing back -his head haughtily, he spoke to the officers who accompanied him. - -“Come, let us defend the house, then,” he said, and turned swiftly -about, and followed by the generals gained his residence that he had -left garrisoned by forty servants and fortified as best he could. - -These defenses, however, had been useless before the onslaught of an -army; the Turks had stormed the house and entered by the windows, a -surging crowd of janissaries heaved before the door. - -The King’s servants had retired into the large dining-hall that opened -off the entrance chamber on the ground floor, their fair frightened -faces could be seen at the great window, in strange contrast to the dark -triumphant faces shouting without. - -The King leant forward from the saddle; his look was as intent as that -of an eagle bending from a rock to drop on its prey. He glanced forward -at his beleaguered house then back at those about him. - -His following numbered in all twenty persons, including the generals -Hord, Dahldorf, and Sparre, M. Fabrice who had contrived to join the -King, and Frederic his valet. - -“Stand by me now,” cried the King, “and we will gain the house.” - -Mad as they thought his action, there was not one of them who would not -have been ashamed to draw back now. - -Flinging himself from his horse, grasping in one hand his sword and in -the other a pistol, Karl threw himself on the crowd of janissaries who -surged before his door, and began to cut his way through the press. - -The Turks hurled themselves on him; Ismail Pasha had promised eight -golden ducats to each man who could only touch the habit of the terrible -king, if he was captured, and the janissaries fought and struggled to -get near the tall figure in the blue uniform. - -Karl laughed; the fury and the joy of battle, doubly grateful after -years of enforced idleness, filled his veins; he cut down all those who -stood in his way and, a head and shoulders above the crowd, forced -through to the door. - -A Turk placed a musket at his head, Karl turned and ran him through the -chest; the musket went off, the ball grazed the King’s nose, wounded his -ear, and broke the arm of General Hord. - -The Turks began to fall back before this man who appeared invincible and -even superhuman; his long sword dripping blood, his pistol hot and -smoking, his fair face calm yet lit with that cold fury of the North, so -strange a thing to Eastern people, Karl of Sweden smote to right and -left until he had cut his way to his doorstep. - -The little garrison, who had been watching the desperate fight with -breathless agitation, threw open the door. - -The King strode in, followed by his escort; the door was instantly -bolted and barricaded with chairs, tables, and other articles of -furniture. Karl now found himself in the large dining-hall; his entire -retinue consisted of sixty men, of whom several were wounded, General -Hord severely so. - -The King’s own face was all bloody from the gash in his ear; he wiped -this away with a gesture of impatience and tossed down the soaked -handkerchief. - -The little company looked at him, no one saying anything; all were -standing save the wounded general, who was seated while a valet tied up -his arm with rough splinters and bandages. They all of them counted on -certain death, and had only the melancholy satisfaction of resolving to -sell their lives dear. - -Only one or two intrepid spirits shared the King’s humor, and were -indifferent to the issue of the fray as long as they might acquit -themselves with honor. - -Among these was Baron Görtz, a daring, audacious, and courageous man -full of nerve and resource, Grothusen, a calm, bold spirit, and -Frederic, the faithful and intrepid valet. - -For a moment the King stood silent, leaning on his bare sword, and -listening to the Turks who had overrun the rest of the house and were -hurrying from room to room, pillaging and searching for the King. - -Shouts and heavy steps told that they had entered the adjoining -apartment which was the King’s bed-chamber. - -Karl wiped his sword on the blue damask cover of a chair and picked up -his musket and loaded it. - -“Come,” he said, “help me to turn these barbarians from my house.” - -So saying he flung open the inner door that led to the bed-chamber and -strode in among the Turks, raising his musket as he did so and firing -into the group of plunderers. These, startled at the sudden apparition -of the man whom they had believed dead or captured, and loaded with -booty, were taken at a disadvantage. - -The magnificent figure with the calm face now so fierce in expression, -that they had been used to respect, filled them with awe; they retreated -before Karl, dropping the gold and silver vessels, the rolls of -tapestries, the knives and firearms that they had despoiled from the -King’s stores. - -Karl advanced among them, throwing away his musket; he drew his sword -and drove the Turks backwards before him; many jumped out of the window, -two crawled under the brocade valences of the King’s bed. - -Karl, perceiving this, ran his sword through one; the other crawled out, -and bending low before the King besought his mercy. - -Karl turned to Grothusen, now close behind him. - -“Tell him,” he said, “that I will give him his life if he tells Ismail -Pasha what he has seen.” - -Grothusen translated this; the shivering Turk eagerly promised, and was -suffered to jump out of the window after his companions. - -The invaders had now taken refuge in the cellars; from these Karl and -his now heartened followers soon dislodged them; some were killed, -others contrived their escape through doors or windows. - -Karl ordered the dead to be flung out after the living, and in a short -space of time the house was free of the enemy. - -The Swedes now proceeded to barricade doors and windows, and to fetch -such arms as were available. - -A large store of muskets and powder had not been discovered by the -Turks, and these proved ample for the arming of the garrison. - -Karl, as composed and cool as always when in the midst of battle, was -nevertheless animated by a furious anger and passion; his blood was up, -and he was utterly reckless of all consequences both to himself and -others. - -“We will make this house famous,” he said, when he had given -instructions to his men to resist to the very utmost and the very last. - -“But too famous!” General Dahldorf could not help saying, “if it is to -be the scene of your Majesty’s----” - -He could not say the word, and the tears rose to his eyes. - -“My death,” finished the King. “Well, if these are our last hours it is -the more needful that we should make them honorable.” - -He posted such as he had of guards and soldiers and the more skilled of -the servants at the windows, with orders to fire on the swarms of Turks -and Tartars pressing about the house. - -The Khan and Ismail Pasha now brought their cannon into action, but with -no avail; the balls fell harmlessly from the stoutly built stone walls. - -In a few moments the Swedes firing from the windows had killed over 200 -Turks and wounded a great many others. - -“See you,” cried the King to Grothusen, “if my soldiers had stood firm -we had defeated all these infidels!” - -“Ah, sire,” replied Grothusen, “had every man a spirit such as yours we -should be invincible!” - -It was no mere flattery he spoke, he meant and believed what he said. - -And in his heart he thought--“If you had not been sick we had fought and -died like this on the banks of the Dnieper, and not lived to see this -exile.” - -The King was at one of the barricaded windows, firing over the heads of -his crouching soldiers who were picking off the Turks who seemed in a -certain confusion, when Baron Görtz gave a sudden cry and a deep curse. - -He had perceived that the Turks, ashamed at being so long kept at bay by -a handful of men, were sending arrows, twisted with flaming straw, on -to the roof, the doors, window-frames, and all the inflammable portions -of the building. The exclamation had hardly left his lips before a great -gush of flame invaded the room where the King was. - -The roof, burning with a hundred flaming arrows, was falling into this -upper chamber. - -Karl, without a change of countenance, called two guards to help him -find water. - -General Dahldorf dragged along a small barrel from the stores. - -With his own hands the King staved it in and hurled the contents on to -the advancing flames; with a roar the fire increased so that all had to -hurl themselves against the door; the perukes of the officers were -singed, and arid smoke filled the eyes of all. - -The barrel had been filled, not, as was thought, with water, but with -brandy. - -There was nothing to do but to retire into the next apartment; this was -already menaced and full of smoke. - -The roof was blazing, and flames began to creep round the walls. - -The Turks, now passive, waited, with a kind of awe, for the Swedes to -leave the doomed building; they had ceased their cries and shouts, and -their excited faces were all turned towards the flaming house. - -The King’s position was indeed becoming untenable; driven from room to -room by the darting flames the Swedes were forced to take refuge on the -ground floor. - -Even this was invaded by smoke and large sparks from the burning -woodwork. - -The fumes were becoming blinding, choking. They could hardly see each -other’s faces; only the King, Görtz, and Grothusen continued to fire -from the flaming window. - -A soldier, with singed clothes and hair, staggered up to the King and -cried out, with his arm flung up to protect his eyes, that they must -surrender. - -“Surrender!” cried the King, looking over his shoulder. “Who dared say -that word?” - -“Sire,” answered the wretched guard, “we shall burn alive!” - -“Here is a strange man,” said Karl contemptuously, “who thinks it is -better to surrender than to die!” - -Another soldier, who was near the King now, ventured to speak. - -“Sire, could we not gain M. Müllern’s house that is not fifty paces -away, and that has a stone roof that is fireproof?” - -The King’s straight gaze was turned for an instant on the speaker; then -his blue eyes flashed with joy. - -He flung away his smoking musket and seized the soldier by the arm; he -remembered the fellow’s name, for he was among his personal guard. - -“You are a true Swede, _Colonel_ Posen!” he said. - -The man crimsoned, even in this moment, with delight at this promotion, -but Karl left him no time for thanks. - -The flames were now enveloping them, and there was no time to be lost in -forcing a way out of the burning house. - -Putting himself at the head of his men, Karl issued from the door least -damaged by the fire and emptied his pistol into the crowd of expectant -and waiting Turks. - -This example was followed by the officers and soldiers immediately -behind, and so terrible was this onslaught of the desperate Swedes that -the Turks recoiled, calling on “Allah! Allah!” to defend them from this -dreadful hero. - -But the little band had not gone far before they were overpowered; Karl, -forced forward ahead of the others, was separated from them and entirely -surrounded. - -He threw away his pistol, and passing his sword from his left hand to -his right, defended himself with that against the janissaries who -pressed upon him with shouts of triumph. - -For several moments he held his own against his enemies; several reeled -back dead before him. He was hatless, and his fair, flushed face, the -blue eyes vivid, showed above them all; then one caught him by the belt -and dragged him half down; but he resisted to the full of his great -strength and would have got free, but, in turning, his spur caught in -the robe of one of his assailants and threw him. - -They had him down, and twenty janissaries threw themselves on him to pin -him to the earth. - -Karl, with one last effort and a loud cry, flung his sword up into the -air. - -The bloody blade glittered a second in the pale spring sunshine, then -was caught by a dozen eager hands. - -The King, knowing now that all was useless, remained perfectly -motionless. - -The janissaries, whose cries of anger and triumph were mingled with -exclamations of respect, lifted their terrible captive from the ground, -and carrying him by the knees, the feet, and the shoulders, bore him to -Ismail Pasha’s tent. At the door of this they set him on his feet, and -conducted him into the presence of the Governor of Bender. - -Karl made no resistance; he looked at his captors with a little smile -and passed into the tent. - -It was the first time in his life that he had been without a sword. - -Ismail Pasha, cool and grave, richly dressed and splendid in his -luxurious tent, rose and courteously greeted his presence, asking him -with many compliments to be seated on the silk-covered divan. - -“I bless the All Highest,” he said, “that your Majesty is alive--it was -my despair that your Majesty compelled me to put in execution the orders -of the Sultan.” - -Karl remained standing, a soiled, bloodstained figure, his clothes -scorched and rent, his face blackened, his eyebrows and hair singed, but -erect and haughty. - -He disdained to notice the Turk’s civilities. - -“Had my 300 Swedes stood firm,” was all he would say, “I had fought you -for ten days, not ten hours.” - -“Alas!” said Ismail Pasha gravely, “here is misdirected courage!” - -He turned aside to speak to the Khan of the Tartars who was present, and -the interpreter, with much respect, informed Karl that he would be -reconducted to Bender. - -Karl smiled bitterly. - -He would sooner have died than have been in his present position, but he -gave no outward sign of discomposure; he wanted to known what had become -of his servants and friends, but was too proud to ask. - -It seemed that he had lost everything; his Swedes either killed or -captured, his house burnt, his furniture, papers--everything, even to -his wearing apparel, pillaged or destroyed. - -And he knew of no one to whom he could turn in this extremity to which -his obstinate pride had reduced him; he was now the prisoner of the -Turks, and for all he knew might end his life a captive in exile. - -He was mounted on a richly appointed horse, and conducted to Ismail -Pasha’s house in Bender. On the way he had the anguish of seeing his -Swedish officers, chained two and two together, following, half nude, -the Turks or Tartars who had captured them. - -Karl started, and for the first time since he was a child, his cold blue -eyes were wet with tears. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - - -Next morning M. Fabrice obtained permission to see the King. - -He found him closely guarded by the janissaries who had captured him, in -an apartment of Ismail Pasha’s palace at Bender. - -Karl was as the fight had left him; he had slept in his coat and -top-boots, to the great amazement of the Turks, and received M. Fabrice -seated on a divan covered with costly cushions, in his torn and burnt -uniform, his person all stained with blood and powder. - -He looked at M. Fabrice with his extraordinary straight and -expressionless gaze; his eyes were slightly bloodshot, his cheeks -unshaven, his fair hair disheveled, but his demeanor was calm and even -gentle; there was nothing of yesterday’s Viking fury. - -He raised M. Fabrice, who had gone on his knees beside him, and passed -over the envoy’s emotion by asking with a smile what the Turks thought -of the battle of Bender. - -“Sire,” replied M. Fabrice, “they say that your Majesty killed twenty -janissaries with your own hand.” - -“Ah, these tales are only half true,” remarked Karl. - -M. Fabrice now informed him that M. Grothusen, M. Görtz, and the -principal officers had been ransomed. - -“Who by?” asked Karl sharply. - -“Ismail Pasha, sire, who paid for M. Grothusen out of his own pocket, -the English minister, and that French nobleman, La Motraye, who came to -Bender to see your Majesty.” - -“And you yourself,” said the King keenly. “You have contributed your -best.” - -“Sire, it was my bare duty.” - -“You shall all be repaid,” answered Karl briefly; pecuniary obligations -weighed very lightly on him, for he made no account at all of money in -which he had no interest, and which he profusely scattered whenever it -was in his possession. - -Still the obligation to the generous Pasha slightly galled him. - -“Is Frederic ransomed?” he asked abruptly. - -“Alas, sire, he was slain by the Tartars who captured him, and who -quarreled over their victim.” - -“Ah!” exclaimed Karl, then he added, “I think first he must have slain a -dozen of these barbarians with his own hands!” - -M. Fabrice was silent a moment, and the King stared down at the floor. - -“I have other bad news for your Majesty,” said he sadly. “King -Stanislaus has been made a prisoner by the Turks and is being brought to -Bender.” - -Karl’s hard chest heaved and he raised his head as if to speak. - -His eyes shot a fiery glance, but he was silent. - -“A messenger came from Moldavia this morning,” continued M. Fabrice, “to -say that the King was stopped at Jassy. He was traveling as a Swede with -a message for your Majesty, but was recognized by the hospodar of -Moldavia----” - -“Why could he not stay in Pomerania?” demanded Karl sternly. - -“Sire, he certainly hoped that his presence might accomplish what his -letters have not been able to--and that he might persuade your Majesty -to permit him to resign the crown you gave him.” - -Karl rose impatiently, towering over the envoy, himself a tall man -wearing a high peruke. - -“No more of that, M. Fabrice,” he said. “I will not hear these -arguments.” - -But M. Fabrice insisted, thinking, not unnaturally, that his present -misfortunes might soften the inflexible spirit of Karl. - -“Sire, the King of Prussia offers a treaty whereby Poland and your -Majesty league to keep the Czar in check. This cannot be until -Stanislaus resigns his claim, and this he is willing to do--to benefit -your Majesty whom he loves,” added M. Fabrice simply. - -But Karl was not to be moved; not even this powerful alliance against -his arch-enemy, not even the prospect of gaining the dearest wish of his -life in humbling Peter could shake him for an instant from the course -that he considered the just and right, nor into forsaking his friend, -even at that friend’s request. - -He was no politician, and, now that Count Piper was not there to guide -him, solved these questions by the simple code of a soldier’s honor, a -proceeding strange indeed to the councilors of Europe. - -“I will never make peace with Augustus, who has broken the peace of -Altranstadt like the villain he is, nor with Denmark, who has broken the -treaty of Traventhal, nor with Prussia and Hanover, who have vilely -bought my lands from the false princes. Times will change--do you think -I shall always be like this--and then I will smite them as I smote -before. Mark you, M. Fabrice, it was only behind my back they dared to -raise their heads--and when I return----” - -He made an instinctive movement towards his sword, and finding only the -empty straps gave a start, while the color paled in his face. - -Instantly recovering himself, he turned to M. Fabrice with a proud -smile. - -“You know that I am not given to boasting,” he said. “And you know that -when I return the affairs of Europe will change.” - -As he spoke these words, the quiet confidence of which was not affected, -he was without any resource in the world, not even master of his own -person. - -His enemies had indeed reared their heads in his absence; Denmark had -fallen on his provinces and succeeded in achieving some success despite -the Swedish victory of Helsingborg; Augustus was again firmly -established on the throne he had vowed to renounce; the Elector of -Hanover, now King of England, and for that reason dangerous, had bought -some of the territory wrested from Karl in his absence, and was prepared -to defend what he held; and Frederic of Prussia would be Sweden’s foe if -Karl did not consent to the resignation of Stanislaus. - -Therefore Karl had practically the whole of Europe either secretly or -openly against him, and no friend or ally; both Louis XIV and the -Emperor were unfriendly to him, and it had been one of the excuses he -had made for not leaving Bender that he could not trust himself in the -territories of either of these nations. - -The condition of his own country, without her ruler, drained of her best -manhood, with commerce ruined, the command of the Baltic lost, and -surrounded by enemies, was deplorable. - -It seemed as if Count Piper’s worst forebodings were to come true, and -the exploits of Karl XII would lose all that Karl X had won by the Peace -of Brömsebro and the Peace of Roskilde, and Karl XI consolidated by the -Battle of Lund. - -M. Fabrice, steeped in the politics of Europe, and whose main interest -in life was the fortune of the realm over which his young master was one -day to ride, looked with amazement at the fortitude of Karl in face of -events so untoward and a future so uncertain. - -Yet in his own heart he felt a certain spark of hope inspired by the -sheer strength of this strange character. - -It was Karl who broke the thoughtful silence. - -“Go to King Stanislaus, my dear Fabrice,” he said quietly, “and tell him -never to abandon his claims, for I never shall, nor make any peace with -our mutual enemies. And that if I live, all will be different.” - -“If only your Majesty would return to Stockholm!” exclaimed the envoy. - -Karl gave his ugly smile. - -“That I shall never do,” he replied, “until I can return victorious. But -perhaps it is time I went North.” - -By which M. Fabrice concluded that the King had now resigned all hopes -of that Turkish army for which he had waited and Poniatowski intrigued -for nearly four years. - -The envoy from Holstein-Gottorp wondered where Karl hoped to find the -means to carry out these defiances he still hurled at his enemies; the -task seemed to him fairly hopeless, and yet, as he stood in the presence -of this man, he could not feel disheartened. - -“You have no longer any faith in me, M. Fabrice,” said Karl, looking -with a smile at the envoy’s perturbed face. - -M. Fabrice did not answer, but with a swelling heart turned away. - -The King looked at his bloodstained hands with some disgust and was -about to call for water, when Ismail Pasha entered, conducting M. -Grothusen. - -The Swede gave an exclamation on seeing the state of his master. - -“It is a shameful thing to leave his Majesty without a sword!” he -exclaimed. - -“Allah preserve us,” answered Ismail Pasha, “he swore that he would cut -off our beards.” - -With that he retired, leaving the King and his two friends alone. - -As if he wished to prevent M. Grothusen from referring to his present -plight, Karl began to speak at once of the arrival of King Stanislaus at -Bender. - -“I must see him,” said the King. “I must tell him to return at once to -Pomerania and fight there to the utmost.” - -“Sire,” replied M. Grothusen sadly, “King Stanislaus comes under a -military escort, and I do not think that anyone will be allowed to -approach him.” - -“But they bring him to Bender!” exclaimed Karl. - -M. Grothusen averted his face. - -“I do not think that your Majesty will stay at Bender.” - -At this reminder of his captive position the King, who had not allowed a -single impatient word to escape him since he had been made prisoner, -colored and made a haughty movement with his head. - -“Where do they propose to take me?” he asked haughtily. - -“I cannot discover, sire. I think to Adrianople.” - -Karl glanced at M. Fabrice whose face was still further overcast. - -“Well,” he remarked, “perhaps we shall yet get our 200,000 men from the -Porte. See if you can get a message to King Stanislaus to say that we -are still unshaken in our designs.” - -He was silent a moment, and then added in an impetuous manner, rare for -him: - -“If they take me to Adrianopole I will punish Mahomet Baltadgi--I will -disclose to the Sultan that my letters were intercepted and that Count -Fleming was corresponding with the Khan.” - -That evening the King was taken in a scarlet litter to Adrianople, and -King Stanislaus arrived at Bender, having received on the road, by the -mouth of M. Fabrice, the message of his inflexible friend. - - - - -CHAPTER V - - -Karl was conducted to Demotica, a little town some leagues from -Adrianople; a few of his suite were allowed to be with him and the rest -of the Swedes were kept in prison. - -Through Poniatowski’s able negotiations the Sultan was apprised of the -King of Sweden’s side of the story, and the Grand Vizier Soliman was -dismissed, the Khan and Ismail Pasha banished. - -But, despite the efforts of the French ambassador and various secret -friends whom Karl had in Constantinople, the Porte showed him no favor, -and so far from obtaining the succor of which he had dreamed he was -treated as a prisoner, and not allowed even to communicate with Ahmed. - -Despite this, Karl, who had by no means so completely relinquished hope -of Turkish help as his friends had supposed, refused to return to -Sweden, preferring captivity to the humiliation of returning to his -realm a defeated and stripped fugitive. - -The new vizier having sent for him to be present at a conference with -the French ambassador with a view to an alliance against Muscovy, the -King, deeply wounded in his pride, sent Müllern, and himself feigned -sickness, keeping himself for months enclosed in his chamber, so fearful -was he that the Turks might in some way force him to compromise his -dignity. He lived now in the simplest style, waited upon by his friends -Grothusen, Görtz, and Müllern, for he was without servants, such of -these as had survived the Bender fight being in prison, and without any -luxuries or even comforts, all his possessions having been burnt at -Varnitza, and the Porte now having ceased the princely generosity that -had rendered easy the first years of exile. The news that he received in -his confinement was of disaster upon disaster. - -Sweden was attacked on all sides. - -General Stenbock worthily filled the place of the King in defending his -country, and revenged the burning of Stade by reducing Altona to ashes; -but he could not long hold the field with such diminished forces against -such a powerful combination of enemies, and all the provinces of the -Baltic were lost to Sweden as well as most of her possessions in -Germany, and Stenbock was losing ground in Breme and Pomerania. - -The Saxons, Danes, and Russians joined forces, advanced on -Holstein-Gottorp, the little duchy that had been the first cause of this -long quarrel; the Swedish army was destroyed, Stenbock made a prisoner, -the whole of Pomerania, with the exception of Stralsund, fell into the -hands of Russia, the Danes seized Breme, the Russians Finland, and Karl -remained at Demotica. - -It was believed in Europe that he was dead; the Swedish senate implored -his sister to accept the regency; she did so, and wrote to her brother -that the councilors wished to make peace with their enemies who on every -side overwhelmed them. - -Karl sent an imperious and haughty reply, saying he would send one of -his boots, if they wished for a master, and that they could take orders -from that. - -In this extremity the Princess sent Count Liewin to Demotica to argue -with Karl. - -This nobleman was conducted into the King’s presence by Count -Poniatowski, who had lately come from Constantinople, where he was -convinced he could do nothing more for the Swedish cause. - -“You will find his Majesty changed--but not his inflexibility.” - -To which Count Liewin made answer: - -“If he does not return to Sweden, there is not one of us will answer for -the crown.” - -Karl was shut in his chamber, away from the watchful eyes of his Turkish -guards that he found so hateful. - -As he had now no domestics, Müllern and Grothusen waited on him, and -amused his dreary leisure by the reading of French poems and plays and -the tales from the sagas. - -This life of confinement and idleness, together with the heart-sickness -of disappointment and hope deferred, had at last told on Karl’s superb -constitution as no fatigue or hardship had been able to; the sickness he -had so long feigned had now become almost a reality; the glory of his -strength had gone. - -He had risen from his bed to receive Count Liewin and wore his old blue -uniform, black cravat, and top-boots; he was thin and pallid, the blue -eyes half-closed, his air languid and apathetic. - -His face was beginning to be lined and shadowed; his fair hair was close -cropped and receding from the forehead; he was newly shaven and fresh in -his person, for he had to the full the Northern fastidiousness as to -cleanliness, but his habit was more than ever careless, and there was -not as much as a ring on his finger to show his rank. - -Count Liewin, looking at him, thought he was different indeed to the -gallant youth who had left Stockholm fifteen years before, as indeed -Sweden was different to what she had been. - -He went on one knee and kissed Karl’s passive hand. - -“Sire,” he said, in a low voice, “all Europe thinks you are dead.” - -Karl looked at him without answering. - -“There is no one who can believe,” added Count Liewin, “that Sweden is -in such a pass and Karl XII still alive.” - -These words seemed to move Karl, he colored and dropped his gaze. - -“Tell me,” he said, “the news from Sweden.” - -Count Liewin rose and faced the King mournfully. - -“Madame Royale, your Majesty’s sister, will have told your Majesty of -the state of Swedish affairs,” he answered. - -“She wrote to me as a woman and I replied to her as a King,” said Karl. -“Tell me now, Count Liewin, as one man to another.” - -As he spoke he lifted his eyes and gazed at the envoy with his usual -coldness. - -“Affairs are so bad at home,” responded Sweden’s envoy, “that the -instant return of your Majesty is begged for--nay, demanded.” - -“Demanded!” cried the King. “Your senate gets out of hand, Count.” - -He spoke harshly; in his misery he was as jealous of his authority as -ever he had been in his grandeur; he refused the senate any right to -interfere in affairs save by obeying his orders (forgetting that he was -the first king to make a free Sweden enslaved), and he had never -forgiven the regency for signing, four years ago, the treaty of -neutrality at The Hague. - -Count Liewin, though respectful and even humble in demeanor, faced his -sovereign boldly. - -“Sire, someone must conduct affairs--we have nothing from your Majesty.” - -Karl ignored this. - -“And you would make peace, my sister tells me,” he said sternly. - -“Sire, we may be forced to take that course,” replied the Count. - -“If you do,” returned Karl, “I shall never ratify it.” - -“Sire, we are attacked on all sides----” - -“Cannot you defend yourselves?” - -“Sire, the country is empty of money, men, and all resources.” - -He wished to add--“drained by your ruinous, useless wars,” but checked -himself. - -Karl glanced towards the window-place where Müllern, Grothusen, and -Poniatowski were standing. - -“You hear,” he said, “how poor-spirited they become at home.” - -Count Liewin flushed. - -“Call us desperate, sire!” he exclaimed. - -Müllern and Grothusen were silent, out of pity and respect for the King, -but Poniatowski, out of his love, spoke. - -“Sire, it would be better that you should return, for there is nothing -to be hoped from the Porte.” - -At these words, coming from the man who had labored so long and -faithfully in his cause, who had intrigued for him with such tireless -energy, and always so eagerly supported the scheme of obtaining -assistance from the Porte, Karl started, and a look of reproach crossed -his face. - -“Alas!” cried Poniatowski, “in my great loyalty to your Majesty, I must -speak the truth--the Swedish cause is lost in Constantinople.” - -“And in Europe, it would seem,” said Karl, with much bitterness, as he -rose. - -“No,” put in Count Liewin quickly, “Sweden only languishes for her -King.” - -“I could not return,” said Karl dryly, “in this miserable estate. I have -no army.” - -“Once your Majesty is present to hearten the people an army can be -raised.” - -M. Müllern ventured now to speak. - -“And not only your Majesty’s army, but your Majesty’s councils need your -presence.” - -“So it would seem,” replied the King dryly, “since they talk of peace.” - -“And they will make peace, sire,” said Count Liewin boldly, “unless your -Majesty returns.” Karl, standing now, overtopping all of them, eyed the -speaker with a rising anger. - -But Count Liewin, who knew that the very existence of his country -depended on his firmness, stood his ground. - -“Yes,” he continued, “if your Majesty does not return to defend us, we -have no resource but to throw ourselves on the mercy of our enemies.” - -The King turned aside with a swelling heart; these enemies were those -who had attacked him fifteen years ago, those whom he had put under his -feet so splendidly and gloriously. - -He thought now of Count Piper, if, instead of acting according to his -code of chivalry and justice, and refusing any advantage to himself from -his victories, he had taken the political advantage of his success that -his minister had wished him to, if he had refrained from the mad -enterprise of endeavoring to dethrone the Czar, if he had never -undertaken the reckless expedition into the Ukraine, the results of -Narva would not have proved such Dead Sea fruits, nor he and his country -be in such peril now. - -“If Count Piper had been alive he would have smiled at me now,” remarked -the King to Grothusen. - -“Sire! He has been very loyal to your Majesty.” - -Karl smiled; he had never been deceived in those about him. - -“If Piper had had the power he would have thwarted me in all I did, -Grothusen.” - -He walked up and down the narrow chamber with a languid step, for he was -sick in mind and body. - -“See how many there are to persuade me against my honor!” he exclaimed. - -It galled him beyond words that he must return to his kingdom a fugitive -and a beggar when his had been the most renowned name in Europe. - -The miseries of Sweden were as nothing in his eyes compared to the -affront offered to his pride in this proposed return under present -conditions. - -“Look you, Count Liewin,” he said abruptly, pausing in his walk, “I am -without even the money for the journey--Grothusen will tell you how much -I am in debt.” - -“We could raise more money in Constantinople,” said Grothusen quickly. -“For my part I do perceive that this return of yours is imperative, -sire.” - -The King gave his friend a strange look. - -“Grothusen, do you recall a little dog I had, named Pompey, that died in -Saxony? I thought you loved me well, but now I perceive that no one -loved ever as did that beast--he never sought to turn me from my will!” - -“Sire!” cried Count Liewin desperately, “does your Majesty mean that you -will not return to Sweden?” - -“Aye,” replied Karl, “we will return, Count, we will return!” - -He seated himself wearily, rested his arm on his crossed legs, and -shaded his bent face with his hand. - -M. Müllern signed to Count Liewin that the audience was ended; he and -Poniatowski conducted the envoy from the chamber, leaving the King alone -with M. Grothusen. - -For a while Karl sat motionless, so uniformly cold and reserved was he, -even with his intimates (and those few now with him had become of a -necessity very intimate in this close, prison-like life), that this man -with him now, his nearest friend, expected no confidence from him, even -at this moment. But for once the inflexible pride of Karl gave way to -the despair in his heart. - -“Oh, Grothusen!” he cried, “how differently I dreamed it all!” - -“Sire!” answered Grothusen, profoundly moved, he could say no more; the -King was not to be deceived by trite comfort, and his friend knew of no -real consolation. - -“Peter Alexievitch has all I had--all I want!” continued Karl, in a -terrible, broken voice. “The cunning Muscovite! Had I been a well man at -Poltava I had broken him as he broke me!” - -He rose, clapping his hand down on his sword-hilt, a fury in his blue -eyes. - -“But as it is, he wins--he has my provinces, my seas, my commerce, my -people as his slaves, my generals as his prisoners--_he_ wins, that -drunken savage, Grothusen.” - -“He too may meet his Poltava,” said Grothusen fiercely. - -The King gave a short laugh, with an effort controlling his rare -passion. - -“Could we decide it face to face, man to man, I should have no fear of -the issue, ruined as I am,” he said, looking down at his sword arm, “for -he is very sick, Grothusen, and worn out by many vices. He has a camp -follower for his wife, an idiot, rebellious son--after all, I would not -be the Czar of Russia.” - -Then with an effort to put so bitter a subject from his mind he turned -sharply to his friend. - -“How much money do we owe?” he asked. - -Grothusen named a sum that sounded large even to the King’s prodigality, -but he had always been utterly reckless of money, had refused even to -glance at accounts, and had encouraged his followers to be the same. - -These were all sums of money owing to the French ambassadors to the -Porte, Thomas Cook, and other English, and Jews of Constantinople, to M. -La Motraye, the French gentleman of Bender, besides to all the members -of his suite. - -Karl chafed at all this like a lion tickled with straws. - -“We must have more money,” he said impatiently. “Pay these usurers cent -for cent--get it, somehow. I must send an embassy to the Porte to say -farewell. You must go, Grothusen, and with some magnificence. -Poniatowski thinks the Sultan might lend money if he will not lend an -army.” - -“Your Majesty is resolved to return then?” asked the courtier, some hope -springing in his heart at the thought of this dreary exile at length -coming to an end. - -“What else can I do,” returned the King, “when they break my authority -in my absence?” - -He made no reference to the wretched condition of his unhappy country -and Grothusen knew that he never would; if he cared in the least for -Sweden, or regarded her merely as the arsenal from which to take his -weapons of war, it was impossible to tell, but he always showed an -unconcern amounting to indifference to all that concerned the true -welfare of his subjects. - -“Grothusen,” he said suddenly, “the son of Aurora von Königsmarck was at -the battle of Stade, was he not?” - -“Yes, sire,” replied Grothusen, wondering at this change of subject, “a -brilliant lad, they say.” - -“His mother defied me once,” remarked Karl, with his ugly smile. “She -was a surprising woman--what happened to her?” - -“I do not know, sire--she left the Elector years ago.” - -“If she is alive,” said Karl grimly, “she will be pleased to hear of my -present state.” - -Grothusen looked startled and bewildered, but the King said no more; he -was thinking, irrelevantly, of John Rheinhold Patkul. - -The execution of this man, his one barbarity, was the sole fruit of his -victories--the only thing that he had achieved and that no one could -take away from him; the might of the Czar and all his allies could not -put together the broken bones of Patkul. - -Karl moved abruptly, checking his line of thought. - -“Well,” he said, “let us make our preparations to return home.” - - - - -CHAPTER VI - - -A freezing night in November, a cutting wind sweeping up from the -Baltic, a sky so black with heavy clouds that not a star gleamed -through, and the sentries on the walls of Stralsund shivered at their -posts. - -It was the only city in Pomerania still held for Karl; everything was -ready for defense in case of an attack, and the eyes and ears of the -sentinels were strained against the darkness of the night. - -They knew not when they might be surrounded by the armies of the Czar. - -A clatter of hoofs out of the obscurity of the night and the sentinels -at the gates stood at attention. - -It was one o’clock in the morning and the whole town slept. - -“Who goes there?” challenged the sentry, as the horsemen drew up at the -gate. - -There were but two of them, as shown by the lantern beams above the -arched entrance. - -The foremost answered. - -“We are couriers dispatched from Turkey by the King of Sweden,” he said. - -The soldier looked at him curiously and saw a tall, powerful-looking man -in a gray suit and dark blue mantle, wearing a black peruke and a -riding-hat laced with gold. - -“Sir, it is a long while since we have heard of the King of Sweden at -Stralsund,” remarked the sentry, not moving from his post. - -“Call out the guard,” said the stranger imperiously. “I must pass.” - -His companion, a slight, fair young man, wrapped in a heavy furred -mantle, now spoke. - -“Fellow, do not keep us here parleying this bitter night--we have ridden -from Hungary to Mecklenburg, and it is sixteen days since we saw a bed.” - -The guard had now turned out into the narrow gate space, and the officer -asked the strangers their business. - -“Sir,” said the first speaker, “we bring dispatches from the King of -Sweden.” - -“The Governor is in bed,” said the officer, “you must wait till -daybreak.” - -“Sir,” cried the traveler, with a flash of terrible blue eyes from the -shadow of his laced hat, “if you do not go at once and wake General -Dücker you will all be punished to-morrow.” - -The officer admitted them into the town at this, but was still inclined -to refuse to wake the Governor. - -“My God!” murmured the fair young man. “Is this journey to have no end?” - -His companion turned sternly to the soldiers. - -“Dismount my friend,” he said. “He is exceedingly fatigued.” - -Two of the men ran forward to the horse’s head. As they grasped the -bridle the rider sank fainting from the saddle. - -“Poor During!” exclaimed his companion. “He is not used to these -hardships.” - -He looked with some tenderness at the slack figure of the young man as -the soldiers carried him to the guardroom, and bade them treat him with -all care and respect. - -In the meanwhile a sergeant had been sent to awaken the Governor, who, -thinking it must be some person of importance or some imperative -message, bade the stranger to his presence. - -General Dücker’s house was near the gates, and it was only a short time -after his appearance at the city walls that the messenger from Demotica -was admitted to the bed-chamber of the Governor. - -That gentleman, startled by this sudden rousing from his sleep, stood in -a dressing-gown by the side of his bed; a valet was lighting the candles -that stood on mantleshelf and bureau. - -The stranger entered, making the room look small. He brought with him -the cold outer air; wet, dirty snow was on his boots that were flecked -with mud to the knees; he flung back his heavy blue mantle and showed -his gray coat, laced with gold which was like that of a German officer. - -“You are from Turkey, sire?” asked the General, speaking with some -sternness as he observed the visitor did not remove his braided hat. - -“Yes,” replied the other, “we have traveled all through Germany, from -Moravia to Westphalia--good riding in sixteen days.” - -He took off his hat as he spoke, and flung himself into the first chair -he came to with a careless ease very displeasing to the Governor of -Stralsund. - -“You came a long way round,” he remarked. - -“The journey, sir, could have been made shorter by half.” - -The stranger looked full at the speaker; his face looked pale between -the full curls of the black peruke; his blue eyes, that were of an -unusual size and brilliancy, held a curious expression. - -“Is it possible,” he said, “that my most loyal subjects have forgotten -me?” - -“By Heaven,” cried General Dücker, in a loud voice, “it is the King!” - -He threw himself on his knees and kissed Karl’s hand. - -“It is the King come back!” - -“And not too soon, General Dücker,” smiled Karl. “Come, I will sleep a -little.” - -But the old soldier was sobbing with joy, the valet had run from the -room with the great news, and the house was lit from cellar to garret in -an instant, and full of the officers of the garrison. - -“But like this! Your Majesty returns alone?” - -“There was neither money nor men to be had from the Porte,” said Karl -dryly. “My escort I left at Pitesti on the Turkish frontier. I had no -wish to go through Germany like a traveling show, satisfying the -curiosity of the vulgar. I took Colonel During with me, and we made a -detour, traveling with post-horses. We were not known anywhere. I have -not taken my clothes off since we started,” he added. “We rode day and -night I fear I have nearly killed During.” - -He smiled and rose. - -“So I am on Swedish soil again--and this is the sole town I hold in -Pomerania. There is much for me to do, General Dücker.” - -The town was now full of people and illuminated from end to end; candles -and lamps appeared in all the windows, barrels of wine were rolled into -the streets, and the King’s health drunk amid fierce excitement. - -The soldiers pressed round the house of the Governor hoping for a -glimpse of the King who had returned to restore Sweden’s fortunes. - -A chamber was hastily prepared for the King; he had no clothes save -those he wore, and his boots that he had worn for sixteen days had to be -cut from his legs, so swollen were they with excessive riding. - -He tossed off the dark peruke that had served as a disguise, looking -different with his clipped fair hair and more like the King these men -remembered fifteen years ago. - -“To-morrow I will inspect the fortifications, General Dücker,” he said, -as he stretched his great length on the bed. - -He bid them open the shutters that the light of the illuminations might -fall across the room, and the sound of his people’s acclamations come to -his ears. - -He was soon in a deep slumber of absolute exhaustion; his hand, even in -his sleep, stretched towards his sword that lay by his side. - -In this wild way did the wild King come home. - - - - -PART IV - -FREDRIKSSTEN - - “Voilà la pièce finie, allons souper.”--_Mégret at Fredrikssten._ - - -The King of Sweden was in his camp before Fredrikssten, the fortress -that protected Frederikshald, the town that was considered the Key of -Norway. - -This was the second expedition against Norway that the King had -undertaken since his return from Turkey, both in the dead of winter, to -the astonishment of Europe; it seemed that it would have been more -reasonable for him to remain and defend his bankrupt kingdom menaced on -all sides, in a state of siege and reduced to using leather money; but -Karl never did the reasonable thing nor what other men expected of him. - -None of his ancient success had attended him in his fresh campaigns -against his enemies; Stralsund, after a long siege and desperate battles -in which the King fought hand-to-hand with his foes, had been taken by -assault, and Karl had escaped across the half-frozen Baltic to -Karlskrona, leaving among the dead in the burning town Grothusen, -During, and Dahldorf, three faithful friends of his exile. - -His enemies now included the King of Prussia, who had bought Stettin and -a part of Pomerania from the King of Denmark, and the Czar and the King -of England who had purchased the rest of Sweden’s spoils, Breme and -Verden, from the astute Frederic, who was not slow to turn his conquests -into ready cash. - -Peter retained his own booty; this consisted of Riga, Livonia, Ingria, -Carelia, Vasa, Finland, the Isles in the Baltic, some of which were not -twelve leagues from Stockholm. - -By his victory of Aland he had demolished the Swedish fleet, and led -captive to his new fort of Kronstadt the flagship of Ehrensköld, the -Swedish Admiral. - -But more bitter to the peculiar temperament of Karl than these successes -of his great rival, was the ruin of Holstein-Gottorp, which he had taken -under his protection since the beginning of the war, and the -reinstatement of Augustus in Poland, with the consent of all the -guarantees of the treaty of Altranstadt. - -He forbade Stanislaus to conclude the advantageous treaty the -good-natured Elector offered, and give the Pole, who had thus to forfeit -his ancient estates and position, for the empty title of King, the Duchy -of Deux-Ponts which was in his gift. To replace Stanislaus on the Polish -throne, and to rescue the estates of his nephew whom he also intended to -make his heir, was now the chief end of the King’s policy. - -Of the state of his people he cared little; he had put on enormous -taxes, debased the coinage, called up all the fit men, strained every -resource to continue his ruinous wars; during two winter campaigns he -had watched his soldiers die of cold among the snows of Norway, with the -same insensibility as he had seen them die amid the ice of the Ukraine. - -Baron Görtz, the only one of his ancient friends left to him, was now -his Prime Minister, and pursued a fantastic foreign policy, but too -attractive to the strange spirit of the King. - -The Swede by means of deep and complicated intrigues, and with the help -of Cardinal Albuoni, Primate of Spain, sought to put the Stuart -Pretender on the throne of England, in place of that Elector of Hanover -who had outraged Karl by his bargain with Denmark. - -These dangerous intrigues had been discovered in England and the Swedish -ambassador arrested, but Baron Görtz still persisted in his scheme, and -Karl continued to support him; his design was now to draw Peter into a -secret alliance with Karl, that should place Europe at the feet of -Russia and Sweden. - -The Czar, ever eager for material advantage, and indifferent to mere -glory, was disposed to listen to a plan that would silence his most -obstinate foe, and Karl, no politician, and interested in nothing but -war, was ready to forego, at least for the moment, his design to -dethrone Peter, if he could secure vengeance against those foes whom he -despised and hated more than he did Peter--the Kings of Poland, Denmark, -and England. - -To besiege Norway in winter, and wrest this prize from the Danes, was -more pleasing to his character than to attack in Germany, or to remain -on the defensive at home; and Baron Görtz had assured him that Peter -would not attack in his absence. - -The Czar indeed was glutted with conquest, and was always wise enough to -not undertake more than he could with safety perform. - -Karl had with him the Prince of Hesse-Cassel, who had lately married his -sister; this professional soldier had lately been serving the -States-General, and was regarded by the King as a good general, but he -gave him little confidence and no affection. - -This Prince was with the King when the Swedish camp was being laid down -before the heights of Fredrikssten, and Karl, in high spirits at the -thought of the approaching struggle, spoke with him in a more friendly -spirit than was his wont. - -“Ah, Prince,” he said, “when we have taken Frederikshald, Norway will be -ours.” - -“How long does your Majesty think to take in subduing Norway?” asked the -German courteously. - -“I should have taken it last year,” replied the King, “but for the -provisions.” - -He had made the same mistake he had made in the Ukraine--that of moving -his army too far from his base, and had had to return to Sweden with -starving troops. - -“Six months,” he added; “then, at last, I shall see Stockholm again--a -pity Count Piper is not here to hear me say that,” he smiled. - -It was eighteen years since he had seen his capital, to which he did not -intend to return till he was triumphant. - -“Let us go and look at the trenches--these engineers are very slow,” -continued Karl; he called an officer and bade him fetch M. Mégret, the -French engineer who was conducting the siege. - -It was a bitter night but cloudless; there was no moon; the stars -glimmered hard and clear as if cut from crystal in the dark sky. - -Everyone but the King was muffled in mantles and furs; Karl wore his -plain uniform with black cravat and top-boots. - -He had now completely recovered from his sickness--the sickness -engendered by a soft life--and was at the height of his great strength -and perfect hardihood; he had filled out to the proportions of a Viking, -could live on bread and water, go without food for days, sleep on the -ground in midwinter with no covering but his cloak, and no pillow save -one of straw. - -It was this strength of body, this fortitude of soul, this stern, -austere life, that made him so respected and feared, that neither in -court nor camp did anyone dare to murmur at the misfortunes he had -brought on Sweden. - -M. Hesse-Cassel took his leave to return to his own quarters, and Karl -awaited the coming of M. Mégret. - -He was impatient to take Fredrikssten and to proceed into Norway, and he -thought that the works were not as advanced as they should be. - -He walked up and down the little tent, his step ringing on the frozen -ground, his breath clear before him in the frosty air. - -As M. Mégret entered he raised his head; the Frenchman looked at him and -thought, “If the Czar could see you now he would not be too secure,” so -redoubtable did Karl appear with his magnificent make, his noble -inflexible face, his cold air of power. - -“M. Mégret,” he said, “I should like to see your works.” - -The engineer bowed and followed the King out of the tent. - -The soldiers were desperately laboring in the starlight. - -“They work slowly, sire, because the ground is so frozen and rocky,” -remarked M. Mégret, “but the place will be taken in eight days.” - -“We shall see,” replied Karl. - -He entered the trenches accompanied by his aide-de-camp Siquier and the -engineer; they had no lights, but now and then there was a dull glow -from a bomb cast by the enemy; mingled in the sound of the cannon was -the rattle of pick and spade on the hard ground. - -The King continually complained as he advanced from trench to trench of -the backwardness of the work. - -“You would make me take as long to gain Fredrikssten,” he said, “as I -mean to use for the whole of Norway.” - -So splendid was his quiet presence that these words did not sound -boastful from the lips of a king of broken fortunes; looking at him the -officers forgot the lost provinces, the brass money, the starving -populace, and remembered only Narva and Klissow. - -The King continued to move rapidly from one portion of the works to -another; he was now joined by the captains of the trenches. - -An intermittent firing came from the fortress, the red light of the -cannon showing now and then in the cold night. - -Occasionally there was the whistle of a musket-ball as the Norwegian -sentries fired at the Swedes working in the dark. - -The King reached an angle of a _boyau_ in the finished portion of the -entrenchment; he paused, wishing to observe how far the parallel was -advanced, and mounting the fire-step rested his elbows on the parapet -and watched his soldiers moving, crouching, running, digging among the -dislodged fragments of rock and the heaps of frozen earth; here and -there the starlight showed dully a patch of snow; the noise of the -hurried labor was continuous; despite the random cannonade from -Fredrikssten the Swedes were carrying their works up to the very -_glacis_ of the fort, and they occupied the entire _terre-plein_. Above -the northern sky showed clear as water agleam with cold stars that -palpitated in the pale colorless night; a bitter wind swept these frozen -heights, and nature’s stillness reigned above the horrid sounds of war. - -Karl looked across the bent figures of his soldiers to the great fort on -the summit of the rocks. M. Siquier who was close behind him called out -to him not to expose himself, for his head and shoulders showed above -the earthworks which were directly opposite to one of the cannon on the -advanced fortification of Fredrikssten; the Norwegians could be observed -moving round this battery. Karl looked over his shoulder and smiled; -without speaking he returned to his observation; his silence conveyed -extraordinary arrogance, vitality, and power. - -Suddenly he put his hand to his sword and gave a great sigh. - -“Sire!” cried M. Siquier. - -Karl remained motionless, standing like a sentinel with his sword half -drawn from the scabbard, facing the dark heights. - -As the aide-de-camp mounted beside him he fell forward on the frozen -earth, his haughty head suddenly bowed face downwards on the parapet. A -stray musket-ball had entered his left temple; when M. Siquier touched -him he was already dead. - - - THE END. - - * * * * * - - Recent - Historical - Fiction - by - Well-known - Authors - - * * * * * - - _Marjorie Bowen’s Historical Novels_ - - - The William of Orange Trilogy: - - DEALING WITH THE LIFE OF WILLIAM OF ORANGE, AFTERWARDS WILLIAM III OF - ENGLAND - - I Will Maintain - - Defender of the Faith - - God and the King - - She has written an historical romance that is absolutely - thrilling.--_Punch._ - - Miss Bowen is one of the handful who count. - ---_Illustrated London News._ - - Vivid coloring and picturesque treatment are always features of - Miss Bowen’s work. - ---_Pall Mall Gazette._ - - Miss Bowen has put an ardor of historical research into her - work.... Of decided historical and dramatic interest.--_Continent._ - - None of the usual charges against historical novels can be made - against Marjorie Bowen’s. - ---_New York Evening Post._ - - In the front rank of present-day historical romance - writers.--_London Daily Mail._ - - Cloth, $1.75 per volume - - - E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY - - 681 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK CITY - - * * * * * - - _Marjorie Bowen’s New Historical Trilogy_ - - - Prince and Heretic - - This fascinating story begins with William the Silent’s marriage to - Anne of Saxony and ends with his riding into exile after his first - armed clash with Philip of Spain. The author develops her novel - with an art that is a potent blend of the historian’s careful - attention to detail and the novelist’s skill in vivid character - delineation. - - This book is doubly interesting at this time in that it brings home - to the reader the fact that Belgium has been the battle ground of - Europe on more than one occasion. - - -William, by the Grace of God - - The William of this stirring historical romance is William, Prince - of Orange, better known to history as “William the Silent,” who led - the successful revolt of the Netherlands against the bloody tyranny - of Alva and Philip of Spain. Miss Bowen, who has no living equal in - the art of creating historical atmosphere, has drawn her hero with - dignity and charm and made live again the heroes and statesmen who - created, after years of suffering and struggle, the Dutch Republic. - - _Third Novel of this Series to follow_ - - Cloth, $1.75 net per volume - - - E. P. 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It is written with dignity and - conviction, and with the author’s characteristic power of grasping - the essential details needed to supply life and color and - atmosphere for the reader of the standard histories. - - -The Carnival of Florence - - A tale of Italy in the XV century, in which the central figure is - Savonarola. The story is full of the overflowing life and color of - the period of the Medicis, and by reason of the author’s vivid - descriptions reminds one of a piece of tapestry, crowded with - figures in picturesque costumes, with the towers and palaces of the - fair city lying in the distance. - - -The Third Estate - - A spirited and vivid romance of the French Revolution, in which the - hero is the wicked and fascinating Marquis de Sarcey. The story - depicts the struggle between the nobility and the Third Estate, and - the reader is carried through the stirring scenes of this - interesting period, feeling, after he has finished the book, that - he has actually lived in them. - - Cloth, $1.75 net per volume - - - E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY - - 681 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK CITY - - * * * * * - - _Marjorie Bowen’s Remarkable Short Stories and Sketches of Historical - Characters_ - - - Shadows of Yesterday - - _Stories from an Old Catalogue_ - - An old museum in Naples has suggested to Marjorie Bowen a group of - short stories. Crucifix, scimitar, porridge bowl, a pitcher, a - ring, a bodice--these varied objects typify the wealth of romantic - incident in these tales of different countries and eras. Scottish - Jacobite or Spanish Morisco, weak, wicked or loyal, the figures - seem to step out in turn from “the shadows” into the light of real - life. It might be possible to choose a favorite story among the - group of twelve, but not to say which is the best, for the same - indescribable glamour is in them all. - - -God’s Playthings - - This series of wonderfully vivid flashes of the romance and - characters of past days is a storehouse of stimulating imagination - to any reader who has the slightest historical instinct. The author - displays the bewildering contrast between the heights of human - power and luxury and the depths of squalor and degradation into - which Fortune’s favorites have often so suddenly fallen, and the - brilliancy of her descriptions render her book a very remarkable - piece of work. - - Cloth, $1.75 per volume - - - E. P. 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Across the pages flit the - Queen, the great Duke of Marlborough, and, almost the last of his - ill-fated race, James Stuart the Old Pretender--all these serve but - for a background against which is shown as gallant a romance of - villainy, misunderstanding, and high-hearted love as ever made - crowns and kingdoms seem of little worth. - - “The author distributes dialogue and narrative in readable - proportion, he understands the effective use of detail and has an - uncommon facility in description, and he writes in an easy, assured - style with a dash of wit that stamps his work at once as out of the - ordinary.” - ---_The Living Age._ - - Cloth, $1.60 net - - - E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY - - 681 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK CITY - - - * * * * * - - SHALLOWS - - BY - - FREDERICK WATSON - - Mr. Watson has unearthed an interesting and unhackneyed episode of - the later years of Prince Charles Stuart--the “Bonnie Prince - Charlie” of song and story. It is woven into a romance unusually - full of atmosphere. It has a sombre background due to the growing - disillusionment of the Pretender’s followers. There is a nakedly - truthful picture of the characters of the hunted plotters. But the - shadow only throws into brighter contrast its story of love and - courage. There may be some who will pick up the book out of - curiosity to compare it with “Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush,” by Ian - Maclaren, the author’s father, but they will finish it for its own - sake for the interest of the story. - - Cloth, $1.60 net - - - E. P. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Kings-At-Arms - -Author: Marjorie Bowen - -Release Date: August 6, 2017 [EBook #55272] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KINGS-AT-ARMS *** - - - - -Produced by Chuck Greif, MFR and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was -produced from images made available by the HathiTrust -Digital Library.) - - - - - - -</pre> - -<hr class="full" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="342" height="500" alt="" title="" /> -</div> - -<p class="cb">KINGS-AT-ARMS</p> - -<div class="bbox"> -<p class="c"><big><i>BY THE SAME AUTHOR</i></big></p> -<hr /> - -<p class="nind"> -I WILL MAINTAIN<br /> -DEFENDER OF THE FAITH<br /> -GOD AND THE KING<br /> -THE QUEST OF GLORY<br /> -THE GOVERNOR OF ENGLAND<br /> -PRINCE AND HERETIC<br /> -THE CARNIVAL OF FLORENCE<br /> -“WILLIAM, BY THE GRACE OF GOD”—<br /> -THE THIRD ESTATE<br /> -GOD’S PLAYTHINGS<br /> -SHADOWS OF YESTERDAY<br /> -</p> - -<hr /> -<p><big>E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY</big></p> -</div> - -<h1> -KINGS-AT-ARMS</h1> - -<p class="cb"> -BY<br /> -MARJORIE BOWEN<br /> -<br /><br /> -<img src="images/colophon.png" -width="95" -alt="[Image of the colophon not available.]" -/> -<br /> -<br /><br /> -NEW YORK<br /> -E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY<br /> -<small><span class="smcap">681 Fifth Avenue</span></small><br /> -<br /><small> -<i>Published 1919</i><br /> -E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY<br /> -<br /> -<i>All Rights Reserved</i><br /> -<br /> -<i>Printed in the United States of America</i></small><br /> -</p> - -<h3><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h3> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><th colspan="3" class="c"><a href="#PART_I">PART I<br /> -THE CONQUEROR</a></th></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#BOOK_I">BOOK I</a></td><td valign="top" class="c"><a href="#BOOK_I">KARL XII</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td class="rt"><small>CHAPTER</small></td><td> </td> -<td class="rt"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_I-a">I</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_001">1</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_II-a">II</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_011">11</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_III-a">III</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_020">20</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV-a">IV</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_030">30</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#BOOK_II">BOOK II</a></td><td valign="top" class="c"><a href="#BOOK_II">PETER ALEXIEVITCH</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_I-b">I</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_038">38</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_II-b">II</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_047">47</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_III-b">III</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_056">56</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV-b">IV</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_065">65</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#BOOK_III">BOOK III</a></td><td valign="top" class="c"><a href="#BOOK_III">JOHN RHEINHOLD PATKUL</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_I-c">I</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_075">75</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_II-c">II</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_085">85</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_III-c">III</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_094">94</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV-c">IV</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_103">103</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#BOOK_IV">BOOK IV</a></td><td valign="top" class="c"><a href="#BOOK_IV">AURORA VON KÖNIGSMARCK</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_I-d">I</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_112">112</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_II-d">II</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_122">122</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_III-d">III</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_132">132</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV-d">IV</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_141">141</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#BOOK_V">BOOK V</a></td><td valign="top" class="c"><a href="#BOOK_V">THE ELECTOR AUGUSTUS</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_I-e">I</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_150">150</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_II-e">II</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_160">160</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_III-e">III</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_170">170</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV-e">IV</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_180">180</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#BOOK_VI">BOOK VI</a></td><td valign="top" class="c"><a href="#BOOK_VI">THE BETRAYAL</a></td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_I-f">I</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_190">190</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_II-f">II</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_200">200</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_III-f">III</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_210">210</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV-f">IV</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_219">219</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th colspan="3" class="c"><a href="#PART_II">PART II<br /> - -POLTAVA</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_I-g">I</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_228">228</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_II-g">II</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_238">238</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_III-g">III</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_248">248</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV-g">IV</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_256">256</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th colspan="3" class="c"><a href="#PART_III">PART III<br /> - -EXILE</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_I-h">I</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_265">265</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_II-h">II</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_275">275</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_III-h">III</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_285">285</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV-h">IV</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_294">294</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_V-h">V</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_300">300</a></td></tr> -<tr><td valign="top" class="rt"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI-h">VI</a></td><td class="dotts">...........</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_309">309</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th colspan="3" class="c"><a href="#PART_IV">PART IV<br /> - -FREDRIKSSTEN</a></th></tr> - -</table> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_001" id="page_001"></a>{1}</span></p> - -<h1>KINGS-AT-ARMS</h1> - -<h2><a name="PART_I" id="PART_I"></a>PART I<br /><br /> -THE CONQUEROR</h2> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Presque toutes ses actions, jusqu’à celles de sa vie privée et -amie, out été bien loin au delà du vraisemble. C’est peut-être le -seul de tous les hommes, et jusqu’ici le seul de tous les rois, qui -ait réçu sans faiblesse; il a port toutes les vertus à au ecès où -elles sont aussi dangereuses que les vices opposés.”—<span class="smcap">Voltaire.</span></p></div> - -<h3><a name="BOOK_I" id="BOOK_I"></a>BOOK I<br /><br /> -KARL XII</h3> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">“A name at which the world grew pale.”—<span class="smcap">S. Johnson.</span></p> -</div> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_I-a" id="CHAPTER_I-a"></a>CHAPTER I</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">A</span> LADY, haughty and fierce in her natural character, but schooled to at -least the outward show of a cold patience by long years of training in -submission to the wills of men, sat in a little private dining-room of -her palace at Stockholm and frowned with an air of discontent and pride -at her companion, a gentleman, elderly but much younger than herself, -who stood by the fireplace and looked on the ground; he also had an air -by no means well satisfied, but though he was only a minister and she -was a Queen he had never been as much in the background as she, nor so -forced to subdue an imperious spirit, for she was<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_002" id="page_002"></a>{2}</span> a woman, and women -had never counted for much in Sweden.</p> - -<p>They did not like each other, Count Piper, the late King’s minister, and -Eleanora Edwiga, the late King’s mother; she knew that she owed to him -her forced retirement from the brief-prized power that she had held as -Regent, and he thought her very presence in the palace was vexatious and -that her place was in retirement with her prayer-book and her -embroidery, but for the moment they were in the same position and might -be useful to each other, therefore, tacitly ignoring mutual dislike, -they became allies.</p> - -<p>“I do not know,” said the Queen, “why we talk about these things, for, -of course, the King will do as he wishes.”</p> - -<p>She spoke with a certain chill triumph, and Count Piper knew that her -words meant, “If I cannot rule my grandson, neither can you”; he also -knew that she spoke from pure malice, and that she found every use in -discussing the affairs that composed her life.</p> - -<p>“Naturally, Madame,” he answered quietly, “the King will do as he likes. -It is for us to find out what he does like.”</p> - -<p>The old woman gave him a long and rather bitter look.</p> - -<p>“Do you not know?” she asked.</p> - -<p>“No, Madame,” smiled Count Piper.</p> - -<p>“Well, I do,” replied the Queen sharply. “He likes just what any boy of -eighteen likes,” she glanced at the table with covers for three, elegant -but not splendid. “And he is late for dinner,” she added, and the love -of old age for trifles showed in her acid tone.</p> - -<p>Count Piper seemed faintly amused.</p> - -<p>“It would be strange if His Majesty should be ordinary—considering his -lineage,” he replied. “And he was very carefully trained.”</p> - -<p>The Queen was hit through her pride in her husband and her son.</p> - -<p>“Karl’s breed will show later,” she said stiffly, “for the moment he -is—as I said—eighteen.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_003" id="page_003"></a>{3}</span></p> - -<p>“A good age,” remarked Count Piper, a little sadly. “I wish I -was—eighteen——”</p> - -<p>“Or King of Sweden at any age,” snapped the Queen. “You always were -ambitious, Count.”</p> - -<p>“Only to serve,” he answered meekly.</p> - -<p>The Queen glanced from the table to the door; expectancy and vexation -showed in her face; she was tall and still upright, spare and haggard, a -Dane, and of a pure Northern type; she had been handsome in a cold, hard -fashion, and was now rather terrible in her gaunt colorlessness, her -sunk blue eyes, her pinched nose, her lipless mouth; all the long -structure of her face showed and the flesh seemed polished on the -temples, the cheek bones, and chin.</p> - -<p>No look of wisdom nor compassion nor resignation softened this -countenance; her glance was still that of a fighter who has grown bitter -in the struggle.</p> - -<p>Her dress, of gold and purple brocade, was rich and in tolerable -imitation of the fashion of Versailles; a lace headdress crowned her -white curls and she wore some costly rubies on her knotted fingers.</p> - -<p>The room of this Northern Princess, which was situate in that portion of -the Royal Palace of Stockholm that had been saved from the great fire of -two years ago, and that was filled with the distant sound of the workmen -rebuilding the edifice in a style in keeping with the increased grandeur -of Sweden, was simple, yet in a way splendid; the dark paneled walls and -ceiling gave the apartment a somber air, as did the inlaid and heavy -furniture; it was a cold day in early spring and the sky was gray; from -where the Queen sat she could see this grayness reflected in the water -from which the palace rose, and the bridges, houses, and waterways -beyond all colorless in the cold light of the sad midday.</p> - -<p>Count Piper kept his glance on the dark rug at his feet; he was tingling -with thoughts of great issues and large events; it was the eve of big -affairs for his prosperous and successful country which was menaced by<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_004" id="page_004"></a>{4}</span> -many and powerful enemies eager to seize the chance to despoil a -youthful King; Count Piper felt himself equal to dealing with these -concerns—but he was only a councilor of state, and must wait the -pleasure of that same youthful King who even now was keeping him waiting -for his dinner.</p> - -<p>A slight impatience with fate darkened his thin clever face; it seemed -so cruel a blow for Sweden that the late King, stern, wise, just, should -die in his prime leaving his heritage in the hands of a boy and an old -woman.</p> - -<p>The Queen suddenly broke the prolonged pause.</p> - -<p>“I seldom or never hear the truth, of course,” she said abruptly. “But -you, Count, must have means of knowing many things. Tell me,” and her -tone betrayed an anxiety she would never have owned to, “what do the -people say of Karl?”</p> - -<p>Count Piper knew perfectly well what was the general opinion of the -young King—that he was considered idle, haughty, obstinate, and -autocratic—the public was not likely to take any other view of one -wholly devoted to amusements, and who gave no sign of being of the breed -of his heroic father and grandfather beyond the imperious pride with -which, on several occasions, he had asserted his position.</p> - -<p>But Count Piper attached little importance to this verdict of the world -and did not choose to repeat it to the ears of the Queen Dowager.</p> - -<p>“His Majesty,” he replied, “has already given tokens of a spirit such as -the Swedes love, and they await his manhood with many hopes.”</p> - -<p>“He has spirit enough for ordinary impudence,” remarked the old woman -drily; she was thinking how, as a boy of fifteen, he had removed her -from the regency and assumed the government himself, and how, at his -coronation, he had snatched the crown from the archbishop’s hands and -placed it on his brow himself. “Has he spirit enough to go to war, and -wit enough to be successful if he does?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_005" id="page_005"></a>{5}</span></p> - -<p>The statesman looked grave.</p> - -<p>“I count upon his ancestors,” he replied.</p> - -<p>The Queen would have returned a sharp answer, but the door opened -noisily and the subject of their talk entered the room with an unsteady -step and dropped into the chair with arms at the head of the table.</p> - -<p>He wore a very rich hunting suit of violet velvet laced with silver; -this was torn and muddy, his lawn shirt and his wrist ruffles were -bloody, as were his hands and the sheaths of the long knives he wore -thrust into his belt.</p> - -<p>“Am I late?” he asked. “I had a mind not to come back at all. It was -pleasant in the woods.”</p> - -<p>The Queen rose with a glance of disgust for his attire and his -condition; he had never yet appeared before her so soiled from the -chase. And he was obviously intoxicated. She hesitated for a second, -then rang the silver bell by her side and took her seat opposite to her -grandson, at the end of the table.</p> - -<p>Count Piper came quietly to his place between the King and Queen.</p> - -<p>“There is much business for you to-day, sir,” he said.</p> - -<p>“Business?” said Karl; he laughed, dragged at his napkin and sent over a -glass.</p> - -<p>The lackeys entered with the dinner and there was silence in the somber -little room; both the Queen and Count Piper were looking covertly at the -young King.</p> - -<p>His appearance, even in his present dishevelment and intoxication, was -most remarkable; he did not need his kingship to make him -conspicuous—in any company, on any occasion, he would have been -noticed.</p> - -<p>He was then in his eighteenth year, fully and perfectly developed, tall -and vigorous above the common even in a nation of tall and vigorous men, -graceful with the grace of health and strength, and easy with the ease -of one born to occupy always the place of command and power.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_006" id="page_006"></a>{6}</span></p> - -<p>His countenance expressed nothing but pride, which was, however, -tempered by a certain calm tolerance; his brow was low and broad, the -nose short, blunt, and clearly cut, the mouth large, curved, and mobile, -the chin rounded, the face wide, the eyes very handsome, of a pure blue -free from any admixture of gray and well-set under heavy arching brows; -these eyes were full of a serenity that was almost a blankness, a look -curious and not altogether either amiable or attractive; there was -something about the young man’s whole appearance that was strange, -something difficult, perhaps impossible, to describe.</p> - -<p>Count Piper, who had observed him long and closely, had once said to -himself, “Karl is like an animal—or a god,” which he felt to be a -foolish comparison, yet knew that it expressed that peculiar impression -made by the King—an impression that whatever he was he was not ordinary -humanity—scarcely humanity at all, but something beyond, or, at least -outside, manhood.</p> - -<p>Yet now he was ordinary enough in his clothes torn by the violence of -the chase and stained by the blood of the animals whom he had slain, his -strength and his wits alike beyond his control through the wine he had -drunk.</p> - -<p>His hair, which was light brown and very thick, hung in a quantity of -loosely entwined curls, through those on his shoulders was tied a long -black ribbon; the front locks hung down either side his cheeks and -across his forehead into his strange eyes.</p> - -<p>His grandmother looked at him with less curiosity and less friendliness -than did Count Piper.</p> - -<p>“It is as well that I did not bid your sisters dine with us to-day,” she -said, as she saw the King fill his glass with a strong shaking hand.</p> - -<p>He drank his wine and then stared at her; in silence he set the beaker -down, and then laughed in a way that curled his mouth unpleasantly.</p> - -<p>It was remarkable how his personality even now,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_007" id="page_007"></a>{7}</span> when he was not master -of himself, seemed to fill the room, making the other two people and the -whole surrounding but a background to his fierce young figure.</p> - -<p>Dish after dish was removed; only the Queen ate, as if she disdained to -be disturbed.</p> - -<p>“Your Majesty enjoyed the chase?” asked Count Piper suddenly; he wiped -his mouth with his napkin, using a precise movement.</p> - -<p>“I killed three bears,” said Karl; he laughed again, showing his strong, -perfect teeth.</p> - -<p>“You spend your time well,” said the old Queen bitterly. “And now you -will sleep all the afternoon, and drink all the evening. And to-morrow -the chase again.”</p> - -<p>“And three more bears,” smiled the King.</p> - -<p>His grandmother looked at him with a coldness that approached aversion.</p> - -<p>“Your father’s death was a great misfortune,” she said—“for Sweden.”</p> - -<p>“Sweden does very well,” returned Karl indifferently.</p> - -<p>“That,” put in Count Piper gently, “is a question that your Majesty must -better acquaint yourself with.”</p> - -<p>Karl lifted his head which had sunk forward on his broad chest; his face -was flushed and his eyes bloodshot; he spoke thickly.</p> - -<p>“No councils of state—no councils of state, and dull speeches and silly -disputes,” he said.</p> - -<p>“And no interviews with your wretched sister and her ruined husband, who -are here to crave your succor,” added the Queen sarcastically.</p> - -<p>“Does my sister complain of me?” muttered Karl haughtily.</p> - -<p>“The Duchess of Holstein is in terrible straits,” remarked Count Piper -gravely.</p> - -<p>“Well,” asked Karl, “are not you, Count, capable of helping my -brother-in-law to keep his little duchy?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_008" id="page_008"></a>{8}</span></p> - -<p>The minister was quick to seize his moment. “It is only your Majesty can -do that,” he said, and leant towards the King.</p> - -<p>“Only I,” repeated Karl stupidly. “And why is that?”</p> - -<p>“Who else in Europe,” said Count Piper, “can face at once the King of -Denmark, the King of Poland, and the Czar of Muscovy?—who but the son -of Karl XI, the grandson of Karl X?”</p> - -<p>At this open appeal to pride and vanity the Queen pushed back her chair -with a movement of contempt; the young man’s eyes gleamed for a second; -he put his hand to his forehead in a confused manner, pushing back the -tangled light curls.</p> - -<p>“Are you frightened by three such names, like the children with talk of -ogres?” sneered the Queen. “Indeed, you look capable, sire, of facing -the greatest man in the world!”</p> - -<p>“And who is that?” asked Karl, still amazed and stupid.</p> - -<p>“Why, that is the Czar of Muscovy,” replied the old woman, composed and -vicious and heedless of Count Piper’s look of warning, “the man we shall -all be begging for pity soon—that will be a pleasant day for me—a -woman who has had such a husband and such a son.”</p> - -<p>Karl stared at her.</p> - -<p>“I am not afraid of the Czar of Muscovy,” he replied.</p> - -<p>The Queen laughed, the thin and heartless laugh of old age.</p> - -<p>“I am sure your Majesty is afraid of nothing,” said Count Piper quickly, -“but you must be a little fearful for Sweden.”</p> - -<p>Karl gave a sullen glance at the speaker; he was still drinking and -could hardly hold himself upright in his chair; a shadow passed over the -face of the minister; he would not look at the Queen for he knew her -expression would be one of sour triumph; his<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_009" id="page_009"></a>{9}</span> tired eyes narrowed and he -kept them fixed on the King.</p> - -<p>Karl leant forward with a lurching movement and stared into his glass in -which still hung, as he tipped it, a drop of brilliant wine.</p> - -<p>“The Czar,” he muttered, “the Czar——”</p> - -<p>Then he suddenly broke into fury, dashed down the glass, and staggered -to his feet.</p> - -<p>“God help you, Madame,” he shouted at the Queen, “but do you think that -I am no match for the Czar of Muscovy?”</p> - -<p>He stood as if he threatened her, flushed and with eyes gleaming as only -bright blue eyes can.</p> - -<p>The Queen turned a wax-yellow color as her cold blood receded from her -face.</p> - -<p>“I think you are no company for a lady’s table,” she said bitterly.</p> - -<p>Karl turned round passionately.</p> - -<p>“Piper,” he cried, “Piper—did I not say I would have no more of old -women?”</p> - -<p>He tried to leave the table, but being unsteady on his feet and fastened -in his place by a heavy chair could not at once do so; Count Piper—for -some minutes on his feet—sprang forward to free him, but the King, with -fierce impatience, pushed back the chair and stumbled towards the door.</p> - -<p>One of his spurs had entangled in the lace border of the cloth, his -impetuous movement violently dragged at this, and in an instant all that -was on the table, plate, fruit, wine, glasses, and china, was pulled to -the ground and scattered over the floor; the King, still with the lace -clinging to his spur, staggered back against the wall beside the door -and the Queen rose, rigid with anger and disgust.</p> - -<p>Karl laughed, lifting his lip from his teeth; Count Piper stooped, tore -off the lace from the King’s spur, seized him by the arm and led him -from the room, closing the door on the wrecked table and the grim figure -of the old Queen ringing furiously her silver bell.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_010" id="page_010"></a>{10}</span></p> - -<p>Dexterously the councilor guided the King’s stupid steps down the short -corridor; at the end of this they came face to face with two women, who -were turning down the passage that led at right angles to the stairs.</p> - -<p>One was the King’s elder sister, the Duchess of Holstein, who had come -with her husband to Stockholm to implore her brother’s assistance; she -was tall, fair, and finely made, like Karl, pure Scandinavian in type -and of a demeanor rather cold.</p> - -<p>She gave one glance under her lids at the two men and hurried on; but -her companion lingered and gazed at the King with wide eyes; she was -fairer than the Duchess, so fair that her hair was more like silver than -gold, and her complexion more like a lily than a rose, if she should -have been praised in poetry, but her eyes were a deep brown and, dilated -as they were now, appeared black.</p> - -<p>The King pushed back his draggled curls to stare at her, which he did -with insolence. Count Piper tried to draw him away; the lady colored -till it seemed as if a fire had dyed her in a bright reflection, and -hurried away with the haste of shame.</p> - -<p>“Viktoria,” said Karl, “she is a pretty creature for a King’s -fancy—that woman.” And he spoke so that the object of his speech must -have heard.</p> - -<p>Count Piper, with greater determination than he had yet shown, dragged -at his master’s arm, guided him to his own cabinet, and helped him into -a chair there.</p> - -<p>Then he closed the door and stood with his back to it; the King stared -absently at his clothes stained with blood, and dirt and wine.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_011" id="page_011"></a>{11}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_II-a" id="CHAPTER_II-a"></a>CHAPTER II</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">C</span>OUNT PIPER stood looking thoughtfully at the King; he was wondering if -the young man was sober enough to make it worth while speaking to him; -he doubted this, and yet time was short—a question of hours might -decide the fate of Sweden.</p> - -<p>Karl sat immovable; across his slightly upturned face fell a pale ray of -sun that had faintly penetrated the clouds and entered the small room, -and in this light that was so dim as to be almost colorless, the King’s -countenance, framed in the loose flowing, light hair, had such a strange -effect that it almost startled Count Piper, even though he had known the -King from babyhood and daily watched his lineaments. Very obvious now -was that inhuman look, a serenity, a reserve that was neither disdain -nor secrecy but mere indifferency, a look of something large and noble -and cold in the wide, handsome face that did not belong to ordinary -mankind.</p> - -<p>This was not attractive, this expression, it inspired a certain fear -even in one as familiar with it as Count Piper—yet the King was only a -haughty boy, soiled from his rough sport and drunk—a boy who had been -insolent to his kinswoman and who had insulted his sister’s friend -almost in her presence.</p> - -<p>“Your Majesty,” said Count Piper, looking away from those calm, blank -blue eyes, “will you forgo the chase to-morrow to attend the Council of -State?”</p> - -<p>The King sighed.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I will come,” he said, with a gentleness that Count Piper was not -expecting.</p> - -<p>“And give your mind to the business in hand?” added the councilor, for -he could recollect council<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_012" id="page_012"></a>{12}</span> meetings when Karl had sat in an aloof -silence commonly attributed to a haughty stupidity, with his feet on the -table and his hands in his pockets.</p> - -<p>Karl slowly turned his fine head and looked at his friend.</p> - -<p>“You are very kind to me,” he remarked gravely.</p> - -<p>“Your Majesty is not just to yourself,” replied the Count.</p> - -<p>An expression of bewilderment crossed the King’s face; he put his -strong, blood-stained hand to his forehead.</p> - -<p>“I am drunk,” he said.</p> - -<p>Count Piper could not repress a movement of impatience.</p> - -<p>“Yes, your Majesty is drunk,” he replied, “and at this moment three -Kingdoms are in league against you—to deprive you of all you have.”</p> - -<p>There was no response in the attitude or expression of the King.</p> - -<p>Count Piper tried the name that had roused him to such passionate -violence before.</p> - -<p>“Is the son of Karl XI going to permit the Czar of Muscovy to add so -easily to his laurels?”</p> - -<p>Karl remained calm.</p> - -<p>“Why are these three princes at war with me?” he asked slowly.</p> - -<p>“Because they think that you are a foolish boy,” replied Count Piper -instantly. “Because they believe that in such hands as yours Sweden can -do nothing against them. Denmark is your hereditary enemy—Saxony is an -adventurer, keeping on foot an army at all costs—and the Czar—is the -most ambitious man in Europe.”</p> - -<p>“What does he want?” asked Karl.</p> - -<p>“All the land between the Gulf of Finland, the Baltic Sea, Poland, and -Muscovy,” replied the councilor laconically.</p> - -<p>Karl laughed; it had a meaningless sound.</p> - -<p>“My land,” he said.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_013" id="page_013"></a>{13}</span></p> - -<p>“Precisely, sire.”</p> - -<p>The King, still holding his head and still confused, spoke again, slowly -and insistently, like a child asking artless, but to himself important -questions.</p> - -<p>“What are the Czar’s objects—tell me, Count?” he asked.</p> - -<p>The more stupidly calm his master showed the more the diplomat dared -show his annoyance—after all, this boy was eighteen, of a race of -heroes, carefully trained and had shown already some signs of greatness -as in the matter of his coronation and his refusal to be ruled by a -woman, and it was intolerable that he should sit here fuddled with wine, -staring with eyes blank as those of any fool.</p> - -<p>“The Czar needs an outlet—a fort—on the Baltic,” he replied, in a tone -of fierce sarcasm; “the Czar is a man of vast schemes, of a wide -ambition—of a fair measure of greatness, too—he has taught his people -much—he would teach them the art of war. At your expense, sire.”</p> - -<p>“And Saxony and Poland help him—yes, you told me so—we discussed this -the other day.”</p> - -<p>“We have spoken of it many times,” replied the councilor bitterly.</p> - -<p>Karl did not heed him.</p> - -<p>“And there is my poor brother Gottorp-Holstein ruined—and my sister -weeping here for help,” he said slowly; “that is a pretty creature she -has with her, Count——”</p> - -<p>“Will your Majesty add that to your other amusements—so soon?” -interrupted Count Piper.</p> - -<p>His glance went wistfully over the splendid young man who stared at him -so stupidly. “I must learn to make my court to a Marquise de Maintenon -or an Aurora von Königsmarck!” he added.</p> - -<p>“Who is she—Aurora von Königsmarck?” asked the King.</p> - -<p>“A thing like this piece your Majesty admires—one of those creatures -who get their feet on the necks of kings!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_014" id="page_014"></a>{14}</span></p> - -<p>“Not great kings!” said Karl, with a sudden short laugh, showing his -teeth in a disagreeable manner.</p> - -<p>“Mostly great kings,” replied the Count drily. “From Thäis to our poor -Aurora—you may search history and you will never find your conqueror, -your hero without them—and it is human nature—you can no more avoid -them than you can flowers at a feast, or flags at a victory—and is this -to be your Majesty’s choice? I know nothing of the girl.”</p> - -<p>The King had been listening with some intentness; he unaccountably -flushed.</p> - -<p>“I like neither flowers nor flags,” he said. “I will rule without women, -Piper.” His eyes narrowed with a look of intelligence. “Is there any -king in the world now, Piper, who is free of women?”</p> - -<p>The councilor shook his head.</p> - -<p>“There is the King of England, sire, who is a grave and great -Monarch—but he largely owed his fortunes to his wife and has been a -different man since her death——”</p> - -<p>“I will have no wife,” said Karl instantly. “I will be greater than the -King of England—Count, were there women in the sagas? Did the Vikings -care for maids or wives?”</p> - -<p>The older man smiled.</p> - -<p>“I will forgive you your women, sire, and your chase, and your wine—if -you will but keep Sweden great—and make her greater.”</p> - -<p>But the glow of energy had passed from the King’s strange face, the -broad lids dropped over the wide blue eyes.</p> - -<p>“Talk to me later,” he muttered, and turned his head away on the dark -cushions of the chair.</p> - -<p>Count Piper hesitated a moment, then, seeing that the young man was -falling into a heavy sleep, he, with a little bitter shrug, left the -cabinet, gently closing the door behind him, frowning as he did so with -an annoyance that he could, for all his training, scarcely control.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_015" id="page_015"></a>{15}</span></p> - -<p>He went straight to the apartments of the Duchess of Gottorp, the King’s -sister, whose husband had been the first victim of the league against -Sweden.</p> - -<p>She was in her hood and cloak, ready for some poor diversion of a ride -or walk, a sad, anxious lady beneath her air of princely reserve.</p> - -<p>The dreary air of the old palace, which was both dull and unhomelike, -pervaded these apartments of the fugitive princess; she looked and felt -like an exile as she drew off her gauntlet and gave her bare hand to -Count Piper.</p> - -<p>She knew that he was her ally and could be of more use to her husband -than any man in Sweden, but she was surprised at seeing him now as she -had just been with the Queen Dowager and had heard in what condition the -King had left the table; therefore she had hoped for nothing to-day, -which she had already put aside as another space of wasted time.</p> - -<p>“Madame,” said Count Piper, “you have a lady in your service named -Viktoria?”</p> - -<p>The Duchess frowned, instantly cold.</p> - -<p>“I do not like her, Count.”</p> - -<p>“I do not think that I do,” replied the Count reflectively, “but I want -to speak to her, Highness.”</p> - -<p>The Duchess looked at him sharply.</p> - -<p>“What do you know about her?” she asked quickly.</p> - -<p>“Nothing at all,” smiled Count Piper. “It is you, Madame, who should -know what there is to know about this lady.”</p> - -<p>The Duchess seemed vexed.</p> - -<p>“Her father is a great man in Gottorp—I found she had a right to come -to court”</p> - -<p>“And to come with you here, Highness, to Stockholm?” asked the Count, -with a shade of regret in his voice.</p> - -<p>“How could I help it?” demanded the Duchess on the defensive. “They were -ruined—like ourselves—had lost everything. I could do nothing but -offer this shelter to one who had been sacrificed in our cause.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_016" id="page_016"></a>{16}</span></p> - -<p>Count Piper fingered the brown curls of the wig that hung on to the -heart of his somber coat and looked reflectively at the floor; the -Duchess eyed him, and her fair face was hard in the shadow of her hood -and her blue eyes had darkened with emotion.</p> - -<p>“It is not pleasant to return to one’s country as I have returned—an -exile and a fugitive,” she said, in a heavy voice, “to wait here day by -day, like a poor petitioner, to gain my brother’s ear—but it is an -added bitterness to think that I have brought with me one who will be a -mischief in Sweden.”</p> - -<p>“So your Highness thinks of this lady as a mischief?” asked the Count -thoughtfully.</p> - -<p>“You know, sir,” she replied, disdainful of pretense, “that is what you -came to tell me.”</p> - -<p>“No,” he said, looking at her straightly. “I think she might be useful.”</p> - -<p>“To whom?” cried the Duchess.</p> - -<p>“To Sweden.”</p> - -<p>As the King’s sister understood the King’s minister, she colored swiftly -and drew a step away from him.</p> - -<p>“This is not Versailles,” she said. Then in a tone of real disgust, -“Heavens! would you seek to rule the King through women?”</p> - -<p>“If it was the only way.”</p> - -<p>“A boy!”</p> - -<p>Count Piper lifted his shoulders.</p> - -<p>“She is the type—the temperament—they have noticed each other. He -speaks of her.”</p> - -<p>“Not when he is sober,” flashed the Duchess.</p> - -<p>“Believe me, Madame,” he answered gravely, “he is ensnared. And his -first love. It will be serious.”</p> - -<p>The Duchess tapped her foot impatiently.</p> - -<p>“And I came to Stockholm for this!” she exclaimed, full of contempt and -revolt.</p> - -<p>“So much depends on the lady—why should she not be our friend, -Highness? The friend of Sweden? That wench might save the country if she -chose to<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_017" id="page_017"></a>{17}</span> persuade the King that way—let us use her, instead of -flouting her, Madame.”</p> - -<p>The Duchess was silent a second, struggling with a pride that bade her -speak scornful words; she knew that Count Piper but followed the usual -procedure of courts, but his worldly wisdom disgusted her, and, -desperate as she was, and cause as she had to be angry with her brother, -she did not care to think of him as sunk in foolish weakness; the men of -her house had never been feeble.</p> - -<p>Yet she knew, by a deep instinct and a jealous observation, that -Viktoria had greatly attracted the King, and she thought that, bold, -fair, and worldly as this woman was, she would not forgo any advantage -for any scruple.</p> - -<p>“I leave it in your hands,” she said at last. “I cannot speak to her -myself. I will send her to you while I go for my walk.”</p> - -<p>She went from the room as if not too well pleased with Count Piper, and -he, left alone in the dreary atmosphere of the narrow apartment, began -to slightly doubt the wisdom of the course he had set himself.</p> - -<p>But he was aroused; he was afraid as only a brave man can be afraid, -mistrustful as only a wise man can be mistrustful, roused in his pride -as a statesman and as a Swede; he believed the Czar Peter to be -terrible—more terrible than anyone yet guessed; ambitious, fierce, one -eager to rule who yet did not disdain to learn—a dangerous combination; -he believed the King of Denmark malicious and active; and the third of -the King’s enemies, Augustus of Saxony, King of Poland, he believed to -be equally formidable—a fribble, a rake, but an important pawn, a sharp -tool in the hands of others—a valuable asset to such a man as the Czar.</p> - -<p>Sweden had possessions all of these envied—they did not hesitate to -stretch out their hands and take them from one whom they knew to be a -boy and believed to be defenseless.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_018" id="page_018"></a>{18}</span></p> - -<p>The two former Kings had made Sweden great—this King might lose all -that greatness so easily.</p> - -<p>Count Piper’s shrewd face hardened as he thought of the tipsy youth -slumbering in his cabinet; his delicate mission seemed easier as he -reflected on that foolish degradation.</p> - -<p>And it was not likely that the woman was of finer clay than the man whom -she sought to enslave; Count Piper was hardened towards her with whom he -had to deal before he had spoken to her; her quiet entry found him cold -and prepared.</p> - -<p>Her curtsey was slow; she had her eyes fixed on him the while.</p> - -<p>It was the first time that he had seen her close and face to face; his -practised glance noted, first that she was not a girl, secondly that she -was as clever as she was fair; it was an intelligence equal to his own -that looked at him out of those clear brown eyes.</p> - -<p>And she was certainly very fair; there was no fault in her exact -features, in her pure complexion, none in her exquisite form, unless it -might be that she was too tall and too slender.</p> - -<p>Her dress was over-rich and over-gay for her surroundings; a court ruled -by an old woman had not seen before a creature so splendid.</p> - -<p>Her pale blond hair was worn in cunningly disposed ringlets through -which was passed a little braid of pearls, and fastened by a fair -tortoiseshell comb adorned with squares of dark amber.</p> - -<p>Her dress was of rose-colored velvet, cut low in front, with a fall of -silver lace on the bosom, and showing a silver petticoat in front.</p> - -<p>She had a great scarf of black silk wrapped like a shawl over all her -attire, and no jewels at all but one square sapphire on the first finger -of her right hand.</p> - -<p>“You are very gracious, Madame, to grant me this interview,” said Count -Piper; he looked a dull, a wizened figure beside her radiant grace.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_019" id="page_019"></a>{19}</span></p> - -<p>“Was it not a command?” asked Madame von Falkenberg.</p> - -<p>She stood facing him, with one hand on her hip, almost in the attitude -of a man who feels for his sword hilt.</p> - -<p>“I am not powerful enough to issue commands to you, Baroness,” he -replied suavely.</p> - -<p>She flashed into a sudden animation that accorded ill with her frail -pallor and look of languid grace.</p> - -<p>“I think you are not powerful enough to do anything, Count,” she said, -“not powerful enough, certainly, to save Sweden.”</p> - -<p>He did not understand her mood or her attitude, but he answered boldly.</p> - -<p>“Therefore I am going to ask your help, Madame.”</p> - -<p>Viktoria von Falkenberg moved impatiently towards the window, like a -creature confined against her will.</p> - -<p>“Are you not ashamed,” she asked, “that you cannot manage one wilful -boy?”</p> - -<p>This was so unexpected that Count Piper could think of no reply -whatever.</p> - -<p>“This King of yours,” continued the lady, “was drunk to-day, and -unwashed from the chase, sat down to his food with spotted linen and -muddy boots, was rude to women—I should not be proud to be his tutor.”</p> - -<p>She had completely turned the tables on him; he had meant to tactfully -reproach her with the effect of her influence on the King—to point out -how Karl was drifting to disaster—and she had snatched his weapons from -his hands and left him defenseless.</p> - -<p>She threw up her head impetuously and struck her open palm on the -window-pane.</p> - -<p>“Oh, for something beautiful!” she cried, “were it but the waving of a -spray of leaves against a gray sky! Your palace stifles, Count, and -while we wait your King’s graciousness we lose our life!”</p> - -<p>“It is of that I would speak to you,” said the Count, endeavoring to -keep to his first point of view, “of your desires—and the King.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_020" id="page_020"></a>{20}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_III-a" id="CHAPTER_III-a"></a>CHAPTER III</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">“Y</span>OU think that I have any influence with your King?” asked Madame von -Falkenberg.</p> - -<p>Her directness did not displease Count Piper; he saw that she was more -experienced than he had thought and wise enough to be simple.</p> - -<p>“I know you have,” he replied, then added: “His Majesty has never looked -twice at any other woman.”</p> - -<p>“His Majesty is only eighteen,” said Viktoria; her large dilated eyes -looked searchingly at the shrewd, withered face of the minister. “What -do you know of me?” she asked.</p> - -<p>He had his answer ready.</p> - -<p>“I know that you are of one of the noblest families in Gottorp—that you -are a very attractive woman, and, I think, ambitious.”</p> - -<p>“You know nothing about my husband?”</p> - -<p>The question seemed to Count Piper quite irrelevant.</p> - -<p>“I know that Baron von Falkenberg was killed in a duel a few months -after his marriage, and that that is five years ago.”</p> - -<p>She gave him a narrowed glance.</p> - -<p>“And so you think that I have influence with your little King?” she -demanded abruptly.</p> - -<p>Count Piper was surprised into irritation.</p> - -<p>“Madame, it is a Viking!” he exclaimed with pride.</p> - -<p>Madame von Falkenberg lifted her slender shoulders.</p> - -<p>“He seems like a child to me,” she answered, “and if,” she added, “you -think so well of him, why do you come to bargain about him with a woman -whom you think is a greedy adventuress?”</p> - -<p>Count Piper looked at the lady with dislike; her<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_021" id="page_021"></a>{21}</span> attitude was one with -which it was impossible to deal; for all her directness she was -hindering him in the object of his conversation; vexation rose in his -heart against boys and women and this kind of bed-chamber intrigue; he -longed for such a master again as the late King had been.</p> - -<p>“Sweden is threatened,” he replied, with some sternness, “and to save -her I must use any weapons I can.”</p> - -<p>“Even soiled ones,” said the Baroness.</p> - -<p>“I have not said so—but I am dealing with a youth, one who has no -interest beyond his games and his sports—one who is self-confident, -arrogant——”</p> - -<p>The lady interrupted.</p> - -<p>“And you can do nothing with him?”</p> - -<p>“No.”</p> - -<p>“And the Queen?”</p> - -<p>“He smiles at the Queen.”</p> - -<p>“What do you want him to do?”</p> - -<p>“What his father would have done,” replied Count Piper—“lead an army -against Denmark, Poland, and Russia.”</p> - -<p>“I see—you want an antique hero—a Viking, as you say, in this modern -age of ours!” She seemed scornful, and her lips shook as she spoke. “And -you think that a woman’s smiles can rouse a demi-god from a tipsy boy! -You think that he might go to war if he could find me among the spoils -of victory!”</p> - -<p>Count Piper was silent; he could not understand her mood.</p> - -<p>She seemed in considerable agitation and leant against the window-frame, -pressing a little handkerchief to her mouth; the sharp eyes of the -minister noted the stains of red on the cambric as she rubbed off the -moistened rouge.</p> - -<p>“You think to find in me an Aurora von Königsmarck—a gilded puppet -whose strings you can pull!” she cried.</p> - -<p>Count Piper felt bound to defend himself.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_022" id="page_022"></a>{22}</span></p> - -<p>“Madame, you have not seemed displeased at the King’s notice.”</p> - -<p>“No,” flashed Viktoria, “and the Duchess has told you that she does not -like me and that I am a light creature, and so you think you can affront -me with impunity.”</p> - -<p>“Madame, it can be no affront to suggest that you might be the King’s -friend and influence him for good.”</p> - -<p>She sighed a little at these conventional words and put her thin hands, -with a gesture of weariness, to her fair brow.</p> - -<p>“Will you let me see the King, alone?” she asked quietly. “Perhaps I -might be able to turn him to what is the wish of all of us.”</p> - -<p>The Count did not affect to understand this change of front, but he was -eager to grasp at her suggestion.</p> - -<p>“His Majesty is now in my cabinet,” he replied.</p> - -<p>“I wish to see him when he is sober.”</p> - -<p>“When he wakes he will be sober.”</p> - -<p>“Take me to him.”</p> - -<p>Count Piper glanced at her somewhat doubtfully; if she did become his -puppet he did not think that she would be a particularly easy one to -manage; so far, at least, she had shown no good-humor and a certain -enmity towards himself; he agreed with the King’s sister in not liking -her; what charm she had, he decided, lay solely in her rather colorless -beauty.</p> - -<p>He conducted her to his cabinet without any very great hopes as to the -success of his experiment, but, at least, he consoled himself, he had -forced an issue that might have hung long and vexatiously, and this -interview would decide how much or how little Viktoria von Falkenberg -was going to count for in the life of the King of Sweden.</p> - -<p>When the cabinet door opened Karl looked round.</p> - -<p>He was still in the chair where Count Piper had left him and seemed to -have but lately awakened.</p> - -<p>The Baroness entered and closed the door. The King at once rose, and -stood, with one hand on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_023" id="page_023"></a>{23}</span> back of his chair, looking at her in rather -an amazed fashion.</p> - -<p>His eyes were clear and his hands steady; he had already thrown off the -effects of the wine—an easy matter for his superb and vigorous -constitution.</p> - -<p>But his hair was still disordered, his dress disheveled and stained with -blood, and dirt, and wine.</p> - -<p>The lady, in her fair exquisiteness, rose color and silver, her finished -beauty and artificial grace, was a curious contrast to the young man in -his vigor and careless attire.</p> - -<p>“Ah, Madame von Falkenberg,” said the King, “who do you wish to -see—Count Piper?”</p> - -<p>“No, sir.”</p> - -<p>“This is Count Piper’s cabinet,” replied Karl, with a look of confusion.</p> - -<p>“He has been lecturing your Majesty?”</p> - -<p>The blood rushed up under the King’s fair skin.</p> - -<p>“He spoke to me of the Czar of Muscovy, but I do not rightly recall all -he said.”</p> - -<p>The Baroness advanced a little; all that there was of light in the dull, -small apartment seemed to be gathered in her brilliant figure.</p> - -<p>“I also have come to speak of the Czar of Muscovy, your Majesty.”</p> - -<p>Karl looked at her doubtfully.</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes, Count Piper sent me,” she added, “but I do not come on his -errand, but on my own.”</p> - -<p>The red still showed in the King’s strange face; he glanced at his -clothes.</p> - -<p>“You take me at a disadvantage,” he said, with dignity.</p> - -<p>Viktoria smiled faintly.</p> - -<p>“Ah no, sire—you have all the advantages!”</p> - -<p>Karl suddenly smiled also; it changed his face, not agreeably.</p> - -<p>“You think I have all I want?” he asked.</p> - -<p>“I think that you could have.”</p> - -<p>“That rests with you, Baroness,” he replied; now<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_024" id="page_024"></a>{24}</span> that he was sober it -was noticeable that his demeanor was cold and his manners of a freezing -haughtiness; only towards this woman his behavior was softened; he was -being as gracious as he knew how; his large serene eyes gleamed as they -rested on her loveliness; he approved her openly and with a lack of all -subterfuge that had something large-natured in it; indeed, it was -impossible to associate him with anything small of any kind.</p> - -<p>They stood facing each other, and for all that she was tall she was -hardly to his shoulder; he stared at her, and behind all his arrogance -was a certain shyness.</p> - -<p>“Sir,” she said, “it is a pity that you should depend on a woman for -anything.”</p> - -<p>That seemed to strike a responsive chord in his nature; he drew up his -magnificent figure and a look of intense pride darkened his face.</p> - -<p>He put his hand to the hilt of the short sword he wore and turned away -rather abruptly.</p> - -<p>“What could I give you?” asked Viktoria softly.</p> - -<p>He looked at her over his shoulder.</p> - -<p>“I think you know,” he said rather sullenly.</p> - -<p>“But tell me,” she insisted.</p> - -<p>The King gave his ugly smile.</p> - -<p>“You are such a pretty creature,” he answered, “you give me more -pleasure than any fair sight I have ever seen.”</p> - -<p>She did not receive his compliment in the usual fashion of blush and -confusion.</p> - -<p>“I am sorry that your Majesty has seen so few pleasant sights,” she said -quietly, “but you are very young.”</p> - -<p>“You think of me as very young?” demanded the King, with narrowed eyes.</p> - -<p>“What are you, sire, but a boy?” replied the lady calmly. “Ah, when will -you be a man?”</p> - -<p>“With God’s help, when I choose,” he said shortly.</p> - -<p>Viktoria von Falkenberg smiled sadly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_025" id="page_025"></a>{25}</span></p> - -<p>“Sire,” she said, “I do not come to lecture you as Count Piper or the -Queen do. I think I have no right to speak at all, save this little -right that you have noticed me.”</p> - -<p>“I have noticed you,” he interrupted heavily.</p> - -<p>“And that others think that I might influence you,” she continued.</p> - -<p>“Ah, they think that, do they? Count Piper thinks a woman could -influence me!” cried the King. “Forgive me,” he added quickly, “I am not -courteous.”</p> - -<p>“Indeed,” replied the Baroness, still with that little fixed smile, -“your Majesty is more fitted to the camp than the court.”</p> - -<p>Again the King flushed, and his eyes were narrowed and gleaming.</p> - -<p>“Ah, I am boorish—I know,” he said, then, suddenly, “but I could be -gentle to a woman, a woman like you.”</p> - -<p>“I want you to be gentle to me now, sire,” she replied quickly, “for -what I have to say may try your patience.”</p> - -<p>“Nay, that could never be.”</p> - -<p>He did not speak in a tone of gallantry or artificial compliment, nor -even with any of the confusion or shyness likely in one so young and so -unused to dealing in affairs of love, but with a certain hardness and -hauteur, the mark of absolute sincerity and complete self-command.</p> - -<p>It was impossible to believe that he would ever waste himself in mere -pleasantness; he did not trouble even to smile, but looked at the lady -gravely with his strange blue eyes that were of so rare a color and so -curious an expression.</p> - -<p>“You think that I please your fancy,” she said, with a flutter of color -in her face.</p> - -<p>“I know that you do,” he replied seriously. “You are very wonderful. But -Count Piper was wrong,” he added grimly, “when he thought that you could -influence me.”</p> - -<p>“Yet I am going to try and do so,” said Viktoria.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_026" id="page_026"></a>{26}</span></p> - -<p>“Yes?” he seemed faintly amused.</p> - -<p>“I want you to forget me, to forget the chase, to leave the wine, and -become the man your father was.”</p> - -<p>These words were so unexpected that for a moment his composure was -disturbed.</p> - -<p>“Forget you?” he asked.</p> - -<p>“Sire, whether my words have any effect with you or no, after to-day I -shall never speak to you alone. I am not the woman your councilor takes -me to be. He thinks that I would be your plaything, and that through me -he would work his way with you.”</p> - -<p>“And so you will have none of me?” asked the King quietly; “I could have -loved you.”</p> - -<p>“Sire, I have done with love. And I was never ambitious.”</p> - -<p>“But I,” smiled Karl, “I have not even begun with love. And I was always -ambitious.”</p> - -<p>She flashed at him with sudden animation and force.</p> - -<p>“Then if you are ambitious leave love alone. Turn your back on women -until you take your Queen—be the one King in Europe who is not ruled by -a petticoat. Be a man like the hero of antiquity, feared, obeyed, -revered by <i>men</i>, not cajoled, flattered, led by women!”</p> - -<p>He gave her a dazzling look.</p> - -<p>“And if I wished I could be such a one,” he said strongly.</p> - -<p>“And do you hesitate? There is a man’s work—a King’s work ready to your -hand—a nation that your forefathers left great looking to you for help -against three terrible enemies, the world before you in which to win -glory.”</p> - -<p>“And if I wished I could win it,” said Karl, in the same tone.</p> - -<p>“Sire, first you must conquer yourself—to-day you were intoxicated.”</p> - -<p>The King flushed hotly.</p> - -<p>“You came to the Queen’s table blood-stained from<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_027" id="page_027"></a>{27}</span> the chase. You -dragged the cover to the floor with your spur in the cloth. You insulted -me in the corridor.”</p> - -<p>Karl looked at his disordered clothes.</p> - -<p>“Before God,” he said in broken voice, “I am sorry.”</p> - -<p>“And because of these things Count Piper resorts to a woman to influence -you.”</p> - -<p>“I am ashamed,” said the King. “I am ashamed. Yes, I was drunk. I went -into my grandmother’s presence like any stable boor—I remember now. And -Count Piper led me here—and I fell asleep when he talked politics.”</p> - -<p>He hid his face in his strong hands, resting them on the back of the -chair, his tangled curls falling over the dark tapestry.</p> - -<p>Viktoria Falkenberg had not known him long, but she was quick to -perceive that he was moved to emotion rare in such a nature.</p> - -<p>She came quickly up to him, and laid her thin hand on his bowed -shoulder.</p> - -<p>“Sire, what does it matter? You are young and splendid. Think what may -be before you—think what you have in your hands. What is the chase -compared to war? What is wine-drinking compared to the joy of victory? -What the pursuit of women compared to the pursuit of nations?”</p> - -<p>He raised his strange face that was now quite pale.</p> - -<p>“You are right,” he said. “You are very right. I have always thought -like that. Yet there seemed nothing to do. And I amused myself with -games,” he added simply.</p> - -<p>“There is now plenty to do,” said the lady, with a faint smile. “You -must give your brother-in-law back his duchy—humble Denmark—subdue -Poland—hold the Czar in check.”</p> - -<p>“You think that I could do that?” he asked quickly.</p> - -<p>“Sire, you come of a race that has done such things.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_028" id="page_028"></a>{28}</span></p> - -<p>He looked at her with an intensity almost painful.</p> - -<p>“You are interested in me, but yet you do not care about me.”</p> - -<p>“I do not love you, sire,” she replied quietly. “I loved once. It was -enough. I loved my husband and he did not love me. For the sake of -another woman he was killed soon after our marriage.”</p> - -<p>She drew from behind the silver lace on her bosom a golden locket which -she opened, and showed no portrait, but a fragment of blood-stained rag.</p> - -<p>“That I cut from above his heart the day they brought him home,” she -said. “It is all I care for in the world. I—I have suffered so much -that it is as if I had died. That is why, sire, I can speak to you so -coldly now.”</p> - -<p>The King looked at her calmly; by contrast with her own words she -herself appeared insignificant, his fancy for her, which she might have -formed into the strongest passion his cold nature was capable of, had -died on the instant before the images her words had evoked.</p> - -<p>No one had ever spoken to him directly with strength and sincerity; the -sneers of his grandmother he had always despised and everyone else had -been his inferior, not daring to tell him plainly that which men thought -of him and his actions.</p> - -<p>Never before either had he been so degraded as to-day when he had -returned to the palace intoxicated and shown himself so before women, -and in the revulsion of shame and disgust that he felt the words that -this lady had dared to speak to him made the deeper impression.</p> - -<p>He looked at her with respect and a slight amazement; she seemed thin -and pale and artificial in her gorgeous stiff gown, very different from -the heroines of his beloved sagas—yet she had shown qualities that were -admirable in his eyes.</p> - -<p>“Enough,” he said suddenly. “I think I have done with childish things. I -have had my dreams—maybe<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_029" id="page_029"></a>{29}</span> some of them I can realize. I thank you, -Madame, for your timely speech.”</p> - -<p>He offered her no compliment nor courtesy and his expression, as he -gazed at her, was hard, but she believed that she had accomplished her -purpose and she did not care how soon he forgot her; she had very truly -done with the emotions of love and vanity.</p> - -<p>“I thank you for your attention,” she replied gently. “I have, sire, no -more to say.”</p> - -<p>With a little curtsey she left him; he did not give a sigh to her going, -but turned with brusque eagerness to study the map of North Europe that -hung above Count Piper’s desk; with intent blue eyes and a steady finger -he traced the positions of those provinces his three enemies wished to -wrest from Sweden.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_030" id="page_030"></a>{30}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_IV-a" id="CHAPTER_IV-a"></a>CHAPTER IV</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">H</span>E was eighteen years of age, of a superb constitution, perfect health, -and noble descent, absolute monarch of a prosperous and well-governed -country, troubled by neither plots among his nobility nor factions among -his people.</p> - -<p>He felt as if the world had been put into his hands, as a small globe to -crush or fondle; his deep but hitherto sleeping pride, his vast and -arrogant ambition were now finally roused by the humiliation into which -his idle habits had led him, and the direct words of the woman who had -attracted his cold fancy by her pretty, sad grace.</p> - -<p>As a personality she was now dismissed from his thoughts, but he dwelt -on her speech with a deep, mighty resolve forming in his powerful mind.</p> - -<p>In every way he was equipped to play a great part in history; his -father, a stern, just, and haughty prince, had educated him with great -care and wisdom; his natural gifts for languages and mathematics had -been developed by training and diligence; he was proficient in history -and geography, well-versed in the lives of the heroes of ancient Greece -and Rome whose example suited his temperament, and familiar with the -sagas of Scandinavia, the only form of any art that had ever moved him; -his understanding was beyond the common, and he had not as yet displayed -any vice or weakness likely to obscure his fine qualities, beyond this -indolent absorption in rude sports that he had shown since he came to -the throne; he was neither cruel and given to abuse of power nor was he -liable to the weakness of being led by flatterers. His notice of -Viktoria Falkenberg<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_031" id="page_031"></a>{31}</span> was the first attention that he had ever accorded a -woman.</p> - -<p>He seemed to be without affection and without passion; to his father he -had shown the only obedience he had ever displayed to a human being; his -mother he had despised, for he had early observed how slight a value his -father had set upon her gentleness and how harshly he had treated her; -his feelings towards his sisters were the same, the old Queen he could -only tolerate by ignoring. Count Piper, the one man to whom he had shown -special favor, he liked but was not fond of, nor had he any warm -feelings towards his country which he admired only inasmuch as it was -his own.</p> - -<p>He was conscious only of the desire to dominate, to be without a rival -as he was without a master; and, now that the words of Viktoria -Falkenberg had taken root in his mind, to be great, to master kings, and -nations, and peoples, and stride over them to fresh conquests; the -reinstatement of his brother-in-law, Sweden’s ancient ally, the Duke of -Holstein-Gottorp, in his dominions, was a good excuse for him to enter -the arena of European politics where his fellow-monarchs considered him -too young to play any part.</p> - -<p>The true greatness of his strange character showed in his haughty -resolve to conquer himself before ever he attempted to overcome his -enemies.</p> - -<p>He decided to be the one King without weakness or vices, and as easily -as he took off his soiled garments of the chase he cast from him the -vulgar amusements and rude diversions that had hitherto occupied his -leisure.</p> - -<p>The evening of the day that Viktoria Falkenberg had spoken to him he -joined the Queen at her supper table.</p> - -<p>His two sisters were present and the husband of the eldest, the Duke of -Holstein-Gottorp.</p> - -<p>Karl took his place at the head of the table; he was now absolutely -sober and extremely cold in his demeanor;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_032" id="page_032"></a>{32}</span> his disordered clothes of the -morning had been changed for garments of black velvet and a muslin -cravat fastened by a white pearl; his bright and waving hair was -confined by a broad black ribbon save the foremost locks which fell over -his shoulders; in this grave style of dressing, with his great height -and noble person, he appeared much older than his years.</p> - -<p>The Queen, who had, as usual, a bitter speech ready for him, snapped her -lips together after she had glanced at his face; when he was master of -himself she was afraid of him; he gave her a by no means friendly glance -and his beautiful eyes traveled to the harassed countenance of his -brother-in-law and the quiet faces of his sisters; the Queen, who was -watching him shrewdly and with no predisposition in his favor, noticed -that now more than ever before he dominated his company; the women, -Count Piper, the young Duke all seemed pale and incomplete, like people -cut out of paper, compared to his calm and overwhelming personality.</p> - -<p>He did not sit down, but, pouring out a glass of wine, raised it almost -to the level of his lips.</p> - -<p>“Madame,” he said, addressing the Queen, “I must ask your pardon for my -great discourtesy and boorishness to-day. I do ask it. I ask these -gentlewomen to forgive me some insolences. I was not sober. That will -never happen again.”</p> - -<p>He paused for a second; there was no flush in his face, his eyes looked -as hard as sapphires; he never glanced to where Viktoria Falkenberg sat -beside the Duchess of Gottorp.</p> - -<p>“I drink your health, Madame,” he continued, bowing towards the old -Queen, “and I drink it in the last wine I shall ever taste.”</p> - -<p>He emptied his glass and set it down quietly. “And now forgive me my -absence,” he said. “I have much to attend to. Count, will you wait upon -me later?”</p> - -<p>Without pausing for a reply he left the room.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_033" id="page_033"></a>{33}</span></p> - -<p>The Queen wiped her lips in a certain grim satisfaction.</p> - -<p>“Well,” she remarked, “he is capable of keeping his word.”</p> - -<p>Count Piper glanced at the downcast and weary face of Viktoria -Falkenberg; she sat next to him and spoke, under the little murmur of -talk that had arisen since the King’s departure.</p> - -<p>“He will do, your master,” she said, “he is quite heartless, quite just, -and inhumanly strong.”</p> - -<p>“You spoke to him?”</p> - -<p>She raised her eyes.</p> - -<p>“Our interview was not what you think. We have really no interest in -each other.”</p> - -<p>Count Piper could not pretend to understand her; nor did he really care -to explore the intricacies of feminine sentiment and feminine intrigue; -if Viktoria Falkenberg was not going to influence King Karl she ceased -to in the least concern Count Piper.</p> - -<p>“His Majesty will help Gottorp, you think?” asked the Duchess.</p> - -<p>“I think so,” said Count Piper.</p> - -<p>He hastened his dinner that he might rejoin the King, who was already, -he knew, in his cabinet.</p> - -<p>And there he found him, standing by the window through which the long -Northern twilight fell into the narrow apartment; his arms were locked -over the back of a high chair and he leant forward, in the attitude of -one dreaming.</p> - -<p>Though he was so splendid in his magnificent youth there was something -in his demeanor more terrifying than lovable, and his proud noble face -was marred by the ugly smile that curved his full lips.</p> - -<p>As soon as the Count entered he spoke, without raising his head.</p> - -<p>“I shall go to war,” he said, and his voice that was always -expressionless had a hard ring in its clear quality. “I shall return -Gottorp to his duchy and I shall engage Denmark. Saxony must be brought -from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_034" id="page_034"></a>{34}</span> throne of Poland, and from these I menace this Emperor of -Muscovy—this Czar of the Russias.”</p> - -<p>“I believe,” replied Count Piper, with perfect sincerity, “that your -Majesty can do these things.”</p> - -<p>“I believe that I can,” said Karl. “The most dangerous of my foes is -Russia. He affects to be a mighty man, does he not?”</p> - -<p>It was plain that this greatness of the Czar rankled with him; it was -almost as if he had a personal hatred of this political enemy of his -country whom he had never seen; this was the only person towards whom he -had ever evinced the faintest anger or jealousy.</p> - -<p>“The Czar is great,” replied the Count, “but your Majesty might be -greater.”</p> - -<p>“I would like to break him!” exclaimed the young man looking up. With -that startling flash in the darkening blue of his eyes, he looked more -human, more moved than Count Piper had ever known him. “<span class="lftspc">’</span>Tis a savage, a -Tartar ... and he defies me ... wants my provinces ... <i>mine</i>, by God -... you have seen me drunk to-day, you will not see that again ... we -will see if the Czar drunk can match me sober ... and Poland with his -Aurora.... I will have no women, Count.”</p> - -<p>He seemed greatly moved by a deep and restrained emotion.</p> - -<p>“You owe something to one woman,” thought Count Piper, “if she has -wrought this change of mind in you.”</p> - -<p>And he wondered what Viktoria Falkenberg had said.</p> - -<p>“Russia does not think that anyone is likely to oppose him,” continued -Karl. “Is it not so? He believes that there is no man in Europe would -face him and his savages.”</p> - -<p>“He certainly thinks,” replied the minister, “that your Majesty will be -easily despoiled. ’Tis a man with many noble qualities who seeks to -bring his country forward in an honorable manner in Europe—yet -unscrupulous and fierce—a barbarian teaching civilization to -others—<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_035" id="page_035"></a>{35}</span>but,” he added, “before your Majesty thinks of Russia, there is -Denmark.”</p> - -<p>“I attend the council to-morrow,” said Karl, “and in a week’s time I -hope to leave Sweden. The Dutch and English will help us—at least -indirectly. I think it is not to King William’s interest that I should -be overwhelmed. I mean to make a feint on Copenhagen and compel Denmark -to a peace.”</p> - -<p>“The Danish fleet protects Spaelland, sire,” said Count Piper quickly.</p> - -<p>“But I have looked at the map,” replied the King, “and I see that one -might pass through the Eastern Sound.”</p> - -<p>“Which is not held to be navigable, sire.”</p> - -<p>Karl did not seem to pay much attention to this remark.</p> - -<p>“King Frederick is older than I, by ten years,” he said, reflectively. -“Do you think that he is a great man, Count?”</p> - -<p>“He is popular in Denmark, sire.”</p> - -<p>“I am vexed,” added Karl, “that I let him take Gottorp—but,” he paused, -then seemed to resolve to say no more on that subject. “England and the -Netherlands will stand by us?” he asked.</p> - -<p>“They certainly will not wish to see Denmark in possession of the -commerce of the North, nor the Czar of Russia overspread his dominions. -I believe we could count on the junction with the Anglo-Dutch fleet.”</p> - -<p>“And Poland marches on Livonia,” said the King. “I hear his Saxon -soldiers are very fine troops.”</p> - -<p>“One thing has just come to my ears, sire—Patkul is with Poland.”</p> - -<p>The King’s face hardened instantly at mention of this man who had led -the Livonian revolts that had disturbed his father’s reign and whose -intrigues had broken out again on his own accession; Patkul had been the -only jarring note in the last years in Sweden; and rebellion was a -hideous sin in the King’s rigid code of honor.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_036" id="page_036"></a>{36}</span></p> - -<p>“When I make peace with Poland,” he said, “I shall bid him send back to -me the traitor Patkul.”</p> - -<p>Count Piper looked at him curiously; the certainty of his speech, the -confidence of his bearing were amazing things, for they were entirely -free from braggart vanity or youthful swagger.</p> - -<p>The King saw his minister’s glance and slightly flushed.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps,” he said quickly, “I seem vainglorious in my speech, but I was -not thinking of myself, but of Sweden—Sweden could do great things, do -you not think so, Count?”</p> - -<p>It was like an attempt to conciliate, and the minister could not forbear -a smile.</p> - -<p>“Under such a King as you will be, sire,” he replied sincerely.</p> - -<p>“Well,” said Karl, with his strange simplicity, “I do not see that it -should be very difficult to defeat these three Kings.”</p> - -<p>The next day he made his appearance at the council board in a mood -different from any in which he had appeared there before.</p> - -<p>The councilors had been used to seeing him with his feet on the table -and his hands in his pockets, lolling and yawning; now he came erect and -composed among them, and in a few words announced his intention of -making war on Denmark, Poland, and Russia.</p> - -<p>This swift facing of their enemies was not what the council had been -expecting; they had already begun to consider the advisability of -negotiations with the three sovereigns who were taking advantage of the -youth of their King.</p> - -<p>But Karl’s words left no doubt as to his intention and his spirit.</p> - -<p>“Sirs,” he said, “I have resolved to never make an unjust war, but never -to finish a just one save by the conquest of my enemies. My decision is -taken—I shall attack him who first—who has declared himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_037" id="page_037"></a>{37}</span> against -me, and when I have vanquished him I shall hope to inspire some fear in -the others.”</p> - -<p>That same evening he heard that the Saxon troops of the King of Poland, -the regiments of Brandenbourg, Wolfenbüttel, and Hesse-Cassel were -marching to the assistance of the King of Denmark, who after having -taken Gottorp was besieging the town of Tönning in Holstein.</p> - -<p>Against these were sent 8000 Swedes, some troops from Hanover and Zell, -and three Dutch regiments, Holland, as well as England, having taken up -arms against Denmark on the excuse of her having broken the Treaty of -Altona.</p> - -<p>In the early days of April, King Karl took private leave of his family -(a cold farewell of his sisters and the Queen), and, accompanied by -Count Piper, the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, and General Rehnsköld, left -his capital for the port of Karlskrona, where he embarked on his -flagship “The King Karl,” which was mounted with 120 pieces of cannon, -and at the head of forty-three ships set sail for Copenhagen, on his -first campaign.</p> - -<p>As the shores of Sweden were receding behind them Count Piper told the -King that he had heard that Viktoria Falkenberg was very ill; he had -wondered that Karl had not remarked her absence from attendance on his -sister.</p> - -<p>“Ah, Viktoria Falkenberg,” said the King thoughtfully. He offered no -comment, and that was the last time he ever spoke her name.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_038" id="page_038"></a>{38}</span></p> - -<h3><a name="BOOK_II" id="BOOK_II"></a>BOOK II</h3> - -<p>PETER ALEXIEVITCH</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“C’etait par des actions plus étonnantes que des victoires qu’il -cherchait le nom de Grand.”—<span class="smcap">Voltaire.</span></p></div> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_I-b" id="CHAPTER_I-b"></a>CHAPTER I</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span>HE short Russian summer was in the commencement of its glory; a clear -sunshine penetrated the groves of beeches and firs, the thickets of -lilac and senna plant, and shone on the brilliant flowers that carpeted -the woods which spread about the wide estuary at the mouth of the Neva. -Here and there, through the radiant blossoms, could be seen a glimpse of -cold blue sea; the sky was of the pale green tint peculiar to the last -hours of the day; no sound disturbed the peace of the little house on -the lake in the woods, the residence that it pleased the Czar of Russia -to call “Marli,” in imitation of the French King, and which was one of -his favorite places of retreat, being, indeed, more suited to his tastes -than the gorgeous palaces he had built in Russia and the antique -magnificence of the Kremlin.</p> - -<p>It had also the advantage of being near to Cronstadt, the port he was -building and in which he took such a personal interest, where he kept -the nucleus of the Navy he was creating and of which he was so intensely -proud, and where he had personally worked at some of the twenty-six -trades that he had learnt in his journey through Europe.</p> - -<p>Save during the brief loveliness of the summer there was little beauty -in these marshy woods; neither birds<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_039" id="page_039"></a>{39}</span> nor animals seemed to inhabit them -and the stillness and the vastness added to the melancholy of the -solitude.</p> - -<p>Marli was a two-storied house with a tiled roof, a door with plain steps -and a window above with a balcony.</p> - -<p>It had no defined garden but stood solitary in the woods; it was not far -from the swamps where the Czar had resolved to build his new capital, -nor from the spot where his favorite Mentchikoff was raising a superb -palace, but it had, despite the bright flowers and the sunshine, an air -of solitude that was dreary.</p> - -<p>There was no sign of cultivation round the lake, and the wild flowers -grew up to the very door, bending over the shallow steps; the yellow -plaster front of the house was stained with damp and the windows were -without curtains, the shutters being all fastened back. The door stood -open and there was no sign of servants or of any domestic work being in -progress.</p> - -<p>At the edge of the lake and looking up at the house was a man whose -appearance and attire were in entire contrast to his surroundings.</p> - -<p>He was tall and stoutly built, with dark hair and eyes and an expression -of some fierceness, his locks were cut short into his neck, and he was -attired in native Russian costume untouched by European fashion.</p> - -<p>His long coat of fine gold-colored silk brocade, shot with blue and red -flowers, was open on a vest of fine muslin, fastened with sapphire -buttons, and belted above the full skirt with scarlet leather.</p> - -<p>His full breeches of pale blue velvet were gathered into high vermilion -leather boots, much polished and soft.</p> - -<p>He carried a short sword of Oriental design, the hilt studded with -tourmaline and rose quartz, and wore a close cap of scarlet silk round -which was twisted a fine gold chain which held in place a buckle of -diamonds that clasped a long white osprey. After looking at the little -house thoughtfully this personage went slowly round the lake and in at -the open door.</p> - -<p>The two front rooms were closed; the newcomer went to the back and -looked into the kitchen; it was here very<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_040" id="page_040"></a>{40}</span> hot, for the cooking stove -was lit and several dishes stood on it from which exhaled an odor of -onions, cabbages, and rancid grease.</p> - -<p>On a side table stood pots and pans and dishes containing fish under -vinegar and salted gherkins, also some jams and jellies and a few fine -spoons of silver gilt; flies and mosquitoes buzzed over everything; all -was dirty; the floor and the stove filthy with dropped grease and -spillings of food.</p> - -<p>A Tartar servant with a flat yellow face was watching the cooking; he -wore a soiled blue blouse and trousers; his throat and chest were bare -and the perspiration rolled from under his oily hair.</p> - -<p>He regarded the newcomer with a look of complete stupidity and turned -his gaze again to his cooking.</p> - -<p>He appeared to be no more impressed by the gentleman’s brilliancy than -the gentleman was by his dirt and disorder. Only, as that person was -leaving the kitchen, the taciturn servant vouchsafed a warning.</p> - -<p>“If you come with unpleasant news, Danilovitch Mentchikoff, you had -better keep them for a while.”</p> - -<p>“He is in a bad humor?” asked the Prince quickly.</p> - -<p>“He was drinking all night,” replied the Tartar. “And now he seems to be -in a melancholy. What am I to do about the dinner, Danilovitch -Mentchikoff? He will not bear me in the room—and as for you, he will -beat you like a dog.”</p> - -<p>“Well, when he has beaten me, we will have dinner,” replied the Prince, -and he turned away and went upstairs.</p> - -<p>He entered the front bedroom which was that with the balcony over the -door; a good-sized chamber very plainly furnished with a low bed, a -table, a few chairs, and one or two half-open boxes filled with clothes.</p> - -<p>The pale melancholy light streamed in uninterrupted through the -curtainless window and lit every crevice of the apartment.</p> - -<p>Above the bed was an ikon of the Saviour, very dark and indistinct and -adorned with plates of silver;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_041" id="page_041"></a>{41}</span> two candles in sticks of violet jasper -stood on a shelf beneath this; on the stove was the unfinished model of -a ship in wood; these were the only remarkable objects that the room -contained.</p> - -<p>The one occupant was a young man who sat in a low chair by the stove, -and who was intent on carving with a small knife a large fir cone.</p> - -<p>Peter Alexievitch, Emperor of Muscovy and Czar of all the Russias, was -at this time twenty-eight years of age, and it was not long since he had -been recalled by rebellion at home from that extraordinary journey in -disguise round Europe whereby he had sought to learn the various means -by which nations secure prosperity and greatness, that he might instruct -his subjects; he had since gained some glory by a victory over the -Turks, but his present league with Poland and Denmark against Sweden was -his first real entry into war and politics, the first attempt to put -into practise the schemes by which he sought to render his vast Empire -secure and mighty.</p> - -<p>He did not look up as Prince Mentchikoff entered, but continued, with -ostentatious disregard of a presence he was certainly aware of, to chip -at the pine cone.</p> - -<p>His friend, standing inside the door, eyed him with some apprehension.</p> - -<p>The Czar’s appearance was as remarkable as his character and his -history.</p> - -<p>Unlike the Prince, he wore European clothes, a shirt of very fine linen, -much ruffled, faded green cloth breeches, white cotton stockings and -leathern shoes, and over all a full dressing-gown of brown wool which -was tied round his waist by a cord.</p> - -<p>Even as he sat so, doubled up on a low chair, it was noticeable that he -was of gigantic height, and slender and graceful in his proportions; the -hands that were busy with his minute work were slim and elegant, his -head was of a noble shape and covered with smooth short curls of a dusky -brown color; his face, of an Asiatic type, was singularly beautiful, -though already marred by passion and vice.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_042" id="page_042"></a>{42}</span></p> - -<p>The short blunt features were finely formed, the dark eyes, large, -lustrous, and full of sweetness, eagerness, and ardor, the complexion of -a warm brown, darkened by exposure to sun and wind; a close mustache -outlined the full lips; for the rest he was well shaven, and there was -something both robust and boyish in the smooth contours of his face.</p> - -<p>He was extremely attractive and gave the impression of being simple and -lovable to an almost childish degree; his complexion, naturally so -smooth and clear, was now rather pale, the eyes heavy and stained -beneath; the hand that held the knife very slightly shook.</p> - -<p>Mentchikoff noticed a dirty glass full of flies on the floor beside him -and a number of bottles, mostly empty, scattered about, a strong smell -of brandy being in the air.</p> - -<p>“I come, as you bade me, to dine with your Majesty,” said the favorite.</p> - -<p>Peter did not even look round; he took a pinch of clay from a board on -top of the stove and began to model it on to the fir cone.</p> - -<p>The Prince was vexed by this reception; he had begun to think he could -do what he liked with the Czar, who had raised him from the position of -a pastry cook’s lad to that of greatest noble in all the Russias.</p> - -<p>“Well, Peter Alexievitch,” he said drily, “there is some news that you -must hear. But I would keep it till after dinner.”</p> - -<p>Peter turned now; one side of his face twitched in a slight convulsion.</p> - -<p>“Why did not this news come to me?” he asked sullenly.</p> - -<p>Mentchikoff saw that whatever his potations had been he was now sober, -and went warily accordingly; the Czar sober was not so easy as the Czar -drunk.</p> - -<p>“Who dares to come to your Majesty when you are withdrawn into your -solitude? Therefore the dispatches from Moscow were brought to me.”</p> - -<p>“Is it bad news?” asked the Czar gloomily; he<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_043" id="page_043"></a>{43}</span> turned again to his work, -and began coloring the clay with his finger dipped in rough pigment -which he had arranged on the same board as the clay.</p> - -<p>“Well,” said Mentchikoff, “I certainly think that your Majesty should be -at Moscow.”</p> - -<p>And irritated at his reception he seated himself near the window with an -air of impatience.</p> - -<p>“I will not go to Moscow,” said the Czar, in a tone of suppressed -violence. “I wish to be here—this is where I will build my city and my -fort. Why cannot I be alone here? I care nothing for your news.”</p> - -<p>“Well, then,” replied Mentchikoff exasperated, “it will not destroy your -appetite, Peter Alexievitch. The King of Sweden has defeated Denmark, -taken back Holstein-Gottorp, and signed a victorious peace.”</p> - -<p>Peter stared.</p> - -<p>“The King of Sweden!” he ejaculated.</p> - -<p>“Yes, that boy who was to be so easily despoiled. Europe remembers -nothing like it. In fifteen days he has ended the campaign.”</p> - -<p>The Czar’s face was a ghastly color.</p> - -<p>“This is greatness,” he said.</p> - -<p>With the mechanical movement of one who has received a shock he -continued his work, staring at the clay he continued to mold and color.</p> - -<p>“Eighteen years old,” added Mentchikoff, “and his first campaign.”</p> - -<p>“Tell me about it,” said Peter, in an agitated and humbled manner.</p> - -<p>“Do you really want to hear?” asked the Prince in some surprise; he had -known the Czar to have messengers of ill-tidings knouted.</p> - -<p>“I want to hear,” replied Peter, without looking up.</p> - -<p>“Well, the Swedes made a descent on Copenhagen and joined the -Anglo-Dutch fleet by Spaelland—they sailed through the Eastern Channel -of the Sound, a thing not before thought possible—and then they landed -and attacked Copenhagen by land.”</p> - -<p>“The King led them?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_044" id="page_044"></a>{44}</span></p> - -<p>“The King led them—he was the first to land, and waded with the water -to his waist and his sword in his hand—under the musket fire of the -Danes, you perceive. There was a short engagement in which the Swedes -were completely victorious, and Copenhagen lay at their mercy.”</p> - -<p>“Where was King Frederick?” asked Peter.</p> - -<p>“I do not know—still besieging Tönning, I suppose—at least he sent to -negotiate.”</p> - -<p>“To negotiate!” cried the Czar, looking round.</p> - -<p>“Sire—the Baltic Sea was covered with the Swedish ships, King Karl -master of Seeland, Copenhagen beseeching mercy—but our young hero must -do the magnanimous—he fought not for conquest, he said, but justice. In -brief, there was a congress called at Tarrenthal and there is a peace to -be signed this month.”</p> - -<p>“And what are the terms?”</p> - -<p>Mentchikoff shrugged his shoulders.</p> - -<p>“Sweden wants nothing for himself—Gottorp is to get his indemnity and -his Duchy, and Denmark is never to meddle again against Sweden.”</p> - -<p>Peter was silent a moment he was still very pale and one side of his -face twitched convulsively.</p> - -<p>“What news from Poland?” he asked at length.</p> - -<p>“There were those dispatches yesterday, but you would not listen to -them.”</p> - -<p>“Tell them to me now.”</p> - -<p>“Augustus has raised the siege of Riga.”</p> - -<p>“Why?” demanded the Czar, trembling all over.</p> - -<p>“The excuse is that the town is full of Dutch merchandise and Poland -would not offend Holland. The truth is that Augustus could not take the -town.”</p> - -<p>“Curse Augustus and curse Frederick,” said the Czar heavily.</p> - -<p>He put down the little toy he was making and clasped his head in his -hands.</p> - -<p>“So of all the enemies of this young man there remains but yourself, -Peter Alexievitch.”</p> - -<p>The Czar was silent; he could have imagined no<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_045" id="page_045"></a>{45}</span> greater blow than this -appearance of a rival to his glory in Northern Europe, a man ten years -younger than himself who had already achieved what he never had.</p> - -<p>How often had not Peter dreamed of dictating terms to a conquered city -and setting conditions of peace to vanquished Kings, of seeing a great -many obey his commands and thousands of fine soldiers march behind him -to conquest; all things that this youth had experienced in a few days, -while he, Peter, had been indulging himself in a sullen retirement -broken only by those drunken debauches with which he sought to cure the -terrible melancholy that periodically assailed him.</p> - -<p>A bitter scorn of himself, a bitter envy of the King of Sweden, a wild -yearning to be other than he was, settled on him like the mantle of -despair.</p> - -<p>“Tell me what this young man is like,” he asked, in a muffled voice; his -curiosity as to what was admirable and good and great was insatiable; -even now it dominated his emotion.</p> - -<p>Prince Mentchikoff did not know much; this young hero, whose name was -now in everyone’s mouth, was a new figure in Europe.</p> - -<p>“He is very austere and prides himself on his justice, they say, and his -army is so disciplined that they are at prayers twice a day, and they -pay for all they take and do not despoil the dead. But this young man -must be ambitious—he will lose his head.”</p> - -<p>“You know nothing about it, Danilovitch,” replied Peter, “they are brave -and cold, the Swedes. And this boy was well-trained and taught,” he -added enviously.</p> - -<p>“Well,” said the Prince, “he is something to be reckoned with—and I -hear from Stockholm that he is angry with the four envoys you have sent. -He thinks that when you are at war you should drop the pretense of -peace—he is of a rigid honor.”</p> - -<p>“Oh!” said Peter.</p> - -<p>He glanced up at the toy he had made; it represented an old woman in cap -and shawl, the cone being her skirt and the upper part being cunningly -fashioned of clay.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_046" id="page_046"></a>{46}</span></p> - -<p>“That is what I can do,” he added fiercely.</p> - -<p>The Prince swung on his heel with some impatience. “You should be in -Moscow,” he declared. “Will you wait till the Swede is over the -frontier?”</p> - -<p>The Czar did not reply.</p> - -<p>“The Saxons have left Livonia,” continued Mentchikoff goadingly. “Patkul -has proved a poor statesman and the treaty of Préobrapenskoè a -failure—you can go on building Cronstadt and St. Petersburg, for this -war is over.”</p> - -<p>The Czar gave his friend an ugly look; his hands trembled on his knees.</p> - -<p>“Do you think that this boy has vanquished me?” he cried.</p> - -<p>“I think that he may, Peter Alexievitch.”</p> - -<p>The Czar sprang to his feet.</p> - -<p>“Faithless, insolent, and foolish!” he shrieked, in an instant at the -height of passion. “Where did you find the courage to presume on my -kindness! Have you forgotten that I am Peter!”</p> - -<p>The Prince stood passive, only holding up his hands to protect his face; -the Czar grappled with him and flung him down; Mentchikoff prostrated -himself at his master’s feet, face downwards on the dirty floor.</p> - -<p>Peter was not mollified by this submission; he took off his belt and -beat the shoulders of the favorite until the gay brocade was torn to -ribbons.</p> - -<p>He ceased as suddenly as he had begun, and staggered out into the head -of the stairs, dragging his shirt open at the throat.</p> - -<p>The Tartar servant was coming up with dishes on a tray; Peter gave one -glance at the food then tipped it all out of the man’s hands so that -cabbage, soup, and fish rolled down the stairs; then he gave a great cry -that seemed like a shout for air and fell backwards; a little foam -flecked his lips and his eyes turned in his head.</p> - -<p>The Prince and the Tartar with the air of men doing a usual thing, -dragged and pushed him somehow to his bed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_047" id="page_047"></a>{47}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_II-b" id="CHAPTER_II-b"></a>CHAPTER II</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span>HE Czar Peter lay at full length on his camp bedstead, his hand at his -forehead, sheltering his eyes, his mind full of bitter and angry -thoughts.</p> - -<p>Seated on a low chair near him was Danilovitch Mentchikoff, who regarded -him with an expression like that of a favorite dog who has been beaten, -and who waits patiently until his master chooses to forgive him.</p> - -<p>For two reasons Mentchikoff would take anything, blows, kicks, and -violent abuse, from Peter; first because of the traditional implicit -obedience of a Russian towards the Czar, a sentiment that had caused men -dying under torture to bless the monarch who had condemned them, and -secondly because he loved and revered Peter with a deep, passionate -fidelity.</p> - -<p>Insolent towards all the world, easy and familiar even with his master, -with whom he frequently presumed too far, he yet never resented any -caprice that humbled him by word, look, or whip; he did not fawn from -policy but from an intense devotion to the man whom he considered the -greatest in the world.</p> - -<p>There were some elements of greatness also in Danilovitch Mentchikoff; -he shared not only the Czar’s views, but some of his capacity for -carrying them out; he had been his companion in the labors of the -dockyards of Amsterdam and Wapping, as well as in the barbaric splendors -of Russia; he also had seen and judged that Western civilization that -the Czar burned to emulate; he also dreamed the same dreams of the -future greatness and glory of his country, and to this cause was eager -to devote his strength and his intellect.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_048" id="page_048"></a>{48}</span></p> - -<p>Some personal ambition colored his attitude; Peter had raised him from -cook-boy to page, from page to noble, friend, minister; he was already -wealthy, honored, feared, but though he might be an insolent tyrant to -all the world, to the man who had raised him he was absolutely -submissive, even abject in his love and admiration.</p> - -<p>Peter, whose nature was warm and affectionate, loved this creature of -his own making, to whom he allowed liberties never permitted to the most -powerful of his boyars, but he had more often than once made Mentchikoff -the victim of his insane furies in a manner that had nearly cost him his -life; but the servant had never uttered a sound of complaint, and, when -the outburst was over, had never failed to drag himself, bruised and -bleeding and faint, to lick the boots and kiss the hand of the man who -had chastised him.</p> - -<p>He now was watching the Czar with some anxiety; he had been vexed for -the last few weeks because Peter had made no steps in the campaign -against Sweden, but, seized with one of his attacks of melancholy, had -retired to Marli to brood over the plans of Cronstadt and St. Petersburg -and drink himself into fits of false gayety that were followed by black -and dangerous depression.</p> - -<p>And now the blow had fallen; a new captain had arisen who in a few days -had forced Denmark into peace; Poland was retiring from Riga; a young, -vigorous King who had shown himself possessed of resolution and martial -genius, with a perfectly equipped, trained, and victorious army behind -him, was free to turn his attention to the third enemy who had so -wantonly provoked him.</p> - -<p>Mentchikoff’s long dark and rather haggard face was shadowed with -anxiety.</p> - -<p>Not only did he wish his master’s political and military schemes to -fructify, he wished the Czar to be personally great and without rival in -this greatness.</p> - -<p>He was concerned that Russia should have Livonia<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_049" id="page_049"></a>{49}</span> and a port on the -Baltic, he had concurred in the plans laid down by Patkul, but he was -still more concerned that Peter Alexievitch should shine resplendent, -without a rival, in the Northern firmament.</p> - -<p>Already he hated Karl of Sweden, who had the advantage in education, -tradition, and breed; who was controlled, humane, just, and -honorable—with none of these things could even the blind devotion of -Mentchikoff credit Peter—and who had the added interest of his extreme -youth and the justice of his quarrels; a young warrior, stern, outraged, -fighting only those who had attacked him, conquering easily, and, with a -haughty generosity, claiming no benefits from his victory, but only the -restoration of his friend to what was rightfully his—this was a figure -on heroic lines and one sure to appeal to the imaginations of men.</p> - -<p>And how would the world account Peter by contrast?</p> - -<p>A half-savage monarch of an almost wholly Eastern realm, never yet taken -seriously into the reckoning in the affairs of Europe, one who had taken -eccentric means to learn the means of civilizing his people and who yet -was notoriously incapable of controlling his own meanest passions, one -who had been guilty of fierce cruelty and bitter revenge and excesses -beyond ordinary debauchery—how did such a one show beside the cold, -fast, calm, and mighty figure of the young King of Sweden?</p> - -<p>Mentchikoff was jealous for his hero, who to him was the greatest man on -earth; Peter’s faults were not faults to him; he came of a people long -used to cruelty in their rulers, it was in his blood and in his training -to submit to tyranny, but he had been the Czar’s companion in his -journey through Europe and he had seen, with his strong native -shrewdness and perception, the qualities admired and respected by -civilized peoples, and he knew exactly where Peter failed to reach the -standard of the West—it was one to which he could not attain himself, -but that did not prevent<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_050" id="page_050"></a>{50}</span> him from keenly observing his master’s -failure. He still passionately dreamed of seeing the Czar a King after -the fashion of the Kings of France and England, and had been one with -him in every effort to attain this end; so complete was the devotion and -abnegation of Danilovitch Mentchikoff that his life was one with his -master’s life, his glory and ambition one with the glory and ambition of -Peter Alexievitch. And the Czar’s moods, melancholies, and passions, -that went so far to hinder his glorious schemes and tarnish his -brilliant qualities, caused the keenest pangs to the fiercely loyal -heart of his servant.</p> - -<p>And now there was this new hero to reckon with; a man such as Peter was -not and never could be.</p> - -<p>The long figure at which the Prince gazed with his small brilliant eyes -stirred on the rude bed; Peter dropped the arm that shielded his eyes -and stared before him.</p> - -<p>He also had his thoughts of Karl of Sweden; they were as intense and -bitter as those of Danilovitch Mentchikoff.</p> - -<p>He was conscious of his own greatness, conscious of his own failings, -and overwhelmed by the task which destiny and his own will had laid on -his shoulders.</p> - -<p>He was the master of a continent, the undisputed lord of millions of -human beings, enveloped in a grandeur almost mythical, possessed of a -power almost godlike; better for him if he had been content with this, -satisfied as his ancestors had been satisfied by an enclosed splendor, -instead of being tortured by dreams of making Russia what she had never -been, what she perhaps never could be.</p> - -<p>All the sciences, the arts, the trades and commerces that had been the -result of such slow and painful growth in Europe, he hoped in one -generation to implant in the sterile soil of a nation almost wholly -savage from the point of view of the West.</p> - -<p>A great capital must be built, a great port made, a trained army raised, -a navy built, trade established,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_051" id="page_051"></a>{51}</span> people educated in commerce and -handicrafts—marshes drained, forests cleared, swamps turned into -profitable ground—his people must learn the utmost resources of their -country and how to turn them to account.</p> - -<p>The beautiful arts of other countries must be introduced and made to -flourish; all that was wonderful, fair, or great must find a home in -Russia.</p> - -<p>Such were the dreams of Peter; his breed, his tradition, his character -were against these dreams.</p> - -<p>Half an Asiatic, his type was largely Eastern, his outlook wholly so; he -was nearer Timour Beg than Louis XIV, despite his admiration of this -latter ideal of kingship.</p> - -<p>He had admired Europe and copied Europe and envied Europe—he had little -in common with Europe.</p> - -<p>His story was one of a violence and terror difficult to find in the -annals of any country but this, full of dark splendor, of flights, -revolts, dangers, imprisonments; the brother who had shared his throne -had disappeared to a mysterious death, the sister who had been his -regent was languishing in a close prison; he was separated from his -wife, his one son was sickly, almost witless.</p> - -<p>In his blood lurked horrible diseases; his brother had been an idiot, -tortured by convulsions, his sister was afflicted by dropsy and ulcers, -he himself had been given to epilepsy since childhood; unbridled -passions, unlimited power, unchecked lusts had tainted his whole race -with a mental unbalance akin to insanity; melancholy, nightmare horrors -of glooms and broodings, wild extravagance of thought and action were in -his heritage.</p> - -<p>Heavier burdens even than the scepter of all the Russias had come from -his forefathers to Peter Alexievitch; clouding and torturing his brain -and body were the dread shadows of mortal maladies, the black form of -madness. No one knew his sufferings; he himself was ignorant of their -cause and terrified at their power; only alcohol could allay them, and -then the payment exacted was horrible as death in agonies.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_052" id="page_052"></a>{52}</span></p> - -<p>The dark horrors of delirium, the monstrous fancies of fever, the -tortuous labyrinths of the underground ways by which the borderland of -delusions, dreams, hallucinations, and unbidden imaginings leads to the -utter starless abyss of insanity were often more real to Peter than the -strenuous world in which he lived; shadows from realms that he tried to -deny the existence of, ghastly gleams from hells at which his soul dared -not glance, clouded and colored his thoughts and his actions.</p> - -<p>A continent was at his feet and he had undertaken a task as tremendous -as any man had yet put his hand to—but even this was not sufficient to -distract him from the terrors of the unseen and the unheard who haunted -those foul, secret places where his soul was doomed to wander.</p> - -<p>He was weak now after his fit and there was a dullness on his spirit -almost akin to peace; he was frowning, and his beautiful eyes were well -stained with blood, but his glance sought with a certain gratitude the -cool peace of the green beyond the square window, and he was glad of the -quiet, watchful presence of his friend.</p> - -<p>“Danilovitch,” he said, in a low voice, “I must get back to Moscow,” -then “If Cronstadt were built and I had a navy, I would batter this boy -by sea.”</p> - -<p>He sat up slowly, a languid, graceful figure in the soiled -dressing-gown; he had bitten his tongue when he fell and his mouth was -still marked with blood; a few tiny spots of red were on the front of -the fine cambric shirt; his forehead was damp with perspiration and the -soft glossy curls hung in wild disorder; yet his face, so round in the -contours still, with a certain bloom and freshness, attractive, gentle -in expression, was the face of a youth, sensitive and dreamy.</p> - -<p>Prince Mentchikoff did not answer; he was not yet sure of his master’s -mood and feared to say something that might irritate him.</p> - -<p>“And if I had an army I could batter him by land,” added Peter, with a -hard smile.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_053" id="page_053"></a>{53}</span></p> - -<p>“Your Majesty has an army,” ventured Mentchikoff.</p> - -<p>“Has it ever been tried in battle?” demanded the Czar grimly. “Is there -anyone in the whole of Russia who knows anything of the art of war?”</p> - -<p>“It is for you to teach them,” ventured the Prince.</p> - -<p>“There is much I have to teach Russia,” remarked the Czar.</p> - -<p>He stood up, to the full of his great height, and pushed back his hair -impatiently with both damp hands.</p> - -<p>“Is this how I get my Baltic port?” he cried scornfully. “Is this how I -wrest a province from Sweden? I should have been in Moscow months ago.”</p> - -<p>“God knows you should, Peter Alexievitch,” said Mentchikoff mournfully.</p> - -<p>“But I had to labor with my hands, Danilovitch, there is no other cure -for these infernal torments. I must make things, and be near the sea.”</p> - -<p>The Prince knew that Peter alluded to the black melancholy fits to which -he was subject and made no reply.</p> - -<p>“This boy now,” continued the Czar, in a quieter tone, “he would be -sober? Not chased by phantoms or mocked by the infernal ones, eh, -Danilovitch?”</p> - -<p>“A cold Norseman,” replied Mentchikoff. “They say that for this campaign -at least, his life has been austere.”</p> - -<p>“That is it,” replied Peter, with an eagerness that was almost wistful, -“an austere life—to train the body, to eat bread and drink water, to -sleep on the ground, to live as the meanest foot soldier—and I could do -it—if he, why not I?”</p> - -<p>Then, in a sudden fit of gloom, he added:</p> - -<p>“I have no troops worth naming beyond the Strelitz and the -Germans—savages, peasants, this King will laugh at me—and Riga is lost -and Tönning? Curse both the Saxon and the Dane.”</p> - -<p>He spoke wearily, without passion; Mentchikoff rose and touched him -gently, with an infinite tenderness, on the arm.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_054" id="page_054"></a>{54}</span></p> - -<p>“Come, Peter Alexievitch,” he said softly, “come out and look at the -sea.”</p> - -<p>He had never known when a glimpse even of the ocean had failed to soothe -the Czar.</p> - -<p>Peter did not reply, and Mentchikoff deftly drew off the dressing-gown -and put on an old green coat of European cut that hung over a chair; the -Czar silently permitted the change.</p> - -<p>The Prince fetched a bowl of water and helped him bathe his face, a comb -and smoothed out the tangled hair, performing these menial tasks with an -unconscious joy in the doing of them and a tender love for the person -whom he served that was touching to behold in one so stern featured and -haughty as Danilovitch Mentchikoff.</p> - -<p>Peter did not speak; he seemed in an apathy that chilled his faculties -like the languor of a mortal illness; he suffered his friend to lead him -from the house and showed neither dissent or assent.</p> - -<p>It was now fading to the cool of the evening; the sky was translucent -and almost colorless against the motionless forms of the trees that had -not yet lost the freshness of early summer; the lake was placid beneath -the borders of bright grasses and trails of wild flowers that flung -themselves in lightly woven wreaths over the tiny wavelets that spent -themselves against the banks.</p> - -<p>In the distance a nightingale made the silence of the wood tremble with -the intermittent rehearsal of his sharp, sweet song.</p> - -<p>The two fine figures, the servant so splendid, the master so humble in -attire, the King leaning on his minister with a sad and fatigued air, -passed the little clearing round the house and through the first trees -of the wood until they came to a spot where, through a break in the -forest, was a view of low swamps and the distant sea which had the pale -splendor of a tourmaline in the light of the sunset.</p> - -<p>Peter sighed, with a long shiver of relief; his very<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_055" id="page_055"></a>{55}</span> muscles seemed to -relax; his was the panting satisfaction of one who is fevered, and, -after much delay in heat and pain, finds a cup of cool fragrant water at -his lips.</p> - -<p>The air was of a keen freshness and ocean salt; it seemed to be wafted, -pure and strong, from the distant shores of some dreamland beyond the -verge of the pale confining sea; the perfect silence seemed charged with -a sense of vitality, of the joy of life, of nature; the song of the -hidden bird, that now and then sharply broke the stillness, was like a -chant of calm triumph in the eternal majesty of nature’s solitudes and -untouched places; there was now no melancholy in this loneliness; a -tender magic filled the marvelous hour of the twilight and something -more than mortal was abroad in the gathering dusk.</p> - -<p>The young Czar felt his lassitude fall from him; new energy shot through -him like a flame touching his heart; once again all seemed possible; the -grandeur of his manhood, the splendor of his rulership, again became -palpable things; the nightmares fled leaving a sane world about him; the -Swede no longer seemed a thing to so greatly fear or envy.</p> - -<p>He was Czar of All the Russias, and a strong man in his youth.</p> - -<p>With a laugh he pressed his friend’s arm, and Mentchikoff laughed also, -knowing his master cured for a while.</p> - -<p>“Shall we trouble for that Northern boy, we who are Peter?” demanded the -Czar, holding up his head and staring at the sea; he spoke thickly, for -his tongue had swollen where he had bitten it, but the unhealthy pallor -had left his face and his eyes had the calm of a healthy man.</p> - -<p>“Come and have supper, now that your melancholy is over,” said -Mentchikoff, in a happy voice, “and I will show you a gay creature who -will make you glad.”</p> - -<p>“Until it is dark I will stay under the trees,” replied Peter, “and I -shall not drink to-night.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_056" id="page_056"></a>{56}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_III-b" id="CHAPTER_III-b"></a>CHAPTER III</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">W</span>HEN the last glow of the sun had faded, the air of desolation, of vast -gray spaces isolated from the world, returned.</p> - -<p>The nightingale had ceased to sing and there was no other living -creature abroad; the swamps beyond the wood were devoid of life, the -night sky had the lead-colored look of the North, and there was no moon; -there was no sense of summer now that the moon was gone.</p> - -<p>Peter turned away; the sea being hidden from his view, he had no -interest in the landscape; he moved slowly and with a ponderous step -through the last trees of the woods, until he came to the chain of lilac -thickets, now past their blooming, that led to Danilovitch Mentchikoff’s -house, Oranienbaum, a palace that he was erecting near to his master’s -cottage of Marli.</p> - -<p>The night air refreshed the Czar; he was now perfectly sober and -completely master of himself, but his spirit was plunged in a profound -melancholy and his mental vision filled by the cold mighty figure of the -young Scandinavian who had so suddenly crossed and blocked his path.</p> - -<p>He felt no hatred towards this rival and no common envy, but a sad sense -of his own failure beside the triumph of this heroic youth.</p> - -<p>He had a long walk to the palace of Mentchikoff, which was situate -almost at the mouth of the Neva, and on the opposite shore to where the -fort of Cronstadt was being raised; but the exercise pleased him and he -would not go to Marli for a horse, or a light,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_057" id="page_057"></a>{57}</span> or a servant, but strode -alone through the gloomy dusk, without hat or cloak.</p> - -<p>There was nothing new to Peter in this experience, though it was a -remarkable one for the Czar of All the Russias; he had wandered through -Europe alone, and poorly clad. When he reached the gardens that -Mentchikoff was laying out, it was already completely dark, for the cold -stars gave no glow, and Peter was guided only by the lights that shone -through the open windows of the palace on to the parterres of brilliant -flowers and the high hedges of clipped hornbeam; some one was playing -the bailaika; the thin music sounded sadly in the empty gardens; Peter -slowly went in at the principal entrance, the door of which stood wide.</p> - -<p>The first floor of the palace was finished and furnished in a gorgeous -style that was a mingling of the West and the East, of Europe and -Russia.</p> - -<p>The hall was hung with arras sent from France, and lit by Dutch lanterns -that had come from the prows of ships.</p> - -<p>The room that Peter entered had vermilion walls, vases of purple jasper -on malachite stands, and Chinese furniture of ebony inlaid with ivory; -on top of the great enamel stove was a beautiful ormolu clock which was -not going; lengths of French silks and Eastern damasks covered the -couches of which there were several, and a silver branched candlestick -of Italian workmanship held seven candles that were the sole light of -the room.</p> - -<p>This stood on a long table of gray marble mounted in heavy gilt, which -occupied the center of the apartment.</p> - -<p>In one corner was an ornate black cabinet set with various colored -stones, in another a beautiful Dutch bureau in oak; the tops of these -were crowded with goblets, boxes, bottles, and trays of silver, gold, -enamel, and glass, some heavily encrusted with precious stones. Near the -window which was curtained with cut velvet<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_058" id="page_058"></a>{58}</span> in orange and blue, hung an -ikon, one mass of carved silver and rubies, and still hung with the -Easter offerings of wreaths of wax fruit.</p> - -<p>The air had been scented by the burning of pastilles, and a faint bluish -smoke still obscured the atmosphere.</p> - -<p>The whole effect was one of brilliant and crowded confusion, tasteless -and barbaric; to Peter it was very splendid; a feeling of pleasure -touched him that his favorite should have such a magnificent house.</p> - -<p>“Danilovitch!” he called and went up to the table, and stood there, -resting his hands on the gilt edge.</p> - -<p>The twinkling notes of the bailaika stopped, and, from an inner door -that Peter had not hitherto perceived, a woman entered carrying the -little instrument.</p> - -<p>They looked at each other across the candle light.</p> - -<p>She was as tall as he, and beautiful, with a robust and splendid beauty; -her carriage was magnificent; she wore a robe of crimson satin with an -overdress of scarlet, stiff with gold embroidery, that reached the floor -and stood out about her, only being open at the sides; a square plate of -gold set with rubies shone at her breast, hung by rope on rope of -twisted pearls her dark brown hair fell on her shoulders, from under the -stiff Russian headdress of gold satin studded with turquoise, and to her -feet behind, depended a long white gauze veil. Her fair, bold face, firm -and beautiful in line and color, and sweet and pleasant in expression, -was turned full towards the Czar.</p> - -<p>He, in his worn green coat, disordered appointments, and tired bearing, -was in a contrast almost sad with the room and the woman.</p> - -<p>“You must be the Czar,” she said; she put down the bailaika and came -towards him, moving lightly on gold-shod feet.</p> - -<p>“I am Peter Alexievitch,” he replied, “and you?”</p> - -<p>“My name is Marpha,” she said simply. “I hardly know who I am.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_059" id="page_059"></a>{59}</span></p> - -<p>“A Russian?” he asked, for her speech was strange, as if she used a -tongue with which she was not familiar.</p> - -<p>She shook her head.</p> - -<p>“A Livonian, sire—a Lutheran—I do not know who my parents were,” she -added, anticipating his next questions, “nor why Prince Mentchikoff -should bring me here.”</p> - -<p>“Why,” said Peter, “you are the person he spoke of who could cure me of -my melancholy.”</p> - -<p>She again shook her head.</p> - -<p>“No, it could not be I—I am only a servant—in my best clothes”—she -laughed gaily, glancing at her attire. “I have never been so fine -before, but to-night Danilovitch Mentchikoff ordered me to dress so!”</p> - -<p>The Czar was interested in her; she had an air of extraordinary -vitality, of serene courage, and generous good-nature; she gave out an -atmosphere of pleasant warmth and kindliness, of enthusiasm and joy of -life, more remarkable than her beauty; Mentchikoff’s vivacity and high -spirits had always been his greatest attraction for Peter, but this -girl’s calm happiness and aspect of radiant health were more potent than -the favorite’s gay humor in their effect on the Czar’s somber mood.</p> - -<p>“Why are you melancholy?” she asked, with a straight look from her large -clear gray eyes. “The Czar of Holy Russia, and sad?”</p> - -<p>Her glance seemed to have a certain pity for his marred and weary -comeliness; it was as if she were the Empress and he the peasant, so -splendid and composed was she, so shabby and downcast was Peter.</p> - -<p>“I have something to make me sad, Marpha,” he said.</p> - -<p>“And many things to make you happy,” she replied simply, “but you great -men are never gay. There is supper to-night in the pavilion. Will you -come and I will pour your wine?”</p> - -<p>“No,” said Peter, “I shall not drink to-night.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_060" id="page_060"></a>{60}</span></p> - -<p>Remembrances of the cloudy horrors of the day darkened his face; he -glanced round the gaudy room with the restlessness of a creature finding -itself suddenly caged.</p> - -<p>“I will go into the garden,” he said; then abruptly, “You are a -Livonian. Do you know anything of your King—Karl of Sweden?”</p> - -<p>He paused in the open window, looking at her keenly, and ready to break -into anger at whatever answer she might make.</p> - -<p>But Marpha’s simple sweetness was too strong for his suspicious anger; -she defeated him by the sheer frankness of her reply.</p> - -<p>“I know nothing of him,” she said, “and what can he matter to such as -the Czar of Holy Russia?”</p> - -<p>Peter glanced at her, baffled; his vanity was soothed by this ignorant -creature’s perfect faith; his pride began to rise against this dread and -envy of the threatening figure of the unknown young King.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I am the Czar,” he said sullenly, “and I can put a million men -into the field for his every thousand, and if they are not as good -soldiers I can knout them into being so.”</p> - -<p>With that he turned into the garden, and his tall figure was immediately -lost in the darkness filled with the sound of the waving sumach boughs.</p> - -<p>Marpha gazed thoughtfully at the open window; her hands that were white -and smooth, but thick and strong, the hands of a peasant, played with -her heavy jeweled breastplate.</p> - -<p>Prince Mentchikoff entered from the hall where he had been waiting -behind the open door.</p> - -<p>“Has he gone?” he whispered.</p> - -<p>“Into the garden,” said Marpha.</p> - -<p>“What do you think of him?” asked Mentchikoff eagerly.</p> - -<p>“He is comely,” replied the girl.</p> - -<p>Mentchikoff laughed.</p> - -<p>“He is the greatest man in the world.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_061" id="page_061"></a>{61}</span></p> - -<p>“Ah, yes, the Czar of All the Russias.”</p> - -<p>“Not that only—he is a hero and a genius,” said Mentchikoff, with -passionate enthusiasm. “He is creating a new Russia.”</p> - -<p>“I understand none of these things,” replied Marpha. “The world seems to -me very well as it is—but I like Peter Alexievitch.”</p> - -<p>“Then—if you can—make him happy—keep him cheerful,” said Mentchikoff; -“in many ways his life is barren.”</p> - -<p>The girl looked at him with those clear eyes that were full of an almost -startling sincerity and truth.</p> - -<p>“Then you are tired of me, Danilovitch Mentchikoff, and wish to hand me -to your master?”</p> - -<p>He returned her look frankly; both were of the same class, one by -talent, the other by beauty elevated to these surroundings of royal -luxury; she had been little better than a camp follower and he was from -the gutter; neither was disguised to the other by their present splendor -and the pomp of their surroundings; both held their positions by the -frail tenure of another person’s favor—he by that of the Czar, she by -his; for the powerful Prince was, after all, but a dependent on the -favor of Peter, as the peasant girl was dependent on the caprice of -Mentchikoff.</p> - -<p>The two adventurers looked at each other keenly and there was a laugh -between them; hers was wholly indifferent, perhaps heartless, his was -gay and confident, for she cared for no creature but herself, nor ever -would, while his least thought and meanest action was ennobled by his -love for his master.</p> - -<p>“I am not tired of you, Marpha,” said Mentchikoff, “and never shall be. -I think you are a wonderful woman. I think you might help the Czar where -I fail—as now when he is in his melancholy—and when he is drunk, and -when he is ill.”</p> - -<p>“I do not like sick people,” said the Livonian slowly.</p> - -<p>“You have enough health and vitality to be able to share it,” replied -Mentchikoff sharply.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_062" id="page_062"></a>{62}</span></p> - -<p>She drew up her superb body that so proudly bore the heavy ornate -trappings, and turning her beautiful head slowly, looked out into the -darkness of the garden.</p> - -<p>“We speak of the Czar of Holy Russia,” added the Prince, with some -offense at her indifference.</p> - -<p>“We speak of a dangerous man,” she replied, with that shrewdness that -had already earned for her Mentchikoff’s respect. “I do not wish to be -raised up to be dashed down. He can be cruel, and he has all the power. -Let me keep out of the way of Peter Alexievitch.”</p> - -<p>“You said that you liked him,” said Mentchikoff sternly; he had been -hoping more than he admitted to himself from this second influence on -Peter, that was to have been like a doubling of his own.</p> - -<p>“I like him, but I am afraid of him,” she answered concisely. “He has -many devils. I saw them peep out of his eyes. Keep me for yourself, -Danilovitch Mentchikoff, for you are a peaceful man.”</p> - -<p>The Prince replied violently: “If you will not please Peter Alexievitch, -you shall not please me”—and passing her roughly, followed his master -out into the murmuring darkness of the garden.</p> - -<p>Marpha colored, and her serene pleasant face was overcast.</p> - -<p>She had been quite content with her lazy life of ease and admiration, -which had been like Paradise after the hardships of her earlier years, -and she was sorry that Mentchikoff, for whom she felt a placid -affection, had put her in the Czar’s path, for she was without ambition, -fond of ease and comfort, and entirely uninterested in statecraft and -politics; she could not write her own name, and was in every way -entirely ignorant save in the natural arts of reading men and managing -them; she would rather have been left in peace, and this though the dark -sad face of Peter attracted her as she had never before been attracted.</p> - -<p>With a little sigh she turned to her own apartment to take off the -garment whose splendor rather constrained<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_063" id="page_063"></a>{63}</span> her, and put on the peasant -costume that she usually wore.</p> - -<p>In the pavilion Peter and Mentchikoff were discussing the coming -campaign, the Czar showing a sudden fervent interest in those events -that he had refused hitherto to even glance at; he would not drink, but -turned half a glass of wine out on the table, and dipping his finger in -it, proceeded to draw a rough map of the scene of the King of Sweden’s -operations on the green marble.</p> - -<p>His knowledge of the country was accurate; he correctly placed -Copenhagen, King Frederick at Tönning, Augustus of Saxony falling back -before Riga and the victorious forces of Sweden.</p> - -<p>Then he drew a swift line through Poland towards Narva.</p> - -<p>“There he will fall on Russia, Danilovitch.”</p> - -<p>“Here we can meet him,” replied Mentchikoff.</p> - -<p>Peter frowned; his dark head with the full short curls was bent low over -the stains of wine on the malachite table; carved wooden dishes with -birds’ heads, full of fruit, beakers of pierced steel and horn, had been -pushed aside by the sweep of his right arm; the light of the candles -fixed to the white walls of the pavilion shone on his stooping figure, -and the harsh, earnest face and brilliant caftan of Mentchikoff.</p> - -<p>Peter, staring at the smears of red on the green, was seeing those vast -disputed provinces that he coveted, Ingermanland and Karelia ceded to -Sweden nearly 100 years ago, Livonia and Esthonia lost by Poland to the -same power in 1660; the possession of these lands would secure that -Baltic port which had been the dream of Ivan IV, and which was so -passionately desired by this first Czar who had beheld and loved the -sea; the first ruler of Russia who had aspired to seize the trade with -Asia and open up sea-going commerce. He had believed that the boy King -of Sweden would be utterly incapable of defending his provinces, and -that his secret league with Denmark and Poland would<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_064" id="page_064"></a>{64}</span> be easily and -successfully pursued to a victorious conclusion.</p> - -<p>Now Denmark had fallen out of the fight and Poland was a wavering ally; -but Peter still put some faith in Augustus, because of the trained Saxon -soldiery.</p> - -<p>So he remained for a while, staring at that crude map, his swift mind -filled out with all detail; then he suddenly smeared the wine spillings -together with his open hand and looked up at Mentchikoff, who was -regarding him eagerly.</p> - -<p>“This is a more difficult task than punishing the Strelitz or subduing -the Cossacks,” he said, with glittering eyes. “Surely it is more -pleasure, Danilovitch, to overthrow free men than to put one’s feet on -the neck of serfs.”</p> - -<p>“The Cossacks will join Karl,” remarked Mentchikoff, kindling eagerly at -the Czar’s fire.</p> - -<p>“To-morrow we return to Moscow,” said Peter, and his face was as fierce -as it had been in the days after his return from his travels, when the -streets of the capital had run red with the blood of the old Moscovite -army, which had revolted against his foreign reforms.</p> - -<p>He pushed back his tangled hair with his wine-stained hand.</p> - -<p>“Send for that Livonian woman,” he said, “she amuses me.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_065" id="page_065"></a>{65}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_IV-b" id="CHAPTER_IV-b"></a>CHAPTER IV</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">P</span>ETER held his councils in the Kremlin surrounded by the pomp of the old -world and the new; the reforms that he had introduced with so fierce and -imperious a violence had not as yet greatly affected the nation, but the -nobility who came directly under the influence of the Czar had been -largely forced to adopt European ways, much as they might hate them and -the men like Gordon and Lefort, who, mainly because they were -foreigners, had so great an influence over Peter; these were both lately -dead, but their inspiration remained. The Czar gathered his boyars -together in the Golden Hall of the Sign Manual where his predecessors -had sat on a silver throne under the gilded vaults, clad in robes stiff -and blinding with jewels, and holding a rich orb as symbol of the -universe they commanded; there Peter himself had sat in splendid pomp as -a child with his idiot brother enthroned beside him. Peter was not -magnificent to-day; in his plain green uniform and short hair he looked -like a European foot soldier and utterly out of place in this great hall -hung with scarlet, carpeted with Eastern tapestries, and decorated with -jasper and silver, malachite and lacquer. The silver throne stood on a -dais under a crimson canopy, and on the steps of it sat Peter, his hands -clasped round his knees. The boyars had gone with their breastplates and -caftans, robes, and caps, and there remained only the Duke of Croy, the -German who commanded the army, and Mentchikoff.</p> - -<p>All these were in the habit of Europe, Mentchikoff gorgeous in laced -coat, star, cravat, and a flowing<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_066" id="page_066"></a>{66}</span> French peruke which heavily framed -his long, harsh face.</p> - -<p>Peter, though affecting the most utter simplicity himself, liked to see -those about him richly clad, and his favorites vied with each other in -the splendor of their appointments; nothing pleased him more than to see -the man who had worked beside him at the carpenter bench at Wapping and -Zaandam, clad in workman’s overall, appear in all the trappings of a -French or English courtier. To-day he was in a good humor; the boyars -had been compliant before his every command; his blood-thirsty vengeance -on the reactionary party who had dared to raise a rebellion during his -absence abroad was indeed too fresh in the minds of all for anyone to -risk angering the terrible Czar.</p> - -<p>“I will teach Russia the arts of war as I am teaching her the arts of -peace,” he remarked, looking at the Duke of Croy whom he admired as a -tried soldier.</p> - -<p>The German made a suitably loyal reply, but Mentchikoff broke in with a -sharp remark.</p> - -<p>“How many years do you think it will take you, Peter Alexievitch?”</p> - -<p>“All my life,” replied the Czar humbly.</p> - -<p>“All your life,” smiled Croy, “and not the meanest serf in All the -Russias will thank you for your labors.”</p> - -<p>“What do you mean?” asked Peter.</p> - -<p>Croy lifted his shoulders.</p> - -<p>“Oh, go on with your wars and your politics and your reforms,” he said -cynically. “You are a strong man—but stronger is Holy Russia!”</p> - -<p>Peter looked at him with a certain eagerness entirely devoid of anger; -though he was so haughtily autocratic with his boyars he would take even -insolence from these men whom he had put in the position of his masters; -for a long while Croy and his like had represented European civilization -to Peter.</p> - -<p>But Mentchikoff resented on his master’s behalf this speech made so -sharply by the German.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_067" id="page_067"></a>{67}</span></p> - -<p>“The Czar holds the Russias in the palm of his hand,” he said haughtily.</p> - -<p>“Oh, la, la!” cried the Duke.</p> - -<p>Peter smiled grimly; he was thinking of the little chapel a few yards -away, from the window of which his uncle had been hurled out on to the -pikes of the soldiery below, and of his own boyhood of flight, and -peril, and hiding; not far away in this same fierce fortress was the Red -Staircase where Ivan the Terrible had stood to watch the cross-formed -comet that had predicted his own ghastly end, that staircase where, one -blood-stained June, Feodor Borisvitch, strangled by the sheltsi, had -been flung down, this but in revenge for another murdered Czar; the -history of his predecessors might indeed teach Peter that Holy Russia -was not so easily governed or so rapidly subdued.</p> - -<p>“The House of Romanoff has had its misfortunes but also its greatness,” -he said simply.</p> - -<p>“And yet may give a lesson to the impertinent Swede,” said Mentchikoff -haughtily.</p> - -<p>“He is a great soldier,” added Croy, in his stern way.</p> - -<p>The Czar’s face darkened; he rose abruptly, his great height overtopping -all of them.</p> - -<p>“If he throws himself against Russia, he breaks himself,” he remarked -gloomily.</p> - -<p>“He will attempt anything,” said Croy; his imagination like that of most -men of action had been fired by the figure of the Northern hero, who, -like another Viking, had arisen to defend his country with so much -majesty and cold magnanimity.</p> - -<p>Peter did not care to hear his General praise his enemy.</p> - -<p>“Where is Patkul; has he not returned?” he asked briefly. “He should -have been here—I want news from Livonia.”</p> - -<p>No one knew where Patkul might be; it was not easy to travel in the vast -kingdoms of the Czar, and a man might be late in obeying his sovereign’s -commands,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_068" id="page_068"></a>{68}</span> and his letters might be lost, for no other reason than the -size of the country and the primitive confusions of all its services.</p> - -<p>Peter would have liked the presence of the fiery Livonian, with his rage -against Swedish tyranny and his hatred of Karl XI, who had condemned him -to death for protesting against the wrongs of his countrymen, and his -scorn for the present King as a haughty boy who would soon be tripped up -in his giant’s stride.</p> - -<p>But Patkul, at present with Augustus of Saxony as ambassador of Russia, -had not come nor answered the summons, and Peter knew very little of -what was happening in any of the Baltic provinces; he saw them in his -mind as a vast confusion, and felt impatient considering how much there -was to be done and how inadequate his means were; his military plans had -got no further than a proposed expedition to Esthonia, to seize, if -possible, that province, and to send help to Augustus in Poland, or -rather to effect a juncture with him, as Peter greatly relied on the -trained Saxon troops and the polished diplomacy of the Elector; General -Patkul should be with the Polish army, Peter knew, but since Dahlberg -had worsted him at Riga, the Livonian’s credit as a soldier had fallen -in the Czar’s eyes and he wished to consult with Augustus.</p> - -<p>He was conscious of defects in his own statecraft; the Muscovite envoys -whom he kept in Stockholm to swear friendly relations with Sweden had -merely angered and disgusted the severe honor of the Northern King, and -the Russian manifesto, in which the most puerile reasons were given for -declaring war, had been better if never published; but so far no Czar of -Russia had ever published any document concerning European diplomacy; in -everything Peter trod new ground and was keenly conscious of his -numerous mistakes.</p> - -<p>“I will go to Poland,” he said, his words following out his train of -thought.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_069" id="page_069"></a>{69}</span></p> - -<p>“You will have to defeat Sweden first, sire,” replied Croy.</p> - -<p>“Well,” said Peter gloomily, “one can try. We march against Narva. The -Swedes do not fear a winter campaign—since they are willing to fight -amid the ice we must learn to do so also.”</p> - -<p>Saying these words with a certain simplicity, he abruptly left the -chamber, and, passing through a maze of gilt and painted apartments, -came out on the great terrace of the Kremlin that overlooks Moscow and -the bridges over the Moskva.</p> - -<p>He felt neither excited nor elated; perhaps he knew better than either -Croy or Mentchikoff the difficulty of this, his first great enterprise, -for, by the measure of his own wild heart he could judge of the -greatness of his rival in glory; extraordinary himself, he found it easy -to credit the extraordinary in others, and just as he was prepared to -open war in the depth of winter, in a Polar climate, so he believed that -Karl would be ready to meet him; nothing could prevent him from carrying -out his ambitions, even if he had to perform feats that in the eyes of -ordinary men were madnesses, and he rightly gauged his enemy’s character -to be the same in this respect.</p> - -<p>He was glad that it was not possible to open the campaign till the -winter, for he considered the added difficulty an added glory; with that -sense of his own deficiency that was his truest greatness he did not -intend to command his army himself, but to serve in it as a lieutenant, -thereby giving the Russians a lesson in discipline and the value of -training, for he was aware that his soldiers would consist of a horde of -armed slaves and his officers of lawless nobles without experience or -any capacity for warfare.</p> - -<p>But here again his pride supported him; the more impossible the -material, the greater the glory of creating for Russia an army that -should out-rival those of Europe.</p> - -<p>With a quiet step he walked the terrace of the fierce<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_070" id="page_070"></a>{70}</span> old palace, -half-fortress, half-monastery, filled with churches and tombs, treasures -and chambers, haunted by the remembrances of cruelty and bitter -passions, all old, half-decayed, half-vividly splendid, dirty, holy, -secret, and foul.</p> - -<p>Peter did not greatly care for this residence of his predecessors; he -preferred the little cottage that he called Marli or any of the humble -houses in the Dutch style that he had built since his return from -Europe; the Kremlin oppressed him; there was something in the atmosphere -that seemed to drag him back into the old ways of his ancestors here; -his green uniform and his foreign friends could not disguise from -himself his Tartar origin, his Asiatic breeding, which everything he -touched reminded him of; neither did he love Moscow with that reverent -love that he knew was in the heart of most Russians; he dreamt of that -other city that was to spring out of the mudbanks of the Neva and rival -Paris and London.</p> - -<p>Pausing in his walk, he turned his soft and beautiful eyes over the -prospect of the barbaric city which glittered in many brilliancies under -the pale, greenish sky which was fading towards the evening hour; near -by, beneath the battlements, was the river, full of reflected light, but -void of color; beyond the plain was covered with crowded houses, a -confusion of roofs of a dull brown hue above which rose the myriad -cupolas and towers of the churches, shaped like strange fruits and -decorated with fantastic designs in every color and shape, only alike in -this, that each had the Christian cross surmounting the Tartar crescent, -memorial of the time when the Asiatic hordes had possession of Russia -and had changed the churches into mosques and of Ivan Vassilivitch who -raised the symbol of Christ above that of the Infidel.</p> - -<p>These crosses were all fastened by golden chains to the cupolas, and -many were hung with discs, orbs, and stars that swung and glittered with -every changing wind or shifting sunbeam.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_071" id="page_071"></a>{71}</span></p> - -<p>Despite the splendor of the churches there was something dull, -colorless, and melancholy about this prospect.</p> - -<p>The Kremlin (a city in itself) was also gloomy; when Peter turned from -looking over the city he could see, across the sandy, weed-grown -courtyard, the whole of the citadel; the golden domes rising above walls -disfigured and neglected, the three old cathedrals where the Czars were -crowned, married, and buried, the great tower built by Boris Godunof, -and behind all the red structure of the palace and fortress.</p> - -<p>Peter was never pleased when his glance fell on these three churches -that crowded round his royal residence; they reminded him too forcibly -of the position assumed by the Church.</p> - -<p>Peter meant to deprive the Patriarch of much of his power, and to vest -in himself the religious as well as the temporal prerogatives of -Aristocrat of All the Russias.</p> - -<p>He began pacing up and down the terrace again, and presently took from -the skirt pocket of his uniform a little letter which he read while the -evening breeze fluttered it in his hand.</p> - -<p>It was an appeal from his sister, miserably confined in the convent of -Novo-Devichi, for a slightly better treatment; she was very ill, she -said, having grown too stout and being covered with ulcers, and she -begged for a little air and exercise.</p> - -<p>Peter read the appeal with unmoved serenity; Sophia had inspired the -late rebellion and could never be forgiven.</p> - -<p>“A pity,” thought Peter, “for she is clever and might have been useful -to me.”</p> - -<p>He considered that he had been extremely generous in allowing her her -life; the heads of her supporters still rotted on the battlements of -Moscow; his wife, Eudoxia, suspected of favoring the rebels, was -enclosed in a convent with a shaven head that last day of September, in -the Krasnoi Ploshtshad, Peter had<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_072" id="page_072"></a>{72}</span> executed with his own hand several of -the wretched rebels already broken by torture, and had himself shaved -the beards the nobility wore as a sign of their adherence to ancient -custom; on the first day alone of the executions, two hundred persons -had been ferociously put to death in the presence of their frantic wives -and children; in the seven days’ vengeance more than a thousand had -perished; the bleeding members of the rebellious Strelitz had been -nailed to the bars of Sophia’s prison; every square in Moscow, every -corner of the battlements of the Kremlin, had been hung with corpses.</p> - -<p>And Sophia, who had been spared, ventured to complain of her prison!</p> - -<p>The only effect of her letter was to make her brother resolve that if -she gave any trouble during his present absence she should be strangled -in the jail she found so irksome.</p> - -<p>Tearing the paper into little pieces he cast it away, so that the -fragments floated down the terrace and lodged in the broken pavement and -the weed-filled terraces of the wall.</p> - -<p>The sunset glow, pale and dim, but faintly tinged with a warm light, was -now full on his smooth and rounded face with the large soft eyes and the -loose curls; he looked younger than his years, an ardent boy; his -thoughts had turned to his new adventure, the coming experiment of war.</p> - -<p>He returned to his own chamber, not speaking to those whom he met on the -way, walking softly through the gorgeous and dismal apartments of the -Kremlin, with his hands locked behind the skirts of his coat and his -head bent.</p> - -<p>His room had a gold-domed ceiling and walls of sparkling mosaic, a holy -picture set with precious stones between two pillars of gilt vermilion -and Eastern carpets of silk on the floor, but the furniture was that of -a camp, and the iron bedstead was covered only by the meanest blankets.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_073" id="page_073"></a>{73}</span></p> - -<p>On a bright green cushion by the closed window sat Marpha, the Livonian -peasant; she wore a plain white wool robe girdled with scarlet, and -orange leather shoes; her head-dress had been removed and her bright -opulent hair hung in heavy locks over her broad shoulders.</p> - -<p>On the floor in front of her stood the crowns of the Russias, and she -was playing with these in turn, like a child fondling toys, while on her -lap was a bag of sweetmeats from which she fed herself continually, -eating noisily and licking the sugar from her lips.</p> - -<p>When the Czar entered she had in her left hand the plain gold crown of -the Crimea, and before her the massive crowns of Astrakan, Kazan, -Siberia, and Georgia, which pulsed with the light held and given forth -by a thousand precious stones.</p> - -<p>Peter looked at her with the eyes of love.</p> - -<p>“Have you ever had such pretty playthings?” he asked.</p> - -<p>Marpha glanced at him without either greed or envy in her expression.</p> - -<p>“I would rather have an ivory comb,” she said simply, and rose with the -crowns in a half-circle at her feet.</p> - -<p>“You shall have,” answered Peter tenderly, “as many ivory combs as there -are hairs in your head.”</p> - -<p>He crossed over to her and embraced her, resting his head, with a little -sigh, on her bosom; she looked down at him calmly and with a certain -indulgence.</p> - -<p>“Marpha,” he asked, “will you come to the war with me?”</p> - -<p>“Still thinking of the war?” she replied gaily. “Have you had your -supper? Will you eat here with me instead of with your boyars to-night? -I have the kvas ready.”</p> - -<p>Peter lifted his head and looked at her; the atmosphere of the room was -close and foul, the air full of flies and mosquitoes; both the room and -the woman were dirty; her gown was soiled, her face and hands<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_074" id="page_074"></a>{74}</span> sticky -with perspiration and sugar; the taint of brandy was in her breath, and -her expressionless beauty was clouded by her slovenliness. But the Czar -saw none of these things; he felt as happy as he had ever felt in his -life as he flung himself into one of the camp chairs, and she hastened -to bring him his drink; the native spirit and fine French wine in equal -parts.</p> - -<p>He drank this, glass after glass, as the woman went into the inner room -and prepared the rude supper, singing in a sweet voice and thinking of -nothing much but the good, plentiful food and the fine, plentiful drink -and the gay dresses and lazy days now within her reach.</p> - -<p>And Peter, as he became inflamed with the spirit, imagined himself -crushing the Swedes as he had crushed the rebellious Strelitz, and he -nodded at the pale-faced ikon between the scarlet pillars, promising it -an egg-shaped emerald when he should have taken Narva.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_075" id="page_075"></a>{75}</span></p> - -<h3><a name="BOOK_III" id="BOOK_III"></a>BOOK III<br /><br /> -JOHN RHEINHOLD PATKUL</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“His grief was but his grandeur in disguise<br /></span> -<span class="i1">And discontent his immortality.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_I-c" id="CHAPTER_I-c"></a>CHAPTER I</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">B</span>Y the first day of October, Peter, after ravaging Ingria, found himself -before Narva, swiftly bearing the thunders of his vengeance against his -Northern rival, who, despite the extreme severity of the climate (it was -already midwinter in this bitter latitude), was steadily advancing to -meet the last and most powerful of his enemies.</p> - -<p>Peter was on fire to prove to the people, who were half unwillingly -accepting his gigantic efforts to lift Russia into the position of a -great power, that his new methods of warfare were capable of rendering -null the treaties of Stolboro and Plivia, and Karl was equally resolute -to prove that he was invincible in defense of what he had every right to -consider his own territory.</p> - -<p>John Rheinhold Patkul, the Livonian noble who had been largely -instrumental in forming the threefold secret treaty against Sweden, who -had been first in the service of the Elector of Saxony and afterwards -Peter’s envoy at Dresden, was now with the Muscovite army, and the -report of his presence there further inflamed the cold anger of the King -of Sweden, who, crossing the sea with a fine fleet of transport, was -marching towards Narva six weeks after Peter had commenced the siege, -regardless alike of the increasing rigors of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_076" id="page_076"></a>{76}</span> winter and the -disparity of numbers between his own army and that of the Czar.</p> - -<p>He had reason for his confidence, for it was in numbers only that Peter -had the advantage.</p> - -<p>A skilled general with a disciplined army would have been able to reduce -the little town of Narva into ashes in a few days, perhaps hours; Peter -had sat down before it six weeks in vain, while the Baron de Horn, in -command of the beleaguered garrison, was able, with his few pieces of -cannon, to again and again level the trenches, redoubts, and -fortifications that Peter had constructed round his camp, in accordance -with what he had learnt in his travels.</p> - -<p>These rude attempts at the science of war were complete failures; 150 -cannon could scarcely be fired and could never hit their objective; -nearly 65,000 men remained helpless before a garrison of 1000, in a -small ill-protected town.</p> - -<p>Peter, in no way sparing himself (he still held the rank of lieutenant -in his own army), spent his days going from one part of his camp to -another, instructing, working, exhorting, threatening, enduring all the -hardships of the terrible weather and the inadequate supplies of the -badly provisioned army.</p> - -<p>The Duke of Croy was in command; an able soldier, trained in the -traditions of European warfare, he yet was incapable of controlling an -army consisting largely of a horde of peasants, dressed in skins, armed -with scythes, pruning knives, and officered by a haughty and ignorant -nobility, who knew neither how to enforce obedience nor how to submit to -discipline.</p> - -<p>There was not one good gunner in the whole army and no one who had seen -a siege before; the only passable troops were the Strelitz, decimated by -Peter’s late vengeance on their reactionary spirit and only accustomed -to Eastern and Asiatic methods of warfare.</p> - -<p>Day after day Peter, dressed in the old green uniform, with a worn fur -cap and mantle, smoking a Dutch clay pipe, watched, with a dogged -patience, the erections<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_077" id="page_077"></a>{77}</span> of fortifications that Horn’s artillery always -accurately demolished; his brooding gaze traveled over his soldiers, -courageous, robust, and willing, but completely ignorant and -uncontrollable, and he thought of what he had yet to do for Russia.</p> - -<p>Easier to build his city on the marshes of the Neva than to frame out of -these an army that would defeat Karl of Sweden! He became melancholy and -fierce; neither Mentchikoff nor Patkul nor Croy could divert his gloomy -musings; the only creature who had any power to soothe him was Marpha, -the Livonian peasant, whom he had brought with him and who bloomed like -a winter rose amid the rough life of the camp; she enjoyed her -surroundings, could give or take a rude jest with the least of the -soldiery, wait on the Czar like a foot-boy, yet be a wild Aspasia to -this strange Pericles.</p> - -<p>The King of Sweden, with about 8000 men, of which the half were cavalry, -landed at Pernau in the gulf of Riga; with all the horse and about half -of the foot he advanced at once on Revel, without waiting for the rest -of his troops.</p> - -<p>Peter meanwhile had left the army before Narva in charge of the Duke of -Croy, and had himself hastened to Pskov to bring up a new body of 30,000 -troops; his design being to enclose Karl between two armies; he had -already thrown across the road from Revel to Narva 55,000 men, including -his best troops, the Strelitz, 5000 of which formed an advance guard, -who soon found themselves facing the first regiments of the King of -Sweden’s army.</p> - -<p>The Strelitz were so well posted among the rocks that a far fewer number -than they possessed could have easily hindered the approach of a much -larger army than that possessed by Karl, but the Russians, not knowing -what they had to face and believing the Swedes innumerable as well as -excellent, fled with little resistance. This panic communicated itself -to their compatriots behind them, and in two days the Swedes had<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_078" id="page_078"></a>{78}</span> swept -before them 25,000 men, taken all the Russian outposts, and appeared -before the Czar’s entrenchments before Narva.</p> - -<p>It was a black morning of dreadful cold, the last day of November, when -Karl found himself before the army of Peter.</p> - -<p>A gray sky hung heavily over the desolate landscape and seemed to press -heavily on the bare trees; the Swedes were fatigued with the march from -Pernau and the encounters with the Russians on the road; Karl called a -halt.</p> - -<p>A young Scotchman in his army, who had several times proved himself -useful in delicate work of espionage, had managed to get ahead of the -army and penetrate the Russian lines; the news he brought was considered -interesting enough to cause him to be taken before the King.</p> - -<p>He had never seen Karl XII face to face, and it was with considerable -curiosity that he followed the staff officer who took him into the royal -presence.</p> - -<p>The army was taking a few hours’ repose, but no tents had been set up, -and the Scotchman found Karl seated on the great roots of a huge pine -tree, with him Count Piper and several generals.</p> - -<p>He was already completely inured to hardships for which his childish -training had well fitted him, and suffered from the severities of -warfare perhaps less than any of his soldiers.</p> - -<p>He was now only a few months past his eighteenth birthday, but in every -respect had reached his full development; his great height and powerful -figure made him conspicuous even among an army of robust and vigorous -men; he had the grace of the athlete and the dignity of a king in his -carriage, yet there was an awkwardness, a stiffness in his manners that -might have been haughtiness or indifference or even shyness; his -expression was cold and unchanging, his speech abrupt and plain; he gave -no impression of youth save in the softness of his traits and the -slackness of his figure.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_079" id="page_079"></a>{79}</span></p> - -<p>He wore a blue uniform, tight waisted and with a full skirt, closely -fastened with buttons of gilt leather up to the throat and showing no -shirt, but only the plain band of the black satin cravat; an ordinary -leather belt and strap supported his sword, and long gauntlet gloves -reached to his elbow, his soft knee boots and his breeches were alike of -leather; he wore a three-cornered black hat set well on his head, and -his fair hair arranged in curls like a peruke on his shoulders.</p> - -<p>He had a mantle of blue cloth, lined with fur, but this, despite the -freezing cold, was cast on the ground beside him; his face, yet -beardless and showing, notwithstanding the exposure to intemperate -weather, still the bloom of extreme youth, had hardened in outline since -he had begun the life of a soldier; the features were firm as a mask of -stone, fresh with the warm tints of health, generous and full in line -and curve; neither enthusiasm nor humor, nor pride, nor tenderness -showed in his expression; his blue eyes looked out with a cold, level, -and serene glance; he had the air of one dwelling in a world of his own -with little care for others.</p> - -<p>The Scotchman thought him remarkable but neither agreeable nor -attractive; the King had a personality too aloof from warm and human -weaknesses to command sympathy from ordinary men; he had many servants -but few friends, much admiration, but little love.</p> - -<p>“Tell me,” he said at once, as the young man was presented to him, “did -you see the Czar of Muscovy?”</p> - -<p>The Scotchman saw that the King attached much importance to this -question, and was chagrined that he could not answer in the affirmative.</p> - -<p>“Sire, the Czar has left his army to hasten up the reserves.”</p> - -<p>“I should like to have met him in the battle,” said Karl, but without a -trace of annoyance. “The<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_080" id="page_080"></a>{80}</span> reserves could have come up without him. I -think he did ill to leave his post now.”</p> - -<p>“It looks,” said one of the generals who stood beside the King, “as if -he was afraid of your Majesty.”</p> - -<p>“That is impossible,” replied Karl quietly, “for I take him to be a -great man.”</p> - -<p>“But it is true, sire,” put in the Scot, “that the Muscovites have a -great terror of your Majesty; I was in their camp last night and heard -them speak of you and your exploits as they might have spoken of -supernatural things.”</p> - -<p>“It needs but a poor prowess to achieve a reputation in the eyes of -savages,” replied the King, still cold and unmoved. “These Russians are -both ignorant and wild. How came you, sir, to escape detection?”</p> - -<p>“I speak the German very well, sire, and passed for the servant of a -German officer, of whom they have several, and their camp is in such a -confusion one might almost come and go as one pleases.”</p> - -<p>“They know nothing of war,” observed Karl, “but the Czar will teach -them.”</p> - -<p>“He seems much loved—though unjustly cruel and unwisely generous. I saw -his friend, Mentchikoff, and the Livonian woman who they say has a great -influence over him.”</p> - -<p>Karl smiled, as if he was glad to hear of this weakness in his rival; -there was not a woman in the whole of the Swedish army; the Scot -remarked how disagreeable his smile was; it seemed to disfigure his -noble face.</p> - -<p>“Saw you this woman?” he asked.</p> - -<p>“Yes, sire, at the door of Peter’s empty tent, making kvas, as they call -the stuff they drink. She had a fur coat of uncouth cut and was all -smeared with meal and honey, but in her way she is as beautiful as -Aurora von Königsmarck.”</p> - -<p>The King abruptly changed the subject as if he<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_081" id="page_081"></a>{81}</span> regretted having shown -even so much interest in the affairs of his enemy.</p> - -<p>“You learnt nothing of importance?” he asked with great indifference; he -had only spoken to the spy because he wished to know if Peter was with -his army; as to his own actions, he had decided what they were to be -ever since he had landed at Pernau.</p> - -<p>The Scotchman proceeded to tell him of what he had learnt of the enemy, -their number, disposition, and probable plans.</p> - -<p>Karl listened with patience, but with so cold a mien that the young man -faltered in his speech; the King’s face, blank as it was of all but -courageous steadfastness, overawed him and made him uneasy; he felt that -he spoke to one utterly beyond his knowledge or liking; he was glad when -he was dismissed.</p> - -<p>As he went Karl rose from the tree roots, overtopping, by nearly half a -head, his tallest officer; the air was still and freezing, and a few -flakes of ghastly white snow began to flutter from the bitter sky.</p> - -<p>“We should be able to attack at midday,” said the King; it was then -about ten o’clock.</p> - -<p>“Your Majesty has considered the peril?” asked General Rehnsköld. “By -all accounts we must be outnumbered by a hundred to one, and they are -entrenched and fortified.”</p> - -<p>Karl stooped and took up his mantle, shaking from it the first flakes of -snow that were large and hard.</p> - -<p>“Do you doubt,” he answered, “that I, with 8000 Swedes, can pass over -the bodies of 80,000 Muscovites?”</p> - -<p>He swung the mantle round his great shoulders and then added instantly, -fearful that he had seemed to boast, a thing his pride loathed: “Are you -not really of my opinion, Rehnsköld? I have two great advantages—he -cannot use his cavalry, and as the ground is enclosed his great numbers -will be but an encumbrance. It is I who am really stronger than he, and -have all the advantages.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_082" id="page_082"></a>{82}</span></p> - -<p>General Rehnsköld bowed his head in assent; there was not one of the -staff officers behind him who did not consider the young King’s action -rash to madness.</p> - -<p>Karl saw this; for their opinion he cared nothing; but he greatly -disliked to be suspected of bravado; his was not the unconscious modesty -of a man who knows not he is great nor that his actions are remarkable, -but the conscious austerity of one who is aware he is extraordinary and -wishes to be acclaimed, but not by his own tongue.</p> - -<p>“If I defeat the Czar here, Cracow and Varsovia are open to me,” he -said, turning his blue eyes on the quiet faces of his officers.</p> - -<p>Again General Rehnsköld bowed.</p> - -<p>“I am entirely of your Majesty’s opinion.”</p> - -<p>“At least you submit very gracefully, General,” replied Karl, with his -ugly smile.</p> - -<p>He turned away and Count Piper followed him.</p> - -<p>“He will be as hard and obstinate as his father,” remarked an officer, -shivering under his fur, for the cold was of Polar intensity.</p> - -<p>“Eight thousand men against eighty thousand!” exclaimed another. “He -thinks to rival Leonidas or one of his saga heroes.”</p> - -<p>“Gentlemen,” said Rehnsköld, “I think he will do it.”</p> - -<p>The King and Count Piper mounted and cantered along the lines of the -resting army; Karl had taken no deliberations and held no councils. He -considered that there was nothing to do but to give the order to attack; -after a brief survey of his men he would be back with his staff under -the great pine.</p> - -<p>Count Piper, who was not a soldier but a true patriot, glanced several -times at what the black hat and full fair curls allowed him to see of -the King’s face.</p> - -<p>He had been very eager to urge him into a defensive war, but he had -never dreamed of these reckless projects, this complete absorption in -war for war’s sake;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_083" id="page_083"></a>{83}</span> he secretly suspected that all the cold but deep -passion of the King’s nature was concentrated, not on the desire to -better Sweden, but on the design of making for himself the reputation of -an invincible captain; the main object of the war was achieved in the -restoration of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp to his dominions; but Karl -had never said a word of returning to Stockholm, even for a visit, and -the last advices from the Council of Regency in the capital he had -thrust in his pocket without reading, and he had embarked on this -desperate winter campaign, with no purpose that Count Piper could see -but that of making the world stare.</p> - -<p>“As long as these mad exploits are successful——” thought the -statesman, “but his first failure will cost us all Gustavas Vasa -gained!” He could not resist the endeavor to rouse Karl from his passive -hardness.</p> - -<p>“When your Majesty has beaten the Czar of Muscovy, will you be content?”</p> - -<p>“There is still Augustus,” replied the King; he glanced up at the -snow-filled air. “Look, the storm is blowing towards the enemy, we shall -have it at our backs, they in their eyes—did I not say I was -fortunate?”</p> - -<p>Count Piper shivered; the weather was black and bitter enough to freeze -a man’s soul; he wished Karl’s ardor for glory had stopped short of -battle in midwinter at a latitude of 30 degrees Polar, with odds of a -hundred to one.</p> - -<p>“You are cold?” asked Karl. “I like the snow. I wish Peter was with his -men. Surely he will return from Pskov.”</p> - -<p>His blue eyes cast a bright glance over the precise ranks of his -perfectly disciplined soldiers; men who had prayers twice a day and -lived like athletes in training.</p> - -<p>“I had an item of news from Stockholm when last I heard,” said the -Count, as they turned their horses’<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_084" id="page_084"></a>{84}</span> heads. “Viktoria Falkenberg is -dead. It seems that she had long concealed a fatal complaint.”</p> - -<p>The King’s expressionless face did not alter; he was skilfully guiding -his horse over the rough ground, already white with snow.</p> - -<p>“The signal for the charge,” he remarked, “will be two shots—the -passwords—‘God with us.’<span class="lftspc">”</span></p> - -<p>A darkness enclosed the world with the soft descent of the snow; the -flakes hung in the folds of the King’s mantle and in his curls; his hat -was covered; the ground was frozen, the tops of the gaunt pines hidden -in the whirling storm; the rigid ranks of Sweden showed a darkness amid -the dark; facing them were the black gaping cannon of the vast army of -the Czar; even beneath their fur caftans the Russians were numb; Marpha, -wrapped in skins and wools, stared at a picture of St. Nicholas -Mentchikoff had thrust into her hands, but she was not praying but -thinking of the absent Czar; she wished he was back in the dirty tent -where she could minister to him and prepare him for the fight.</p> - -<p>“I wonder if he is afraid of that boy?” she thought, then suddenly -crouched low as the sound of the Swedish cannon scattered the storm; -Karl and his eight thousand were hurling themselves on the ranks of -Muscovy; Marpha crept to the tent door and looked out, but the snow -swirled in and blinded her; again the cannon and distant shouts; she sat -huddled and silent, hating her lover for not being there.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_085" id="page_085"></a>{85}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_II-c" id="CHAPTER_II-c"></a>CHAPTER II</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">“I</span>F you do not believe that I shall redeem Narva you are a fool,” said -Peter rudely. “The Swedes themselves will teach us how to defeat their -own armies.”</p> - -<p>It was three months after his bitter failure when the King of Sweden had -scattered his immense forces in a few hours, and he himself, coming with -the reinforcements from Pskov, had withdrawn from the path of a -conqueror with troops so greatly inferior to his own; Karl was spending -the winter encamped near Narva and Peter had come to Birsen, a little -town in Lithuania, to meet informally (indeed it might be said that the -Czar never did anything formally) his ally, Augustus, Elector of Saxony -and King of Poland, on whose trained troops Peter still relied, though -Augustus had shown to but little advantage in the war, and had done -nothing since he had gracefully submitted to necessity in raising the -siege of Riga.</p> - -<p>It was to Augustus whom Peter spoke now; the King Elector’s heart was -hardly in the war that for him had been mainly an excuse to keep a -standing army with which to overawe Poland, and that he had never -intended to go to these extreme, expensive lengths, and he had several -times referred, with that calm elegance that irritated Peter, to the -disastrous day of Narva, so fatal to the Russian arms that the terrified -inhabitants of Moscow, on hearing of the news, had not hesitated to -attribute it to magic on the part of the Swedes. And Peter had suddenly -broken out into violence.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps you are a fool,” he added loudly.</p> - -<p>Augustus flushed, but smiled and slightly raised his<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_086" id="page_086"></a>{86}</span> eyebrows, glancing -at the third occupant of the chamber which was the best parlor of the -best house in Birsen. This gentleman was John Rheinhold Patkul, the -prime author of the league against Sweden, at first in the employment of -Saxony, now in the service of Peter whom he continued to represent at -Dresden.</p> - -<p>He looked at the Czar now with a glance of affection and spoke quietly.</p> - -<p>“I am sure that your Majesty will completely revenge Narva.”</p> - -<p>“Thank you, General Patkul,” said Peter sullenly, “but whatever you or -any other man believe, I am sure I shall humble that haughty boy.”</p> - -<p>He put his elbows on the corner of the black oak table near which he sat -and supported his face in his brown hands.</p> - -<p>The persons of these three men were in great contrast, and it was plain -that some extraordinary event outside their own volition or inclination -had brought them together. Peter wore his shabby green uniform, cracked -and old top-boots, a sword and belt like those of a common soldier, his -own tumbled short and dusky curls, only his linen was fine and clean -where it showed above the high buttoned coat; for the rest he might have -been a trooper, disordered after a day’s march.</p> - -<p>Augustus, who sat in a great chair with arms near the log fire, was a -man of a physical strength famous throughout Europe; he was as tall as -the Czar and far more powerfully made, the splendid Karl would have -appeared a stripling beside him for he was now in the prime of his -manhood; a magnificent prince like the hero of a fairy-tale to the eye, -for he was extremely good-looking in a pleasing, conventional fashion, -gracious, easy in manner, full of fire and chivalry, and elegant as any -courtier of Louis XIV; his court was considered next to that of -Versailles for brilliancy, extravagance, and elegance, and he had made -Dresden nearly as fashionable as Paris.</p> - -<p>He also wore riding costume, but in complete contrast<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_087" id="page_087"></a>{87}</span> to the -habiliments of the Czar; a mantle of dark blue silk, lined with black -fur, was flung back on his shoulders and fastened across the breast with -gold clasps; his coat was of fine deep crimson cloth gallooned with -silver; his rich laces, fastened with a black bow at the throat, fell -over a white satin waistcoat heavily embroidered in colored silks; his -close knee-boots were of the softest leather, his spurs gilt, his sword -and baldrick very handsome and tasseled; his kindly, charming face was -framed in the rich curls of a long peruke, and on the chair beside him -were his huge gauntlet gloves, his black hat with long white plumes and -his gold-headed riding-crop.</p> - -<p>He looked both disinterested and slightly ill at ease, though his air -was one of perfect courtesy, and he seemed to pay more attention to the -Livonian nobleman than to the Muscovite Czar—finding the former more to -his ideas of civilization.</p> - -<p>This man, who had already played such a considerable but more or less -secret part in the politics of Northern Europe, and who now defied Karl -XII with his sword as he had defied Karl XI with his eloquence, was -still young, but of an appearance ordinary compared to that of the two -princes.</p> - -<p>He was fair, of medium height, with blunt features and earnest gray -eyes, an expression enthusiastic and serious; he wore the uniform of a -Saxon General, and his peruke was tied with a black ribbon; his -personality was sincere and attractive, and to any who knew his history -there was round him the fascination of lost causes and forlorn hopes, -the romance of the fanatic and the patriot, for Patkul had only lived -with the one object of rescuing his country from the tyranny of Sweden.</p> - -<p>He had been elected as spokesman to put the wrongs of Livonia before -Karl XI; that stern monarch had received him graciously.</p> - -<p>“You have spoken for your country like a brave man, and I respect you -for it,” he had said, but the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_088" id="page_088"></a>{88}</span> next day Patkul had been arrested on a -charge of treason; he had broken prison and escaped abroad, and from -then had been the steady enemy of Karl XI and his son.</p> - -<p>To Augustus he had been of infinite value, and he had only left the -court of Dresden because his single-mindedness, his haughty spirit, and -ardent purpose had accorded ill with the frivolous atmosphere, -bed-chamber plots, and petty intrigues of the Elector’s court; in Peter -he had found a more congenial master, but a sentimental tie still bound -him to Dresden; he was betrothed to a good and beautiful Saxon lady, -Mdle. D’Einsiedel.</p> - -<p>The sincerity and simplicity of this love affair was in contrast to the -fashion of the moment; Augustus was slightly cynical and Peter did not -understand, but Patkul was not greatly concerned in these princes’ -opinion of his private concern; they were to him but instruments to free -Livonia and humble Sweden, though for Peter Alexis he felt a certain -affection, for the Czar was also struggling with a gigantic, perhaps -hopeless, task.</p> - -<p>Augustus glanced with some disgust at the somber figure of Peter; the -moods and melancholies of the wild, diseased Muscovite were very -repellent to the healthy, ease-loving Saxon; secretly he cursed the -alliance with Russia (though he was too good-natured to blame its -author, Patkul), and wished that he had found some less dangerous excuse -for keeping his standing army.</p> - -<p>However, he had to force on his reluctant and somewhat lazy mind that he -was in a perilous position; Karl had defeated Denmark (who no longer -counted as a member of the league) and defeated Russia, and there could -be little doubt that the stern and haughty young conqueror would now -turn his arms against Poland; the King-Elector saw no ally and no chance -of support save in the Czar.</p> - -<p>The treaty of Altona kept England and Holland<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_089" id="page_089"></a>{89}</span> tacitly at least on the -side of Sweden, and Augustus had never been looked upon well by France, -whose princes he had defeated in the candidature for the Polish throne.</p> - -<p>His defensive measures must be taken in concert with Peter; a defeated -man, certainly, but one of immense resources and genius.</p> - -<p>“While we talk, Sweden will act,” he said, with a slightly quizzical -smile, his good humor after all carrying the day in the struggle with -his irritation against the mood of the incomprehensible Peter; he rose, -very gorgeous and making the room look mean. “Let us have our dinner,” -he added, “and then come to some serious conversation.”</p> - -<p>“Which has been too long delayed, sire,” remarked General Patkul -quietly; already the meeting between kings and ministers was several -days old, and nothing had taken place but mutual compliments and mutual -entertainments in which all had joined from Peter and Augustus to the -meanest secretary in their train; Patkul, the only man who had kept -quite aloof, was probably the only man in Birsen now completely sober; -it was the reaction from debauch that had plunged Peter into melancholy, -and Augustus was heavy-headed and heavy-eyed.</p> - -<p>“Too long delayed,” he agreed smoothly. “Karl will not spend much longer -before Narva—why, having achieved his end, he cannot go home——”</p> - -<p>Peter looked up.</p> - -<p>“Achieved his end?” he questioned.</p> - -<p>“Has he not got back Holstein-Gottorp and checked the invasion into his -Baltic provinces?”</p> - -<p>“And you think that was his end!” exclaimed the Czar contemptuously. -“No, he wishes to dethrone you and me.”</p> - -<p>Augustus laughed at this abrupt statement.</p> - -<p>“A second Alexander? Not in these times, sire,” he replied. “Not even a -vain boy would dream of world conquest now—especially after the lessons -of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_090" id="page_090"></a>{90}</span> Ryswick; what Louis could not accomplish Karl will hardly attempt.”</p> - -<p>“I think that he will,” said Peter, measuring the Swede’s spirit by his -own.</p> - -<p>He was seconded by the Livonian.</p> - -<p>“I think that you are right, sire; there is no end to what Karl will -attempt—perhaps no end to what he will achieve. I think his Saxon -Majesty can hardly conceive the type, hard, cold, justly cruel and -justly generous—a man without mercy for himself or others, austere, -awkward, without grace or charm, yet underneath half-mad with pride, -with obstinacy, with the old Viking blood lust, the old Berserker fury -against those who oppose him.”</p> - -<p>Patkul spoke with a feeling that pleased Peter, always intensely -interested in anything to do with his rival.</p> - -<p>“He is reputed virtuous,” said the Czar.</p> - -<p>“Virtuous!” exclaimed Patkul, with a flush in his blond face. “Yes—he -has prayers twice a day in his camp, and his soldiers do not take a -slice of bread that they do not pay for; he lives the life of a Spartan -and a monk, for it is his vanity to be considered above the weaknesses -of mankind, but he would see Sweden go to perdition sooner than forgo -one of his mad schemes or sacrifice one leaf from the laurels of his -barren victories!”</p> - -<p>“You speak from your knowledge of his father,” said Augustus.</p> - -<p>“From my knowledge of the race, sir. Karl XI thought something of the -good of his people, and embarked on no useless conquests, but the type -was the same—a man of granite. He killed his Queen with his hardness. I -think that he never said a kind word, all his days, to anyone.”</p> - -<p>“And no woman was ever found to soften him?” asked Augustus, who was -trained in the traditions of Versailles.</p> - -<p>“Never. They say that this man is the same,” replied<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_091" id="page_091"></a>{91}</span> Patkul. “He -prefers to govern his passions rather than to risk female domination and -has resolved never to look on a fair face.”</p> - -<p>“I will send him Marpha,” said Peter gravely. “She would twine round the -heart of a saint.”</p> - -<p>At the thought of such an ambassadress being sent to bewitch the haughty -young conqueror with her crude charms, and the spectacle of the Czar’s -entire belief in the illiterate camp follower with her rude speech and -neglected person who so offended the fastidious taste of the Saxon, -Augustus could not repress a smile of contempt.</p> - -<p>Peter perceived it and rose; little flames of wrath sparkled in his full -brown eyes.</p> - -<p>“Well, send him Aurora von Königsmarck,” he cried violently.</p> - -<p>Augustus was utterly taken aback; he had never so been spoken to nor -surrounded by other than refinement and elegance; to even hear the name -of Aurora on the lips of Peter was a profanation, but to listen to her, -one of the admired women of Europe, the Montespan of his Versailles, -coupled, in this odious connection, with the Livonian peasant, raised by -the mad caprice of Peter, made him put his hand to his sword.</p> - -<p>“Well,” said the Czar, with dangerous softness, “why not your woman as -well as mine?”</p> - -<p>Patkul intervened.</p> - -<p>“Leave the names of women, sire,” he said quickly and with some -authority. “The King of Sweden is not, in any case, to be outwitted that -way.”</p> - -<p>Augustus recovered his composure by reminding himself that he had to -deal with a man almost wholly a savage.</p> - -<p>“At least you will leave the name of the Countess von Königsmarck, sir,” -he said coldly.</p> - -<p>Peter laughed with rude contempt; he had no respect for any woman, and -the brilliant Aurora who ruled the superb court of Dresden was no better -in<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_092" id="page_092"></a>{92}</span> his mind than Marpha, who stirred the kvas and drank brandy in his -dirty hut or tent.</p> - -<p>Augustus did not like this laugh and spoke again, to avoid a quarrel.</p> - -<p>“Surely it is time we joined Mentchikoff for dinner,” and he glanced -patiently at the cold winter day beyond the window.</p> - -<p>“You are very fond of your dinner,” said Peter, who turned from the -French cooking provided by Augustus to devour half-cooked greasy meat -and parboiled vegetables soaked in vinegar.</p> - -<p>The King-Elector, perfectly master of himself, turned easily to Patkul.</p> - -<p>“General,” he said, “escort His Majesty to the dining-hall.”</p> - -<p>And with that he left the room, gathering up gracefully his hat, gloves, -and whip.</p> - -<p>“He is a silly fribble and a besotted rake,” said Peter angrily, as the -door closed.</p> - -<p>“He has a fine army, sire,” replied Patkul quietly; he was used to -managing both these men, so utterly different and both so necessary to -his great schemes.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” admitted the Czar sullenly, with envy in his eyes.</p> - -<p>“The sort of army that is needful to defeat Sweden—come here, sire,” he -beckoned Peter to the window and pointed out, in the courtyard of the -modest house, the Saxon guard who had been appointed to attend on Peter -during his residence at Birsen. “Are they not splendid fellows? And -those passing, of the Brandenbourg regiment—and Augustus has thousands -of such men.”</p> - -<p>Peter’s haggard eyes lit with professional enthusiasm.</p> - -<p>“I will have men like that, Patkul.”</p> - -<p>“Meanwhile it is useful to tolerate the Elector, sire.”</p> - -<p>“And choke myself with his French sauces, and grimace with him over his -compliments.”</p> - -<p>“Well,” said Patkul gravely, “I think your Majesties have some tastes in -common; you have been drunk<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_093" id="page_093"></a>{93}</span> together for three days on end, and that -should have promoted some fellow-feeling.”</p> - -<p>The Czar gave no answer and Prince Mentchikoff entered the room; he was -dressed magnificently, and in tolerable imitation of the Saxon nobility; -the peasant had acquired Western polish more easily than the Czar.</p> - -<p>Peter greeted him affectionately, taking his face between his hands and -kissing him; it was the first time he had seen him that day for -Mentchikoff had been sleeping off the effects of last night’s orgy.</p> - -<p>Patkul left the two Russians together, and hastened after Augustus who -was already seated at table with several of his ministers and officers.</p> - -<p>“You wish yourself back at Dresden, no?” he greeted the Livonian -pleasantly.</p> - -<p>“Sire,” replied Patkul, “I should not care to be back at Dresden -thinking that this meeting had been fruitless.”</p> - -<p>“You are right,” said Augustus, gravely, “and the sooner we finish this -treaty the sooner we can return,” and his eyes shone, as he thought of -his Aurora.</p> - -<p>Patkul completed the treaty that day; the Czar was to send into Poland -50,000 men to learn to become soldiers, and, in the space of two years, -to pay to the Czar 3,000,000 rix-dollars; Augustus was to levy from -neighboring princes 50,000 trained German troops to send into Russia; -this treaty, that seemed to lay the foundation for the greatness of the -Czar and the ruin of Sweden, once completed, Patkul would have made -instant preparations to put it into force; but Augustus, despite the -attractions of his gorgeous darling and his fears for the safety of his -kingdom, joined Peter in a week-long debauch.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile Sweden, breaking camp at Narva, marched on Riga, and Patkul, -unable to endure the idle orgies, obtained permission to join the Saxon -troops under Courlande and Steinau, who were defending the passage of -the Dwina against the conqueror.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_094" id="page_094"></a>{94}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_III-c" id="CHAPTER_III-c"></a>CHAPTER III</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">“W</span>HEN things go smoothly it is well to be a woman, when they go ill I -would give my soul to be a man,” said Aurora von Königsmarck.</p> - -<p>She was in her beautiful chamber in the Palace at Dresden, seated on a -low couch piled with cushions of shimmering brocade, holding in her long -fair hand a letter from the Elector.</p> - -<p>“I think,” replied her companion, “you would not, under any inducement, -be other than what you are.”</p> - -<p>Aurora looked up sharply.</p> - -<p>“Would you?” she demanded.</p> - -<p>The court favorite smiled as she spoke and flung herself farther back -into the soft cushions, crushing the stiff violet ribbons and frills of -silver lace on her magnificent gown.</p> - -<p>“No,” said the other lady; she was fair and pale, and seated on a stool -of red lacquer was helping a tiny negro page to feed with sugar a parrot -that swung in an ebony ring.</p> - -<p>“Why?” asked Aurora.</p> - -<p>“Because I am betrothed to General Patkul,” replied the lady, without -looking round.</p> - -<p>“Romantic love—in this age!” smiled the Countess.</p> - -<p>Mdle. D’Einsiedel daintily placed the morsel of sugar in the bird’s huge -polished beak; he as daintily accepted it, and twisted round in his ring -sweeping his long green tail feathers into the face of the page.</p> - -<p>“Tell me about it,” coaxed Aurora, leaning forward so that her beautiful -head peered over the gilt edge of the settee. “Tell me what it is like -to be in love—in love!—in that way?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_095" id="page_095"></a>{95}</span></p> - -<p>“I am sorry for you that you do not know. Countess,” smiled Hélène -D’Einsiedel, still amusing herself with the bird and not looking round.</p> - -<p>Aurora von Königsmarck studied her with a curiosity that was not -entirely without malice and envy.</p> - -<p>The young girl (she was hardly more than seventeen) made a beautiful -picture in her full rose-colored dress, seated on rose-colored cushions, -with rainbow-hued silk ribbons at her slender waist, and in her loosely -dressed pale hair, silk flowers; forget-me-nots and roses were amid the -fine laces on her open bosom, pearls in her ears and round her throat; -her delicate features shone fair with youth and health, grace and breed; -she was wealthy, noble, nurtured in a corrupt and brilliant court, and -she had consented to bestow her hand on a man who was no more than a -political adventurer; native of a country supposed half-savage and with -no particular attractions of person or manner, John Rheinhold Patkul had -never been popular with the courtiers of Augustus, but he had inspired -this girl with an intense devotion that no opposition could shake.</p> - -<p>She continued with undisturbed grace to feed the parrot; behind her was -a tapestry of a woodland scene, gray-green in color, which formed the -background to her pale beauty which was in piquant contrast to the negro -with his scarlet suit and sky-blue turban and the harsh colors of the -bird.</p> - -<p>“Well, child,” said Aurora at length, “if you will not talk——! You -will marry your Livonian, and go to live in his wild country and forget -about me.”</p> - -<p>The girl looked at the sugar lying in her pink palm; Aurora had always -been her friend, to some extent her patroness, but she did not care to -talk to her of General Patkul.</p> - -<p>“Obstinate!” continued the Countess. “You will not even distract me from -my bad news. Augustus is sick. And the fight by Riga goes ill for us.”</p> - -<p>“Ah!” Mdle. D’Einsiedel turned her brown eyes now.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_096" id="page_096"></a>{96}</span></p> - -<p>“I thought I should move you,” remarked Aurora maliciously. “Have you -not heard, then, from your idol?”</p> - -<p>Patkul, with Courlande and Steinau, was disputing the sandy reaches of -the Dwina against the advancing troops of Karl XII; it was the first -shock of the opening of the young conqueror’s second campaign.</p> - -<p>“I have not heard for several days,” replied the girl in a low voice, -“but why should I grieve or trouble? The cause is a sacred one, and I -feel sure that God will protect it.”</p> - -<p>Aurora smiled at these trite words which betrayed the touching -confidence of youth in the continuance of happiness; she saw that the -girl was so wrapt in the splendor of a first and noble passion that she -could not think of misfortune as a possible thing. The Countess sighed -and pulled at her waist ribbons with restless fingers; all romance had -long left her life; her outlook was that of the brilliant adventuress -concerned only to keep the splendid position she had attained by talent -and beauty.</p> - -<p>By now she had forgotten if she ever had loved Augustus, the handsome, -generous, good-humored Prince whose favor had made her great; he was -simply her world, the thing by which she must stand or fall; his ruin -would be her ruin, utterly; she was grateful enough and loyal enough to -scorn the thought of leaving him if he was defeated and brought to -disaster, but she could not view with calm the prospect of losing her -position as mistress of the second most brilliant court in Europe, and -all the pleasures and honors she now enjoyed as a famous beauty and a -clever and powerful woman. She was of a noble Swedish family with a wild -and tragic history; the names of her two brothers had long held a horrid -renown; Philip von Königsmarck had been the lover of Dorothea of Zell, -the Elector of Hanover’s wife, and, betrayed by a woman’s jealousy, had -been caught and horribly murdered as he left the Electress; the other<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_097" id="page_097"></a>{97}</span> -brother had been concerned in the brutal assassination of a wealthy -Englishman whose wife the young adventurer hoped to marry; his -accomplices were taken and hanged and he had fled, to perish miserably -and obscurely in battle.</p> - -<p>These tragedies had not been without their effect on Aurora; she found -the echo of them in her own wild heart; she had wept with passionate -indignation for Philip and scorned the other for a fool.</p> - -<p>As for herself she meant to be neither the victim of passion nor of -folly, but in every way to avoid disaster; her impetuous spirit was -governed by a cool brain; she was intelligent in large matters, clever -in small ones, intensely conscious of being an extraordinary woman, not -vain of her beauty nor her wit nor her charm, but aware of the value of -these things, how men could be led by them, and the power they might -purchase.</p> - -<p>She had no evil qualities; her most sincere emotion was her passionate -love for her beautiful little son, Maurice; perhaps a sense of stifled -discontent lay deep hidden in her heart, mingled with the adventurer’s -secret longing for haven and security; this she never admitted even to -herself, but sometimes it colored her behavior, as now when she was -inclined to be spiteful with the young and rather silly girl absorbed in -the magic of a great love.</p> - -<p>“She really would leave everything for him,” thought the Countess; she -wondered what it must be to feel like that; the creature was so shy and -reserved about it too.</p> - -<p>Aurora had herself, purely as a matter of course, tried to bring Patkul -to her feet when he had first come to the Dresden Court; neither her -fidelity to Augustus nor the native coldness of her disposition -prevented her from endeavoring to subjugate every notable man who -crossed her path; that the Livonian had been ice to her and flame to -Hélène D’Einsiedel did not add to the good-humor with which she viewed -this romantic, old-fashioned love affair.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_098" id="page_098"></a>{98}</span></p> - -<p>Vanity apart, her good sense condemned the type of man who could prefer -a stupid girl, endowed only with the passing prettiness of youth, to a -woman like herself.</p> - -<p>She was extremely lovely, vivid in coloring for the North, bright brown -eyes, soft brown hair, graceful from crown to heel, every movement -charming, every look and gesture radiant with beauty.</p> - -<p>“Why are you angry with me, Countess?” asked the girl suddenly, tossing -down the sugar on to the rose-colored cushions.</p> - -<p>“How did you know I was angry?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, la, you look as if you would like to beat me!”</p> - -<p>Aurora suddenly moved and clasped her long hands round her knees.</p> - -<p>“I suppose I envied you,” she said, in one of her careless generous -impulses. “You have something I have never had.”</p> - -<p>Hélène did not quite understand.</p> - -<p>“Little silly!” laughed Aurora. “Do you not know that I am incapable of -loving any man as you love your Patkul?”</p> - -<p>“You pretend very well,” said Hélène, with a demureness that might have -hid a touch of malice.</p> - -<p>Aurora was silent; yes, she could pretend very well, she had often -marveled at that herself, often been genuinely amazed at the strength -and sincerity of the emotion she could raise in others and her own lack -of response; she would have liked to have felt, if only for half an -hour, any adoration for any man equal to that this girl felt for General -Patkul; she knew that such an emotion would have been entirely in -opposition with all her plans and schemes, but in her avid desire for -life and knowledge, she would have given much for the curiosity of the -experience.</p> - -<p>However, she put the thought out of her mind, moved quickly, and glanced -again at the letter from Augustus.</p> - -<p>She was vexed that he was too ill to take the command<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_099" id="page_099"></a>{99}</span> of his armies in -person, the more so as she guessed this illness to be consequent on his -debauches with the Czar at Birsen; Peter to her was a monster, she could -not forgive in Augustus the weakness that made him the companion of his -ally’s vulgar orgies.</p> - -<p>“Yes, ’twere better to be a man now, free on horseback,” she said. “This -waiting amid one’s toys is an ugly part of a woman’s life”—she paused, -then added quickly, “it must be hateful to belong to a man who is -defeated.”</p> - -<p>Hélène gazed at her with startled eyes.</p> - -<p>“You do not think that Saxony will be defeated, Countess?”</p> - -<p>“He has been defeated already,” replied Aurora. “And do you think he has -very much chance? The savage Muscovite is no use—every battle will be a -Narva for him. Denmark is silenced—and the King of Sweden is great.”</p> - -<p>Mdle. D’Einsiedel forgot her negro and her parrot.</p> - -<p>“He is a cruel tyrant—a bitter oppressor!” she exclaimed; her pale -little face looked sharp with anger, “he fights for the lust of -conquest—a heartless, fierce man.”</p> - -<p>“So speaks the betrothed of Patkul,” answered Aurora. “You are too -bitter against this man to judge him. He is a hero. And young and -splendid, a Viking, child.”</p> - -<p>“This is not the age for Vikings,” said Hélène coldly, “he is like his -father. Patkul has told me of them—hard and cruel—how I <i>loathe</i> -cruelty.”</p> - -<p>Tears shone in her soft eyes and her lips quivered; she was thinking -that it was just possible Patkul might one day be in the power of this -same cruelty.</p> - -<p>“Nay, he is just and even generous; you heard how, after Narva, he gave -all the Russian officers their liberty, detaining only M. de Croy, to -whom he paid full honor—and the modesty of his dispatches! ’Tis said -that with his own hand he struck out his praises and put in those of the -Czar.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_100" id="page_100"></a>{100}</span></p> - -<p>“<span class="lftspc">’</span>Tis his vanity,” said Hélène scornfully, “he wishes to impress the -world—see if he is kind to his peasants—to his women-folk—see if he -has ever thought of the justice of Livonia’s wish for liberty—he -blindly continues his father’s tyrannies.”</p> - -<p>Aurora checked her with a light laugh.</p> - -<p>“That is none of it women’s business. Augustus is the best-natured -person in the world, but I doubt if he knows much of his peasantry in -either Saxony or Poland!” and she laughed again at the thought.</p> - -<p>“He would be a better prince if he did,” said Hélène, with a sternness -strange in one of her youth and frivolous appearance. “Patkul says the -day will surely come when all the peoples will rise up and cast down -their rulers.”</p> - -<p>“Patkul is a fanatic and a visionary—a rebel also. Karl is his King. I -am a Swede. Hélène, I have no sympathy with these revolting Livonians.”</p> - -<p>Hélène glanced at the vivid lovely face of the Countess and her eyes -narrowed.</p> - -<p>“The Elector would not care to hear you speak so of Sweden,” she -remarked.</p> - -<p>“The Elector expects no hypocrisy from me,” replied Aurora haughtily. “I -am not his wife. He knows that a man like Karl would attract a woman -like me—I have told him I should like to meet him.”</p> - -<p>She had, in truth, heard of the austere life and cold manners of the -young conqueror whose name was now so famous in Europe, and she had -imagined herself subduing him with her charm; she could not resist -picturing herself as the Cleopatra to this immaculate Cæsar; Augustus -had been amazed with anger at the Czar’s crude suggestion that the -famous beauty should be used to beguile their enemy, but the woman -herself had long toyed with the idea; it would be a wonderful triumph -and, she believed in her heart, an easy one. Karl was only a boy, after -all, and had probably never been tempted; it was impossible that he -intended to be absorbed for ever in schemes of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_101" id="page_101"></a>{101}</span> military aggrandizement -and glory; and she had never failed yet. “Perhaps I could do more in -half an hour than your Patkul has done in a lifetime,” she said -suddenly.</p> - -<p>“Oh, would you speak for Livonia?” asked Hélène, then quickly and with a -blush, “but no, Patkul would not like that.”</p> - -<p>“Let him rely on his sword and his virtue,” said Aurora haughtily. -“Saxony may require my services.”</p> - -<p>“He would not wish that you should sue to Sweden for him!” exclaimed -Hélène.</p> - -<p>Aurora rose.</p> - -<p>“Wait till King Karl has overrun Poland and is at the gates of Dresden.”</p> - -<p>She clasped her hands behind her head, shaking down her bright hair that -was undressed, and gazing fixedly at her reflection in a circular mirror -framed with gilt balls that hung above the couch.</p> - -<p>Hélène sat silent on the rose-colored cushions; the parrot swung idly in -the ring above her head; the page had wandered to the window and was -flattening his face against the pane; a monkey in a crimson coat that -had been sleeping in a basket lined with white satin, now came climbing -over the furniture, turning its wizened face from one to the other of -the two silent, beautiful women and chattering at both of them. This was -the only movement in the gorgeous little room, now filled with the -spring sunshine that streamed softly through the long curtains of -straw-colored silk. Aurora had dropped her arms, and with her hands -clasped before her continued to gaze at her resplendent image.</p> - -<p>Her thoughts were entirely personal; she cared very little for politics -though she had an intelligent understanding of them; she had watched -Augustus undertake this war light-heartedly enough, knowing that it was -only an excuse to keep a large standing army with which to overawe -Poland, but the quality of Karl XII having<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_102" id="page_102"></a>{102}</span> surprised them all into -disaster, Aurora became angry with the war and those who had suggested -it, and impatient with the enthusiastic Patkul, and gradually her -attention had become fixed on the figure of the King of Sweden, rendered -more arresting by every success, more terrible in the eyes of men and -more attractive in the eyes of women.</p> - -<p>Aurora knew something of what the Court of Sweden was like.</p> - -<p>“He has never met a woman like me,” she thought, and there was a glow, -as of coming triumph, at her heart.</p> - -<p>The other woman’s reflections had traveled far from herself! they were -with a fair, rather ordinary-looking soldier, with short-sighted, -anxious eyes, and a blunt-featured face that had a certain pathos in its -open sincerity and goodness, who was now probably riding to and fro in -the confusion of battle, steadying the Saxon troops against the -victorious ranks of Sweden.</p> - -<p>She loved him so utterly, so ardently believed in his cause and his -life-work that he seemed to her like a being charmed whom no actual -danger could touch, yet she yearned over him, child as she was, with a -yearning that was near tears; and this, though her whole being was -pervaded by the supreme happiness of her love which kept her in a serene -and beautiful aloofness from all that was painful or terrifying.</p> - -<p>The monkey clambered to the end of the couch, dropped into Hélène’s lap, -and began stealing the sugar scattered over the cushions.</p> - -<p>Aurora moved slowly from the mirror and told the page to bring her -writing materials; when they were given her she began to write, not an -answer to her lover’s neglected letter but a paper of French verses to -Karl XII.</p> - -<p>Hélène, wrapt in her dreams, heeded her no more than she did the monkey -crunching sweetmeats on her lap.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_103" id="page_103"></a>{103}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_IV-c" id="CHAPTER_IV-c"></a>CHAPTER IV</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">I</span>N July of that year Karl XII totally defeated the Saxon troops and -forced the passage of the Dwina, near Riga, at a point where the river -was nearly a mile wide, making use of specially built boats for the -passage of his troops, and taking advantage of the direction of the wind -to create a smoke-screen that concealed his crossing from the Saxons.</p> - -<p>The battle was long and bloody, Courlande, Steinau, and Patkul fought -with desperate bravery and considerable skill, but the victory of the -great captain was complete; he passed on through Livonia, took Mitau, -capital of Courland, and one after another all the towns of that duchy -surrendered; the whole of Lithuania submitted.</p> - -<p>At Birsen, where his enemies had so shortly before drawn up the league -that they hoped was to be his ruin, he paused in his triumphal progress, -taking his residence in the house occupied by Peter and Augustus.</p> - -<p>He was now in an extraordinary position of greatness; he had been but -little more than a year from Sweden and he had completely subdued his -enemies, crushed the revolt in Livonia, consolidated his hold on the -disputed provinces, and preserved his army in good health and perfect -discipline with very little loss of life.</p> - -<p>His fame had spread all over Europe, and Sweden occupied a sudden -position of importance in the eyes of the West; the Czar’s glory was -eclipsed, and it was not believed likely that he would ever recover from -Narva sufficiently to again face the King of Sweden.</p> - -<p>What the next actions of this hero, as yet not twenty and in a position -so unique, were likely to be, neither his friends nor his enemies could -guess.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_104" id="page_104"></a>{104}</span></p> - -<p>He affected a deep reserve, and there was no one who could boast of -being entirely in his confidence, not even his brother-in-law, the Duke -of Holstein-Gottorp, whom he had restored to his dominions and regarded -with a certain affection, nor Count Piper, whom he kept near his person -and trusted implicitly in political matters relating to the government -of Sweden.</p> - -<p>This latter, however, did not intend to remain so quietly in ignorance -of his master’s designs; he viewed Karl very differently since he had -observed his military genius and his obstinate pride and perfect -self-control, but he had not yet entirely relinquished all hopes of -guiding this strange character into the paths trod by Karl XI.</p> - -<p>Sweden was ever uppermost in Count Piper’s thoughts; he believed that -she occupied but a small place in those of the King; to the minister all -the objects of the war had been now attained, and there remained but to -make an honorable, durable, and glorious peace which should strengthen -Sweden in position, commerce, and prestige.</p> - -<p>And Count Piper felt that this was the moment, when Karl had the Baltic -provinces under his feet and his enemies disordered and confused, to -propose a set of terms, that however advantageous to Sweden, they would -be in no position to refuse or even to dispute. As the King’s haughty -and glacial reserve allowed no indication of his future plans to escape -him, Count Piper resolved to directly approach him, and endeavor to -discover if he did not himself consider this a favorable moment for -triumphantly concluding the war.</p> - -<p>He found occasion to approach Karl one day after his dinner; this meal, -of the greatest simplicity, the King always took with his officers; he -was seldom more than half an hour at table; he drank only water and ate -the plainest of food, never had he faltered an instant in his rigid -self-discipline; his life could not have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_105" id="page_105"></a>{105}</span> more hard, stern, and -barren of all but duty; his one occasional amusement was to have -portions of the old Scandinavian sagas read to him, but even of this he -seemed slightly ashamed.</p> - -<p>Count Piper found him now with his secretary in the room where Marpha -had served Augustus and Peter with wine, and Mentchikoff had sung -drunken chants for the amusement of the Saxon nobles.</p> - -<p>Karl had had everything removed from the chamber but a table and a -couple of chairs; on the walls were maps of Lithuania, Livonia, and -Esthonia, and a large model of the globe in a black frame and roughly -painted in bright colors, stood beneath. The King sat beneath one of the -windows dictating to the secretary, a young Swedish officer, who sat at -the table which was covered with neatly arranged papers.</p> - -<p>Karl wore the costume he had not altered since he left Sweden; the dark -blue cloth coat, the black satin cravat, the high boots, and buffle -gloves which he held now across his knee; his fair hair had been cut -short and he wore no peruke.</p> - -<p>He was bare-headed and the summer sunshine was full on his face, -inscrutable in expression, showing superb health and hardihood in line -and color.</p> - -<p>As Count Piper entered he was sitting silent, like one wrapt in dreams, -and the secretary was waiting, in respectful silence, for him to -continue the correspondence.</p> - -<p>As soon as he observed the minister he roused himself from his reverie, -and with a gesture dismissed the secretary who rose and offered his -chair, the only one in the room, to Count Piper.</p> - -<p>The King looked at the older man with the blue eyes that seemed to -express nothing but a steady strength and an adamant courage, and spoke -pleasantly.</p> - -<p>“You had something serious to say to me, Count?” he asked.</p> - -<p>The minister had not seated himself but remained<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_106" id="page_106"></a>{106}</span> standing, leaning -against the back of the plain wooden chair; in his rather rich civilian -attire, with his full peruke and fine appointments, he was in contrast -to the camp-like simplicity of the room and the austere figure of the -youthful soldier.</p> - -<p>“I have come to ask your Majesty what you intend to do,” said the Count; -he knew that it was useless to try diplomacy or even tact with the King -who was offended with all but the bluntest of speeches.</p> - -<p>“You have been wishing to ask me that for some while, have you not?” -smiled Karl, he was no longer brooding or thoughtful, but alert and -keen.</p> - -<p>“I think that this is a decisive moment in your career, sire, therefore -in that of the history of Europe.”</p> - -<p>This was the kind of bold compliment that pleased the King.</p> - -<p>“I believe so,” he said calmly.</p> - -<p>“You have, sire, achieved more than anyone could have believed -possible—there only remains for you to bless your country with a -lasting peace.”</p> - -<p>“Ah!” exclaimed Karl shortly, with his disagreeable laugh.</p> - -<p>Count Piper faced him calmly.</p> - -<p>“Is not that your Majesty’s intention?”</p> - -<p>“My intention,” said Karl, with his stare of blank fortitude, “is to -dethrone Augustus and Peter.”</p> - -<p>The minister caught his breath; this was more than he had anticipated, -even from the headstrong obstinacy of a youthful hero flushed with -success.</p> - -<p>“Did you imagine, Count,” asked the King, “that I should return to -Sweden?”</p> - -<p>“I hoped so,” said the minister gravely.</p> - -<p>“Why?” demanded the King.</p> - -<p>“Because I am anxious for the honor and safety of our country. Sire, -Sweden will be better served by moderation than extremes—she does not -need conquests but good government.”</p> - -<p>“And you think that I should return home to govern?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_107" id="page_107"></a>{107}</span></p> - -<p>“Yes, sire.”</p> - -<p>“Not yet,” replied Karl.</p> - -<p>“What else does your Majesty propose to do?” asked the minister.</p> - -<p>“I have told you.”</p> - -<p>“But, sire—to conquer Poland, Saxony, and Russia——”</p> - -<p>“Do you not think,” interrupted Karl, “that I am capable of executing -this design?”</p> - -<p>Count Piper was silent in sheer bewilderment; judging from the King’s -recent actions he was capable of anything; on the other hand, the -conquest proposed was so vast, the means so comparatively small that -common sense refused to be convinced even by the genius of this -extraordinary young man.</p> - -<p>“Well?” said Karl.</p> - -<p>The minister fastened on the aspect that was always nearest his -heart—how his country would be affected.</p> - -<p>“Sweden will never stand the strain!” he exclaimed.</p> - -<p>Karl shrugged his shoulders.</p> - -<p>“It can be done,” he said.</p> - -<p>“Before God, sire, I do not think that it can.”</p> - -<p>The King’s obstinate blue eyes did not falter; his lips were curved in a -smile too indifferent for disdain but more freezing than contempt.</p> - -<p>“Think, sire,” continued Count Piper energetically, “of the size and -resources of these three countries—Saxony will have all the German -States behind him—Russia is a continent.”</p> - -<p>Karl’s face now betrayed where his principal hate lay.</p> - -<p>“Peter is a savage commanding savages,” he replied; “the whip and not -the sword is necessary to disperse his hordes.”</p> - -<p>“You think of Narva,” said Count Piper, “but he will learn. He will -train his men.”</p> - -<p>“And if he does?” demanded Karl coldly, “what of the passage of the -Dwina? Am I not able to resist veteran troops?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_108" id="page_108"></a>{108}</span></p> - -<p>The minister could not deny the truth of this; to all appearance Karl -was invincible, yet the Count’s heart utterly misgave him at thought of -the gigantic enterprise to which the King appeared to have pledged -himself.</p> - -<p>“It is purposeless, sire, and useless,” he said with vigor. “Sweden -could never hold these conquests if she made them; Europe would not -permit it, nor her own strength. You have made her secure and powerful, -respected and feared; have the strength, sire, to stop. This is not the -age for sheer conquest. War bars the progress of mankind. Sweden -requires your Majesty’s genius for her internal reforms; you do not know -yet your own country—your father, sire, knew it from end to end.”</p> - -<p>If the King considered this speech too much of a reproof he did not say -so nor show his resentment by the slightest sign.</p> - -<p>“You think I should return to Stockholm, Count?” he asked.</p> - -<p>“After you have secured a victorious peace—a peace that will leave the -Duke of Holstein-Gottorp restored to his estate, you master of the -Baltic Provinces, Denmark silenced, Saxony and Russia punished. Sire,” -added the minister with a smile, “I think no young prince could desire -greater glory than this.”</p> - -<p>This hurt the secret pride of the King, which hid itself under such an -aspect of stern modesty.</p> - -<p>“I do not fight for glory,” he said haughtily, “but to dethrone these -villains.”</p> - -<p>Count Piper was silenced; in these words he read the wild dreams of -unpractical youth, the mad schemes of a man who believed war the only -profession for a prince, the only occupation worthy of a gentleman, and -who would consider nothing beside his ambition.</p> - -<p>“Sweden does not need this war,” he said, “nor can she afford it.”</p> - -<p>But this argument was entirely lost on the King, who loved to achieve -the impossible; the difficulty and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_109" id="page_109"></a>{109}</span> magnitude of the enterprise were -what gave it, in his eyes, its great attraction.</p> - -<p>And Count Piper now began to experience the force of the King’s -extraordinary qualities, his hard obstinacy, his blind fortitude.</p> - -<p>The King rose, and crushed his gloves in his strong white hands.</p> - -<p>“I would as soon,” he said, with as much violence and impatience as he -ever showed, “be in my coffin as in Stockholm. I should feel as confined -in one as in the other.”</p> - -<p>“Does your Majesty never intend to see your capital again?” asked Count -Piper sorrowfully.</p> - -<p>The King stared at him; the good of Sweden or any interest in her was -far from the mind that was full of dreams of the conquest of Russia and -the subjugation of Poland and Saxony.</p> - -<p>Karl had completely abandoned the government of his country to the -Council of Regency; he hardly troubled to acquaint himself with their -proceedings, and often left unread the home dispatches.</p> - -<p>Patriotism did not touch his dreams of the cold greatness he had -conceived for himself. “I told my people,” he said, looking, not at his -minister, but out of the window at the summer sunshine on the dusty -road, “that I would never make an unjust war nor abandon a just one, -without the punishment of the offenders.”</p> - -<p>“Are not these same offenders already sufficiently punished?” demanded -Piper quickly.</p> - -<p>“No,” replied the King, and now his strange eyes showed a faint but -fierce fire like those of a noble animal roused from slumber to anger. -“Not unless they are dethroned.”</p> - -<p>“Is it your Majesty’s ambition to wear these crowns?”</p> - -<p>The King laughed shortly.</p> - -<p>“I want nothing but to punish my enemies,” he replied. “What are crowns -to me?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_110" id="page_110"></a>{110}</span></p> - -<p>Boastful as the words sounded, Count Piper believed they were sincere; -he had already seen how, in the defeat of Denmark, Karl had astonished -the world by demanding nothing for himself, and he could credit that -Karl was capable of exhausting his country and spending himself in the -effort to gain countries only to give them away when he had conquered -them; he did not want Russia, only the pleasure of dethroning the Czar; -he had no desire to reign over Poland, only the wish to seize that -country from Saxony.</p> - -<p>“I think your Majesty is wrong,” said the minister. “As one who was your -father’s friend and is the friend of Sweden, forgive me if I say so, -sire, if you stop now you are safe and glorious, if you go on, it may be -to disaster.”</p> - -<p>The King winced at the sound of that word which no one had ever dared to -utter to him before.</p> - -<p>“When I have humbled these two kings and punished one other we may talk -of peace,” he said curtly. “I speak of John Rheinhold Patkul.”</p> - -<p>His fair face, so beautiful in line, but so devoid of expression as to -lack all attraction, hardened into an aspect of sheer cruelty new to -Count Piper; the King whose first act had been to abolish judicial -torture from his statute books had hitherto been considered as of a -merciful disposition, nor had his campaigns been stained even by the -usual excesses of war; yet his look as he spoke of the Livonian was one -of fierce hate and cruelty.</p> - -<p>“Before I return to Stockholm,” he added, “Patkul must——”</p> - -<p>He paused abruptly; it was evident that his cold magnanimity did not -extend to the man whom he regarded as a rebel and a traitor.</p> - -<p>“Both Peter and Augustus are pledged to defend Patkul,” said Piper; “it -is not likely that he will be taken by your Majesty—he is too wary and -skilful.”</p> - -<p>“I will force Augustus to deliver him to me,” said Karl, still with that -ugly look on his face.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_111" id="page_111"></a>{111}</span></p> - -<p>“Your Majesty would make that one of the terms of peace?” asked Count -Piper in a curious voice.</p> - -<p>“The first condition. And, Count, it is useless for us to converse -further. I have never liked talking. And my mind is made up about the -future. And I was always tolerably resolute in my decisions nor likely -to be moved in any way from my resolves.”</p> - -<p>It was the end between King and minister; these words were as a -dismissal to Count Piper; he saw that Karl was set upon a path entirely -different to that followed by his father; his aim was the pursuit of -fantastic dreams of purposeless and costly conquest—he would make war -neither for the defense nor the aggrandizement of his country, but -merely to suit his own ideas of kingly occupation, his own secret ideals -of ambition and glory; he would probably ruin his country and might do -considerable harm to mankind, but he could not be stopped from the mad -use of the power which he held in his hands; at that moment Piper -disliked him; he was alienated by this cold obstinacy and by the look -and manner of Karl when he had spoken of Patkul; the minister would -almost rather have served Peter whose aims were progressive, not -obstructive, and whose madnesses were never without an object, and whose -cruelties were never cold-blooded but the result of inflamed passions.</p> - -<p>He turned away and took a brief leave.</p> - -<p>“An extraordinary man,” he said to himself, as he left the King’s -presence, “but there is no true greatness in him.”</p> - -<p>Karl, on his part, was equally disgusted with Count Piper.</p> - -<p>“I want no politicians about my camp,” he told his brother-in-law that -evening. “We are soldiers with soldiers’ work to do,” and he began to -discuss his plans for an advance on Cracovia and Varsovia.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_112" id="page_112"></a>{112}</span></p> - -<h3><a name="BOOK_IV" id="BOOK_IV"></a>BOOK IV<br /><br /> -AURORA VON KÖNIGSMARCK</h3> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">“Sylve paludes, aggeres, hostes, victi.”—<i>Medal of Karl XII.</i></p></div> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_I-d" id="CHAPTER_I-d"></a>CHAPTER I</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">“I</span> THINK you have no idea of the confusion of my affairs—nor of their -apparent hopelessness. I speak of them to you because you are the only -person whom I can trust.”</p> - -<p>Thus Augustus to Aurora, and in these words she read his confession of -utter defeat; she was deeply vexed; for some time past she had displayed -ill-humor at the growing discomforts and perils of her situation; she -was now at Varsovia, a barbaric place that she disliked, where Augustus -had come to attend the Polish Diet that he had been forced to convoke. -It was midwinter, and she sat over the fire in the huge stone chamber -that was so difficult to warm, her great coat of lemon-colored velvet -lined with white fur, thrown open on her lace gown, and the leaping glow -of the firelight all over her bright beauty.</p> - -<p>She knew that perhaps her principal hold on Augustus was her good -temper, and seldom was she betrayed into anger; but now her -disappointment made her answer sharp.</p> - -<p>“Why do you not abandon Poland and return to Saxony?” she asked.</p> - -<p>The King-Elector looked at her reproachfully.</p> - -<p>“Is that your comfort?” he asked.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_113" id="page_113"></a>{113}</span></p> - -<p>“I think that it is very good advice,” she replied, controlling herself -not to speak bitterly.</p> - -<p>Augustus, who looked tired and haggard (he was indeed more fitted to be -the head of a brilliant court, the patron of arts and letters, than to -confront these troublous times), flushed with rising annoyance.</p> - -<p>“It is useless to discuss with you, Madame,” he said, “what you are too -flippant to understand——”</p> - -<p>“Oh,” interrupted Aurora, “do I not understand that I am at Varsovia in -midwinter, cold and dull? That you are always ill-humored and absorbed -in affairs, and that I have no company beyond Hélène who is love-sick, a -parrot, and a monkey?”</p> - -<p>Augustus rose from his seat by the great oak table.</p> - -<p>“Very well,” he said quietly, “you had better return to Dresden, Madame. -It is true that here I can give you no comfort. It is also true that I -must remain—my crown, all my fortunes and perhaps my life, depend on -these events.”</p> - -<p>Aurora bit her lip in vexation at her own peevishness; she scorned -fretful women, and she was moved by her lover’s gentle response.</p> - -<p>She got up impulsively and held out her hands; a gorgeous creature in -her rich clothes and vivid loveliness, illuminated by the tawny light of -the flaming pine knots.</p> - -<p>“Forgive me,” she said quickly. “I am ashamed of myself. I have been -idle and frivolous, tell me how I can help.”</p> - -<p>He kissed her hands in instant gratitude; he had always found her his -best friend; she was more intelligent, perhaps more courageous than he, -but she had managed never to offend him with her superiority, and she -always soothed him with her firmness and encouraged him with her high -spirits.</p> - -<p>She smiled now with a certain tenderness at this magnificent-looking -prince who was so downcast and so almost helpless; in her wild heart she -perhaps a little despised him; certainly he was not her ideal hero, for<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_114" id="page_114"></a>{114}</span> -all his strength and handsomeness and charm, but both out of kindness -and interest she was his ally.</p> - -<p>“Come,” she said, “forget, sire, that I am a woman, and talk to me as if -I was your minister.”</p> - -<p>She took the seat at the table he had just left and drew her coat round -her, leaning back and looking at Augustus, who remained standing by the -fire.</p> - -<p>“My dear,” he answered, “I do not know if affairs could be much worse.”</p> - -<p>“This Diet is not going to help you?”</p> - -<p>“Would to God I had never had to summon it!” exclaimed the King-Elector. -“The King of Sweden has as much influence there as I!”</p> - -<p>“Ah!” murmured Aurora, “they are not loyal to you, these Polish -princes?”</p> - -<p>“There is not one man in Poland loyal to me,” replied Augustus bitterly; -“this cursed war has alienated all of them.”</p> - -<p>The Countess knew that good statecraft would have foreseen this; Poland, -afraid of Sweden and jealous of its Saxon King, was fiercely resentful -of a war bound to end in her subjugation either at the hands of Karl XII -or at those of her own elected monarch; the remnants of the Saxon troops -who had survived the battle of Riga Augustus had had to send back to -Saxony to quiet the Poles, and for the same reason he had been obliged -to call a Diet when he wished to raise an army.</p> - -<p>Aurora, remembering the time and money spent on acquiring the crown of -Poland, wondered if the bargain had been a good one for Augustus, who, -used to being an absolute ruler in his own hereditary dominions, found -himself little more than head of a Republic in Poland.</p> - -<p>“Who are your enemies in the Diet?” she asked gently.</p> - -<p>“Leczinski, of course, the Lubomirski, and the Sobieski—these and their -followers are all secretly with the King of Sweden, and, naturally,” -added<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_115" id="page_115"></a>{115}</span> Augustus, with, for him, considerable heat, “Cardinal -Radziekowski is playing his own game which is not mine.”</p> - -<p>“In brief,” said Aurora, “these Poles are seizing this moment for their -own intrigues; they consider you as more dangerous than Karl, and would -as willingly see you overthrown.”</p> - -<p>This plain view of the case slightly startled Augustus, but he had to -admit that it was true.</p> - -<p>“And there is the revolt in Lithuania,” he added gloomily. “The Sapieha -and the Oginski at each other’s throats—my troops in fugitive parties -living on rapine because I have not the money to pay them——”</p> - -<p>“You cannot summon the Polish nobles to raise their followers on your -behalf?”</p> - -<p>“I dare not—for it would be to risk a refusal.”</p> - -<p>Aurora bit her lip.</p> - -<p>“But you have the Polish army.”</p> - -<p>“There are only 18,000 men—not paid, not armed—and their generals -uncertain whether to fight for me or Sweden!”</p> - -<p>“And every one knows this?”</p> - -<p>“I fear that my weakness is but too apparent—see how they have forced -my hand in the matter of the Diet!”</p> - -<p>“And you dare not bring back the Saxon troops?”</p> - -<p>“It would be the excuse and the signal for a general revolt in Poland,” -replied the King-Elector.</p> - -<p>Aurora von Königsmarck mentally cursed Poland; she had been perfectly -content in Dresden before ambition had urged Augustus into this -troublesome glory.</p> - -<p>“What will the Diet do?” she asked, suppressing her irritation and -speaking with gentleness.</p> - -<p>Augustus began pacing up and down the room.</p> - -<p>“Who can tell?” he replied wearily, “intrigues and -counter-intrigues—all irresolute, all crying out for freedom and -justice and none knowing where to look for<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_116" id="page_116"></a>{116}</span> it! Meanwhile everything -goes to ruin while they are talking, and the King of Sweden advances -daily deeper into the country.”</p> - -<p>Aurora frowned; hitherto, with a woman’s evasiveness, she had refused to -glance at the state of matters in Poland; now she forced herself to face -them, and to apply all her intelligence to helping her lover in what -seemed indeed a desperate pass.</p> - -<p>“And the Czar?” she asked.</p> - -<p>“The Czar needs assistance himself,” said Augustus grimly.</p> - -<p>“But the Muscovites? Did you not tell me that he was sending some men -into Lithuania?”</p> - -<p>The King-Elector became angry at the thought of this, the sole fruit of -the secret treaty of Birsen.</p> - -<p>“He has sent some villains who are doing more damage than the Swedes,” -he replied hotly. “They have turned freebooters, and are utterly deaf to -discipline and orders—’tis but so many marauders the more in the -wretched kingdom, and yet further inflames the Poles.”</p> - -<p>Aurora could not forbear a smile.</p> - -<p>“There are the troops you were to train?” she asked.</p> - -<p>“Yes, God help me, and now they are here I have not a single Saxon -officer available—not that a corps of Turenne’s veterans could train -these savages!”</p> - -<p>Aurora knew, though she forbore to mention it, that Augustus had failed -to fulfil his side of the bargain, and had not been able to raise a -single regiment of the German troops promised to Peter, nor to pay him -anything for the maintenance of the Muscovites sent into Lithuania.</p> - -<p>“So you see,” added the Elector, with rather a bitter smile, “that my -position is desperate on all sides.”</p> - -<p>“Come here,” smiled Aurora.</p> - -<p>He crossed to her chair; she took his hand and pressed her soft cheek -against his rings and ruffles.</p> - -<p>“My poor dear,” she said caressingly. “I wonder<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_117" id="page_117"></a>{117}</span> if I can help you now, -to return a little all the joy you have given me?”</p> - -<p>She would have kissed his hand, but he prevented her, eagerly lifted her -face and kissed her lips.</p> - -<p>“What have I done for you!” he cried. “Why, you have gilded all my -life!”</p> - -<p>“You have been very good to me,” she said, a little wistfully. “Men can -be so cruel. I think you hardly know how grateful women are for -kindness.”</p> - -<p>He smiled tenderly; his handsome face lightened of half its care as he -looked at her.</p> - -<p>“Not women like you, Aurora!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, women like me,” she replied. “Why—you might get tired of me.” She -caught her breath a little. “I might fade—I am not as pretty as I -was—but you——”</p> - -<p>“Aurora—I adore you.”</p> - -<p>“Thank you,” said the Countess unsteadily. “Thank you for loving me. -That is why I want to help you—you have made life wonderful to me by -your love——”</p> - -<p>He dropped his hands to her shoulders and she looked up at him.</p> - -<p>“And you—have you not loved me, Aurora?” he asked.</p> - -<p>“Oh, a woman’s love does not count!”</p> - -<p>Augustus did not understand her mood, he was not a man to nicely read a -woman’s complexities; and the next second Aurora did not understand it -herself, and was lifting her shoulders with a laugh both for her words -and his bewilderment.</p> - -<p>“I am a silly creature,” she said lightly, “but I only seek to please -you.”</p> - -<p>She gently drew herself away, rose and went to the fire; the yellow -coat, the gleaming hair, dressed in long, smooth curls slightly -disordered and falling over the smooth white fur; the proud air and -bearing of her, the piquant, gay face, made a fair picture in the -brilliant glow that shone on her from head to foot and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_118" id="page_118"></a>{118}</span> threw her -figure, a thing of light against the gloomy background of the room, -darkening in the fading light of the winter afternoon.</p> - -<p>“Now—my advice,” she said. “I wonder—will you take it?”</p> - -<p>Augustus smiled at her; his handsome face was no longer troubled as he -gazed at this brilliant, darling companion of his; his distresses that -sat lightly enough on him anyhow were almost forgotten as he -contemplated her courage and her gaiety.</p> - -<p>“Tell me,” he answered gently.</p> - -<p>There was something of challenge, almost of defiance in her beautiful -eyes as she replied, but she spoke very sweetly.</p> - -<p>“You must make peace with Karl.”</p> - -<p>Augustus did not speak.</p> - -<p>“Of course you will have to take his terms, but it seems to be his rôle -to be generous,” continued the Countess. “And better be at his mercy -than at that of the Poles, your own subjects.”</p> - -<p>Augustus thought so too; it was not very pleasant to contemplate -humbling himself before the boy King whom he had hoped to conquer so -easily, but his pride was not very deep-seated, and he bore no rancor -against anyone, not even against the man who had defeated him; if he -could purchase ease and safety by submitting to Karl he was ready to do -so without any bitterness, and, as Aurora suggested, it was easier to -accept terms from a fellow-monarch than from his own subjects.</p> - -<p>“You must open negotiations at once before you lose everything,” -continued the Countess quickly.</p> - -<p>“But he will not listen—why should he?” returned Augustus doubtfully.</p> - -<p>“If the ambassador is well chosen he will listen.”</p> - -<p>“But it is no object to him to make peace,” said the King-Elector -uneasily. “Doubtless he will prefer the glory of overrunning Poland and -possibly Saxony.”</p> - -<p>Aurora did not yet mention what made her feel sure<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_119" id="page_119"></a>{119}</span> that the King of -Sweden might be brought to reason; she was sure that her project would -be distasteful to Augustus, and she was waiting her moment to broach it; -twisting one of her long ringlets round the slender fingers of her left -hand that sparkled with some of the Saxon jewels, she frowned into the -flames.</p> - -<p>“No,” added Augustus gloomily. “I see no hope—’tis a youthful captain, -intoxicated with success, inured and implacable by nature. I believe he -fights for glory, and nothing, to him, would be greater glory than the -conquest of Poland—by arms and by intrigues. He thinks to dethrone me -by means of factions—look how he has armed the Sapieha against me and -torn Lithuania with civil war——”</p> - -<p>“I know,” interrupted Aurora, curbing some impatience; it seemed to her -that Augustus went round and round the same points, in a confused -manner, which was irritating to her own clear mind that looked ahead to -ultimate issues. “But the trial might be made.”</p> - -<p>“It would have to be secret,” said the King-Elector, “and kept very -carefully from the ears of Patkul and the Czar.”</p> - -<p>“Naturally,” replied the Countess drily. “The Czar will be easily -hoodwinked; as for Patkul, it is he who is the cause of all this -trouble, if need be he must be sacrificed.”</p> - -<p>Augustus turned a startled face.</p> - -<p>“Patkul?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, Patkul, this adventurer who has embroiled us all!”</p> - -<p>“You mean that I should surrender him to Karl?”</p> - -<p>“If Karl demanded it.”</p> - -<p>“God forbid!” cried the King-Elector hastily.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Sweden would be merciful,” said Aurora impatiently, “as I told you, -it is his rôle.”</p> - -<p>“He would not be merciful to Patkul,” replied Augustus, “who, besides, -is Peter’s envoy, and sacred.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, bah!” exclaimed Aurora, with a flash of her<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_120" id="page_120"></a>{120}</span> gorgeous eyes. “What -is the Czar to you, or what has he done for you that he should be -considered?”</p> - -<p>“My honor and the law of nations——” began Augustus.</p> - -<p>The Countess speedily demolished this masculine defense.</p> - -<p>“Where,” she asked acutely, “was either, when you attacked the King of -Sweden?”</p> - -<p>As this action had been contrary to both, the King-Elector had nothing -to reply; rather pale, he stared at the ground.</p> - -<p>“You see,” added Aurora, anxious to soothe now that she had silenced, -“it is not, and never has been, any question of any law or any honor, -but simply of each man for himself in a desperate game.”</p> - -<p>Augustus sighed.</p> - -<p>“We need not raise the question of Patkul,” he said, with the evasion of -weakness.</p> - -<p>“We must,” replied the Countess. “For I believe it will be the first -thing the King of Sweden will demand, and we must know how to answer -him.”</p> - -<p>Augustus did not speak; he did not think it possible that he could ever -come so low as to deliver the man who trusted him to his enemy, but he -thought that Karl might be pacified with some apparent submission and -Patkul saved nevertheless.</p> - -<p>“As you said yourself,” continued Aurora, “matters are desperate, and we -cannot pause for niceties.”</p> - -<p>She cared nothing herself for anyone but the man who, at once her master -and her slave, was essential to her power and therefore to her -happiness; the terrors of war, the miseries of the peasantry, the -sufferings of the civilian populace, the bloodshed, the families ruined, -the lands laid desolate, did not touch Aurora von Königsmarck; her gay -and volatile nature did not even glance at the dark side of life.</p> - -<p>Already, in this bitter crisis, her spirits were rising at the thought -of the new exciting and brilliant part she intended to play with so much -success.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_121" id="page_121"></a>{121}</span></p> - -<p>Patkul was to her but a pawn in an elaborate and delicate game, and she -had completely forgotten Hélène D’Einsiedel.</p> - -<p>She went up to Augustus and laid her proud head against the laces on his -breast; tall as she was she hardly reached to his heart.</p> - -<p>Clasping him tightly in her lovely arms, and looking up at him, all soft -and smiling, she whispered: “I will be your envoy to Karl of Sweden!”</p> - -<p>Augustus remembered Peter’s words at Birsen, and caught hold of her -hands and held her away from him with a movement almost of anger.</p> - -<p>Aurora only laughed; she had foreseen this opposition and knew that in -the end, as always, she would have her own will.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_122" id="page_122"></a>{122}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_II-d" id="CHAPTER_II-d"></a>CHAPTER II</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">A</span>URORA VON KÖNIGSMARCK left the King-Elector’s presence more elated than -she had been since the Polish troubles began.</p> - -<p>Augustus had promised to allow her to conduct secret negotiations with -Karl; she was to travel as soon as possible to his camp, and through the -influence of Count Piper, an ancient friend of her family, she was to -obtain a private interview with Karl.</p> - -<p>The King-Elector was to offer to withdraw all claims to the Baltic -provinces and to renounce all alliances against Sweden, also, if need -be, to surrender Patkul, but this, Augustus stipulated, was to be done -in such a manner that Patkul should be enabled to escape to Russia.</p> - -<p>Aurora gave her promise; she was not greatly concerned for Patkul, she -thought that if she was able to influence Karl at all she could -influence him to be generous to the Livonian; but the thing weighed on -the mind of Augustus; his weakness, torn between honor and prudence, -caused him the acutest suffering his easy temperament had ever known.</p> - -<p>He went to attend one of the bitter stormy sittings of the Diet, sad and -sullen, unlike the gracious prince who had charmed Poland as much by his -gaiety and good-nature as by his gold and his soldiery.</p> - -<p>He was humiliated by the position in which he found himself, irritated -that Aurora had won his consent to expedients that he despised, and -tortured by inner doubts as to whether all concessions might not be in -vain, and Karl remain adamant even before the potent charms of Aurora.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_123" id="page_123"></a>{123}</span></p> - -<p>No such misgivings troubled Aurora von Königsmarck; neither the honor -nor the utility of what she had undertaken disturbed her, for she did -not perceive anything contemptible in what she did, and she felt assured -of her success.</p> - -<p>But as she turned up the narrow dark stairs to go to her own apartment, -she was startled by a slight figure leaning in an angle of the wall, and -a swift sensation, as of shame, touched her heart; the girl before her -was Hélène D’Einsiedel. Aurora had completely forgotten her, but now she -felt abashed before this child, her own favorite, to whom she had always -been a kind protector and patroness.</p> - -<p>“Come upstairs,” she said hastily, glad of the dark that concealed her -face. “You will get cold here; what a silly child it is.”</p> - -<p>The girl did not reply, she wore a dark pelisse over a dark dress, a -great hat that shaded her face and was but dimly seen in the shadow.</p> - -<p>“Come with me,” continued Aurora, her momentary uneasiness passing. “Why -have you been out this bitter day?”</p> - -<p>But even as she spoke she knew full well; General Patkul had been at -Varsovia to consult with Augustus, and was due to return to the theater -of war; Hélène had been to say good-bye.</p> - -<p>“You should have made him come to you—you are too fond of this man.”</p> - -<p>She took Hélène gently by the shoulder and led her upstairs.</p> - -<p>“He did come, he has been with me a long time,” said Hélène, in a -muffled voice. “And then I went with him a little way—it was good-bye.”</p> - -<p>“La, la,” replied the Countess, “one would think it was forever by your -voice!”</p> - -<p>They entered her apartments that clever French maids and valets had -arranged in tolerable imitation of the gorgeous chambers at Dresden. -Silk and wool tapestries covered the walls, delicate carpets the floors, -the graceful<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_124" id="page_124"></a>{124}</span> furniture, cushions, mirrors, and ornaments, without which -Aurora never traveled, were elegantly disposed, and a perfumed fire -burnt on the wide, old-fashioned hearth.</p> - -<p>A maid was just lighting the candles in their tall sticks of -tortoise-shell and gold, another was drawing the curtains of -sapphire-blue velvet across the windows, so shutting out the mournful -prospect of the winter evening.</p> - -<p>Hélène stood stupidly in the middle of the room looking at the fire; she -had neither gloves nor muff, and her little hands hung red and cold at -her side.</p> - -<p>Her face was pale and distressed, the black beaver hat falling -carelessly over her tangled curls, her pelisse was roughly dragged -together with a silver clasp fastened crookedly, and she wore her thin -house shoes which were slightly stained with dirty snow.</p> - -<p>“Come, child,” said Aurora kindly. “This grief and agitation are -useless. Nothing has happened.”</p> - -<p>“Things are terrible,” replied Hélène in a low, hurried voice. “You know -yourself that all goes as if to disaster. The armies broken, the country -in a turmoil—and he is leaving me.”</p> - -<p>On these childish words a sob broke her voice, and tears filled her eyes -already reddened with weeping.</p> - -<p>She seemed indifferent to the presence of the Countess and the two -chamber women, and continued to stare into the fire, raising her clasped -trembling hands to her quivering lips while the tears fell on to her -knuckles.</p> - -<p>Aurora wanted to say “Patkul is safe,” but the words stuck in her -throat, even though she quieted her conscience by the resolve that by -some underhand means the Livonian must be saved.</p> - -<p>She shivered a little in her warm coat, and spread out her fair hands to -the fire.</p> - -<p>“It is hard for all of us,” she said evenly. “Do you think, dear, that I -like Varsovia? And as for<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_125" id="page_125"></a>{125}</span> the Elector he is more ill-natured than I -have ever known him; I wish he would go to the war and rid me of his -moods. These wretched Poles are giving a great deal of trouble, and -there is no denying that for the moment the King of Sweden has the -advantage.”</p> - -<p>“Patkul thinks there is no hope at all for Livonia,” murmured Hélène. -“He saw in the battle of the Dwina what these Swedes are.”</p> - -<p>“I think my countrymen are tolerably good soldiers,” said the Countess.</p> - -<p>The Saxon girl disliked her for this remark, and turned away abruptly; -the beautiful, comfortable room seemed to her hateful; she ran to the -door, pulled it open, and fled down the dark stairs; she heard the -Countess’s voice half-laughing, half-angry, raised in protest, but she -took no heed; nothing mattered to her now in the world but the fact that -she must see her lover again before a separation that, some dreadful -premonition told her, would be long if not eternal.</p> - -<p>She could not explain to herself why she was so terrified and -overwrought; this love of hers, born amid the tumults of wars and -factions, had known many bitter partings and long absences, but youthful -hope and joy had hitherto kept her immune from the terrors that assailed -her to-night. She must see him again; it was as if her body moved -without motion, so strong was the force of the spirit within, as if the -cold night air carried her, a disembodied creature, to his side.</p> - -<p>It was now nearly dark, the town full of soldiery and discontented -civilians; Hélène did not notice these things nor yet the bitter cold; -she hastened along the frozen roads, the dried snow flying from beneath -her feet, the fresh snow, beginning to drift in flakes from the leaden -sky, falling on her dark clothes and chilled face and hands.</p> - -<p>She found the house where he lodged; it was not far from the residence -of the King-Elector. At the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_126" id="page_126"></a>{126}</span> sight of the light in the windows the blood -seemed to stir in her body again; he was still there; she would see him -again, nothing seemed to matter but that the whole future narrowed to -this moment of their meeting.</p> - -<p>A Polish soldier was just leaving the house. Hélène brushed by him, -stepped into the dim-lit hall, and asked the Livonian servant standing -there for his master.</p> - -<p>Before the man had time to reply General Patkul appeared in the doorway -of a room immediately inside the entrance.</p> - -<p>They advanced towards each other, and he seized her in his arms and -almost carried her into the room.</p> - -<p>It was a small rough chamber, lit by an oil lamp and a log fire; some -half-packed valises lay on the floor and the table was strewn with -papers, portfolios, and maps.</p> - -<p>He expressed no surprise at thus seeing her again so soon after their -farewell, but, caressing her, led her to the great chair with arms by -the fire, threw back her damp coat, and chafed her cold hands.</p> - -<p>“I had to come,” she murmured, looking up at him in speechless joy. “You -know that, do you not?”</p> - -<p>“I have been thinking of you so it seems as if you had never left me,” -he answered; his whole face and neck had flushed, and his narrowed -short-sighted eyes had darkened till they looked black as he gazed at -her. “You come between me and everything, Hélène, even my unfortunate -country.”</p> - -<p>“You must not go,” she said, with sudden energy, “it is quite -impossible—do you hear?”</p> - -<p>“Darling—I leave to-morrow morning. Presently I will take you home in a -sledge and you will dream of me, knowing that I am happy in the thought -of you, and in that I am doing my plain duty.”</p> - -<p>As he spoke, with great tenderness and the gravity of an ardent -enthusiast, he went on his knees, and taking<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_127" id="page_127"></a>{127}</span> her little cold slippered -feet in his hands, rubbed them and held them nearer to the fire.</p> - -<p>“What do I know of duty?” asked Hélène desperately. “I want to be -happy.”</p> - -<p>“You have never spoken like this before, my dearest.”</p> - -<p>“I have never been so frightened before.”</p> - -<p>“Frightened?”</p> - -<p>He lifted his honest gray eyes, so shining with noble love to the frail -face bending towards him; she touched the curls of his blond peruke that -hung on his breast.</p> - -<p>“Yes, frightened, John.”</p> - -<p>“Why?”</p> - -<p>“That I could not tell. But you do not think these things are foolish, -do you? When I had left you just now I felt that I could not bear it—it -was like someone tearing my limbs from me—as if I had to follow you or -die—as—as if—I might never see you again——”</p> - -<p>Her words stumbled over one another. She grasped the lapels of his -soldier’s coat; her pleading eyes were fixed on his face with an -expression of passionate entreaty.</p> - -<p>“Oh, you will stay—you will not leave me!”</p> - -<p>“My dear, my dear!” he cried deeply moved, “this must not be—you will -unman me.”</p> - -<p>He rose and raised her to his breast, clasping her tightly; he dared not -voice the agony in his heart, how he entirely longed to keep her now -that she had flown back to him—how wrong and wicked all further parting -seemed, and how utterly paltry all his schemes and duties seemed beside -the fact that they were together, and the wish that they should be -forever together.</p> - -<p>For he loved her as stern men, engrossed in affairs and indifferent to -feminine influence, will sometimes love one woman—with complete trust -and devotion.</p> - -<p>He had never known what life could mean until he met her; she made his -former pleasures appear pale, his former work dry and purposeless; she -infused into his whole life color and joy and beauty.</p> - -<p>And she must be foregone.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_128" id="page_128"></a>{128}</span></p> - -<p>He looked ahead into the future and saw it dark and uncertain, and -wished that he did not enjoy such perilous greatness, and that his lot -had been cast in times less fierce and turbulent.</p> - -<p>Now that he held her, trembling, but content against his own -wildly-beating heart, the task he had undertaken seemed so difficult as -to be impossible; Livonia was in a worse plight than she had been when -he undertook her liberation; the huge conspiracy against Karl XII which -had cost so much toil and pains had only succeeded in rousing a captain -who made North Europe tremble, and in settling the Swedish yoke more -firmly on the necks of the wretched people of the Baltic Provinces.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps I had better have left it all alone—perhaps I was not born to -do my country this service!” he exclaimed.</p> - -<p>Hélène looked up at him, pressing her flushed face closer to the -braidings on his uniform.</p> - -<p>“You must not go, you are safe here,” she answered, as if reassuring -him.</p> - -<p>He laughed tenderly at her feminine point of view; he had not been -thinking of his personal safety, but of the fierce disappointment of his -apparent failure.</p> - -<p>“I am in no danger,” he said, to comfort her; and he believed what he -said; not only was he the Czar’s envoy but he trusted, without question, -the protection of Augustus, nor did he even imagine for a moment that -the King-Elector would enter into secret peace negotiations with Karl.</p> - -<p>Hélène also had faith in the people who had always been her friends and -protectors; it would have been impossible for her to suspect Aurora von -Königsmarck of treachery; yet she felt this tremendous though vague -uneasiness as to her lover’s safety.</p> - -<p>He saw the trouble in her sweet eyes which were wide and bewildered like -those of a child in pain.</p> - -<p>“Do you not think that I shall be as safe in Dresden as in Varsovia?” he -asked.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_129" id="page_129"></a>{129}</span></p> - -<p>“You are going to Dresden?”</p> - -<p>“Eventually, dear. I return to the army in Saxony with messages from -Augustus. Then I wish to see the Czar. My greatest hope is in him——”</p> - -<p>“God preserve him,” said Hélène simply. “What will he do for you?”</p> - -<p>“More than Augustus, I think. He is a man of genius. A tyrant, of -course—no more a lover of liberty than Karl—but he serves our ends. -Give him time and he will beat Sweden.”</p> - -<p>“How happy you will be that day!” smiled the girl.</p> - -<p>“If it means the freedom of Livonia,” he replied, looking at her -earnestly.</p> - -<p>Neither were paying much attention to what they were speaking of; they -were thinking only of each other, of the wonder of these few moments and -the long dark separation ahead of them; each in their heart was crying -out against this parting; clinging to each other they spoke quietly to -steady themselves and prolong these last farewells.</p> - -<p>But now she could talk no more of politics, not even of those with which -her lover’s life and happiness were bound up.</p> - -<p>“When shall I see you again?” she stammered.</p> - -<p>In silence he gazed at her; his short-sighted eyes narrowed as he dwelt -on every lineament of the beloved face.</p> - -<p>“What is the need of this?” whispered Hélène. “Why should one suffer?”</p> - -<p>“Love, we part to meet again—if it was forever you might weep——”</p> - -<p>“Supposing it was forever?” the dreadful thought transfixed her; she -drew herself away from his embrace, her face sharp and pale, “but, of -course, I should die,” she added, with a little sigh of relief.</p> - -<p>He could not trust himself to answer her; taking his hands from her -shoulders he turned abruptly away across the plain dismal room.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_130" id="page_130"></a>{130}</span></p> - -<p>The fire was burning low and the air was becoming cold; the outside -night showed in the black squares in the uncurtained windows; now and -then the red reflection of a passing torch or lantern glimmered across -the shadowed room.</p> - -<p>Patkul stared at the fine frost flowers hardening on the glass; he had -his back to Hélène; she took off her hat which had fallen back on to her -tangled hair, mechanically arranged her curls, and replaced the hat; -then with stiff fingers she fastened the pelisse.</p> - -<p>She was too young and simple to lament against destiny or to endeavor to -alter her fate with violent hands; her court training and the society of -Aurora von Königsmarck had not altered the direct outlook and -conventional point of view of her young girl’s heart and mind.</p> - -<p>She had been taken out of herself, inasmuch as she had come to him now -spurred by the awful desolation, the unexplainable sense of disaster -that had torn her soul; now she could do no more; she did not know how -to deal with the moment, but stood stupidly arranging her hat and -buttoning her pelisse in dumb wretchedness.</p> - -<p>He thought wildly of taking her with him, of marrying her without delay -or ceremony; his heart contracted as he imagined her always with him—as -Marpha was with Peter—or Aurora with Augustus—his companion, his -consolation, and his hope in all his adventures. Sweetening even -ultimate defeat, if it must be, or glorifying ultimate victory into a -happiness more than mortal.</p> - -<p>He looked at her, strode over to her, took her by the shoulders and -turned her round, forcing her to look at him; slender and frail she -quivered under his grasp.</p> - -<p>The agony of question in his gaze met no response from hers which was -full of nothing but blank, sad love.</p> - -<p>He knew that if he asked her she would come—he<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_131" id="page_131"></a>{131}</span> knew that he could not -ask her; “when the war is over I will marry her,” he thought, and -stilled his heart with that.</p> - -<p>Very gently he kissed her cold face.</p> - -<p>“I must take you home,” he said.</p> - -<p>“I will try to be brave,” replied Hélène.</p> - -<p>They went together to the door; the darkness was thick with snow; he -sent his servant for the sledge and they had another moment alone; but -neither spoke.</p> - -<p>Hélène felt suddenly very tired, almost drowsy; she was exhausted by her -strong emotion to the point of apathy.</p> - -<p>When the sledge came she stepped in obediently; there was a brief ride -through the cold and the dark; his chilled lips on her chilled cheek, -some stammering words and they had parted. She could hear the jingling -of his sledge-bells as she returned to her room; she seemed to be in a -world empty of everything but that one sound.</p> - -<p>Aurora von Königsmarck looked from the door of her brilliantly lit room; -she had gay words on her lips, but after glancing at the girl’s face she -went back silently to her place by the perfumed fire.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_132" id="page_132"></a>{132}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_III-d" id="CHAPTER_III-d"></a>CHAPTER III</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">A</span>URORA VON KÖNIGSMARCK, accompanied by a few servants and a small escort -of Saxon cavalry, traveled secretly to the Swedish camp in Lithuania.</p> - -<p>Karl was advancing on Grodno, and the affairs of Augustus looked daily -more unfortunate; at the last moment he had wished to stop this journey -of the Countess, and to send a formal embassy in his own name and that -of the Polish Republic to ask the conqueror’s peace terms.</p> - -<p>But Aurora was resolute that this depth of humiliation should not be -reached, and confident that Karl could be persuaded to private means of -agreement with Augustus.</p> - -<p>In any case she was determined to try her influence on a man so singular -and so famous.</p> - -<p>“It has certainly never seen a woman like me,” she repeated to herself, -not with vanity but as the calm statement of a fact.</p> - -<p>She had no difficulty in obtaining an audience of Count Piper.</p> - -<p>The minister was cynically interested in her mission; he was now no -longer in the confidence of his master (if indeed he had ever been so), -and performed his duties as a servant, not as a friend; perhaps he -faintly disliked the King; in any case he was grimly amused at the idea -of exposing Karl to the fascinations of a woman like Aurora von -Königsmarck and facing the fair Countess with a man like the King.</p> - -<p>He offered her little hope.</p> - -<p>“The King is bent on conquest,” he said. “He has<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_133" id="page_133"></a>{133}</span> no idea of a tame -peace, but intends to dethrone all his enemies.”</p> - -<p>“The dreams of a boy,” replied Aurora.</p> - -<p>Count Piper shrugged.</p> - -<p>“A boy who will carry out his dreams or perish, Madame.”</p> - -<p>“So obstinate?” she smiled, “and has he no weaknesses, this hero?” she -added, with an inflection of light scorn.</p> - -<p>The minister smiled; he saw her superb confidence in her radiant beauty -and brilliant intelligence, in her experience and charm; he thought that -her perfections would be wasted on the man who had received without a -change of color the news of the death of the only woman in whom he had -ever been interested.</p> - -<p>“I do not say that I do not wish you good fortune, Madame,” he said, -“for myself there are other things besides war. And I should be glad of -a peace. As for the King, I know little of him, for all that I have -watched him since a child—or else there is little to know. He has no -friends, and no favorites, and since the war began I have not known him -influenced.”</p> - -<p>“He is so young,” remarked Aurora, “do you think this military austerity -will last all his life?”</p> - -<p>“<span class="lftspc">’</span>Tis a hard race,” replied the Count, “but as you say—he is young.”</p> - -<p>“Let me see him,” urged Aurora, “my mission can but move and alter -him—if he would play Alexander he must be prepared for the family of -Darius.”</p> - -<p>“I will do my utmost,” said Count Piper, and with sincerity; but he was -soon piqued by finding that he had promised too easily; Karl absolutely -refused to see Aurora von Königsmarck.</p> - -<p>“Why should I talk to a woman on this business?” he said. “If Augustus -wants peace let him send a man to ask for it.” Without the least emotion -he resisted the Count’s efforts to persuade and induce him to see the -fair ambassadress.</p> - -<p>“She will think you are afraid of her,” remarked the Count, with some -malice.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_134" id="page_134"></a>{134}</span></p> - -<p>“I have no doubt a woman’s vanity would go that length,” replied the -King calmly. “Tell her I am afraid of her,” he gave his ugly smile, “if -that will content her.”</p> - -<p>“Nothing will content her but an interview with your Majesty.”</p> - -<p>“Then she must leave dissatisfied,” said Karl, with an indifference more -hopeless to combat than open anger.</p> - -<p>The minister reported his ill-success to the Countess; she had not -expected that the King would refuse even to see her, and angry -disappointment nerved her with yet greater determination to gain her -object.</p> - -<p>“I will achieve my end by other means,” she said, and thanked Count -Piper for his useless services.</p> - -<p>Though she had been a week near the camp, lodging, most inconveniently, -in one of the little village houses, she had not yet seen the King, save -once when he had swept by with a number of his guards, and she had not -been able to distinguish his person.</p> - -<p>But she soon ascertained that it was his custom to ride abroad -unattended in the early morning and the afternoon, and she resolved to -encounter him on one of these occasions, and one day stationed herself -in her little light carriage on the road the King took most frequently.</p> - -<p>As soon as her servant pointed out a solitary horseman coming towards -them, saying, “The King of Sweden!” Aurora descended into the road still -covered with frozen snow, and put herself in the middle of the way, -holding her black fur mantle up from the road, and looking steadily up -under the broad brim of her beaver hat.</p> - -<p>The King approached, and, as soon as he saw her, sharply reined up his -iron-gray charger, sending the scattered snow over the lady.</p> - -<p>“Sire,” said Aurora, “I have never been a supplicant before; will you -not make it a little easy for a beggar and—a woman?”</p> - -<p>It was not quite what she had intended to say, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_135" id="page_135"></a>{135}</span> her voice faltered -more than she had meant it to, for she was taken aback by the -magnificent appearance and curious personality of the man to whom she -spoke.</p> - -<p>The King, with his plain uniform, black satin stock, remarkable face of -immobile, almost displeasing beauty, was totally different to her -preconceived notions of Karl.</p> - -<p>He had himself so well in hand that he did not even change color at her -address; he touched his hat in a stiff military salute, turned his -horse, deftly, and rode back the way he had come.</p> - -<p>It was a long while since the angry blood had rushed into Aurora’s face -as it did now, coloring her fair skin from throat to forehead.</p> - -<p>“So that is the King of Sweden!” she murmured. She shivered in her heavy -furs and mounted her carriage, gazing after the figure of the departing -horseman, clear against the pale tints of a sky colored with the first -blue of a Northern spring.</p> - -<p>She could do nothing but leave the scene of her defeat, but she did not -accept her discomfiture as final; at least now she knew his person and -could judge him, perhaps manage him better in consequence.</p> - -<p>He was her own countryman, yet this type of the pure Scandinavian was -fresh to her, after the many years she had lived abroad, and the -fairness, hardness, and strength of this man repelled her; he was as -powerful as Augustus and far more healthy; he sat his horse like a -creature of steel and iron, at one with the magnificent creature he rode -in power and purpose.</p> - -<p>No passions had ever marked his face, which expressed nothing but an -unfeeling calm and complete courage.</p> - -<p>It would be impossible to believe that that countenance could ever look -on the thing it feared.</p> - -<p>Aurora sighed; in her heart she admitted that she had never dealt yet -with a man of that quality; it would be the greater triumph to make him -swerve, if only for a second, from his inhuman fortitude.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_136" id="page_136"></a>{136}</span></p> - -<p>The next time the King of Sweden went abroad he found himself some miles -from the village, and in a narrow road face to face with a horse-woman -who took off her traveling mask and revealed the lovely features of -Aurora von Königsmarck. “Now will you speak to me, sire?” she asked -gravely, almost coldly.</p> - -<p>At least he looked at her; she directly barred his path and he could not -have turned, as he had done before, without glancing at her; his steady -blue eyes stared at her with calm repugnance.</p> - -<p>She was wrapped in a heavy white horseman’s cloak, with gray fur -gauntlets and a black beaver hat; her bright curls fell into the heavy -folds of the cloth, and her face looked pale and delicate as a snowdrop -above her winter attire; she rode a fine black horse, and her saddle and -harness were ornamented, in the Polish fashion, with brilliant colors of -red, yellow, and blue.</p> - -<p>“I am Aurora von Königsmarck,” she added, in the same tone; her soft -eyes were steady as those that gazed at her so coldly.</p> - -<p>“Madame, I recognized you—there is no other lady would trouble to set -herself in my path,” replied the King.</p> - -<p>“Your Majesty is greatly to be feared and greatly to be admired,” said -Aurora. “Do you not wonder at my courage in venturing to address you, -sire?”</p> - -<p>“You consider yourself invincible, Countess,” he replied, “therefore -your courage is only a sense of security.”</p> - -<p>She was studying him eagerly under the broad lids that drooped so -indifferently over her brilliant eyes; her purpose had gone into the -background of her mind; she was not thinking of him as the King of -Sweden who held the fate of her master in his hand, but as a man who -might or might not be won, and she noted his size, his fairness, the -severity of his dress, his curious face, his colorless voice with a -growing sense of antipathy and hopelessness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_137" id="page_137"></a>{137}</span></p> - -<p>“I only ask for the charity of a few words speech,” she said in French, -and then she recalled that though he was acquainted with that language -he obstinately refused to speak it, and she added hastily in Swedish, -“Will you not hear me, sire, a few moments?”</p> - -<p>He checked his horse that pawed the ground impatient to proceed, and -gave Aurora a chilling look.</p> - -<p>“On what subject should you have to speak to me?” he demanded.</p> - -<p>The Countess flushed, for all her self-command; she would liked to have -given him a glance as freezing as his own, and have ridden away before -he did so; she hated him for the disadvantage she was at—obliged to -conduct this interview on horseback, muffled in a heavy mantle, in the -open air and keen cold, half her graces concealed, half her charms -useless.</p> - -<p>“Has your Majesty’s success and glory taught you only to be cruel to the -unfortunate?” she asked, with a quiver in her voice.</p> - -<p>“On what matter could you have to speak to me?” repeated the King; he -gave a short unexpected laugh, and she was startled to see how it spoilt -and rendered unpleasant his handsome face. Aurora’s hand was forced.</p> - -<p>“I come from the King of Poland,” she said, with dignity.</p> - -<p>“You could not come on a more hopeless errand, then,” he replied. “I -discuss no politics with women, Countess.”</p> - -<p>“I am more in the King of Poland’s confidence than any of his -ministers,” she declared boldly.</p> - -<p>“That,” he said curtly, “is well known.”</p> - -<p>Aurora controlled herself, but her hands shook on the reins; never had -she been treated so boorishly by any man.</p> - -<p>“I come on a mission so delicate there was no one else could have been -trusted with it,” she answered. “You, sire, are not rendering my task -pleasant to me.”</p> - -<p>“Therefore I would have avoided you, Madame,” said Karl.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_138" id="page_138"></a>{138}</span></p> - -<p>“I have been trusted by King Augustus with this mission——”</p> - -<p>A look of scorn flashed over the Swede’s impassive face.</p> - -<p>“Does Augustus think I shall find you dangerous? Believe me, I do not.”</p> - -<p>Aurora quivered under the calm insult; all her weapons seemed powerless -before the freezing indifference of this boy; she felt as at a loss as -any inexperienced girl might have done.</p> - -<p>“Augustus offers peace,” she said desperately, almost choking over the -words. “Augustus begs for peace.”</p> - -<p>Karl’s proud eyes gleamed for a second, and his full lips curled.</p> - -<p>“Madame,” he replied, “I will discuss peace in Varsovia.”</p> - -<p>Before this implacable front Aurora shrank; he meant then to take the -capital?</p> - -<p>She knew that Augustus could not defend Varsovia, and her quick mind -foresaw the last misery of a flight to Saxony; she was quite aware that -the Poles would probably tolerate Karl at least as peacefully as they -did Augustus, and that the latter’s chances of retaining the crown were -indeed desperate.</p> - -<p>“Nay,” she said faintly, flinging back her head with a womanish gesture, -and holding out one little hand, from which she had stripped the heavy -glove, in an attitude of appeal. “Can one so great be so hard to the -fallen?”</p> - -<p>This was not the kind of compliment that flattered the iron pride of -Karl; it always irritated him that anyone should believe him capable of -being moved by fulsome flattery, and it was his particular weakness to -consider himself impervious to the wiles of man or woman.</p> - -<p>“Your horse will take cold, Madame,” he said. “I give you good day.”</p> - -<p>He saluted and was turning away; Aurora thought<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_139" id="page_139"></a>{139}</span> of her last card that -was to have been played in such a different manner, with so much more of -finesse and address.</p> - -<p>“I was empowered to treat on the subject of—General Patkul,” she -stammered.</p> - -<p>At that name Karl did stop and turn his head; he seemed amazed and -almost as if about to be betrayed into passionate speech, but he -controlled himself.</p> - -<p>“Would Augustus surrender Patkul?” he asked, in a curious tone.</p> - -<p>Aurora could not answer; she felt as if she had committed an incredible -baseness.</p> - -<p>“He would, eh?” added Karl, with a look that was like a blow in the face -to the proud woman to whom it was directed.</p> - -<p>“So that is your errand?” continued the King, still fixing her with a -hard and merciless stare that became increasingly contemptuous.</p> - -<p>“I have not stated my errand,” replied Aurora; her eyes flashed to meet -his and the blood stained her face. “From the manner in which your -Majesty treats a woman, I do not think you would be tender with a -rebel—need we therefore be so nice in discussing General Patkul?”</p> - -<p>“It is not in my nature to be tender,” said the King, with his ugly -smile. “I shall not be merciful either with Patkul nor yet with Augustus -of Saxony.”</p> - -<p>“Your Majesty makes a boast of cruelty, then? I had hoped one of your -nobleness would have been satisfied by having your enemy your -supplicant.”</p> - -<p>Her bosom heaved beneath the rough mantle and her face was beautiful in -her sincere indignation, flushed and vivid with feeling and emotion; but -she might have been a hag for all the effect she had on Karl of Sweden.</p> - -<p>“Peace in Varsovia, Madame,” he repeated sternly, and turned and -galloped away down the frosty road, this time without a salutation.</p> - -<p>Aurora gazed after the disappearing figure with eyes<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_140" id="page_140"></a>{140}</span> dimmed by tears of -passionate rage; she was cold and trembling, never had she believed -herself capable of any passion as strong as the hatred now inspired in -her haughty heart by this young man.</p> - -<p>“A hero!” she thought, “a boorish boy! a rude churl!”</p> - -<p>Slowly she turned back to her lodging; useless to expose herself to -further mortification—it would be only to repeat her failure, only to -madden herself for nothing.</p> - -<p>She must return to Varsovia and tell Augustus of her humiliation.</p> - -<p>The future appeared to her desperate; she did not even care to think of -it; this adamant and implacable prince clearly meant to conquer both -Poland and Saxony.</p> - -<p>Aurora saw her whole world tumbling into the dust of chaos; this man -would be the master of her fate; and she could do nothing with him; he -had looked at her with—first indifference, then contempt, and always as -if she had been old and ugly.</p> - -<p>In Augustus she had no hope; she knew that he was at the end of his -resources, and he had no personal qualities with which to inspire -confidence; she foresaw that his bewildered policies would lead to a -total overthrow of his fortunes, and that his submission would partake -of the nature of panic and thereby further gild the triumph of Karl.</p> - -<p>She felt angry with her lover for the failure that had placed her in -such a position of unendurable humiliation and insecurity.</p> - -<p>In her bitterness, as she rode slowly along the hard lonely road, the -cold skies above her and the unawakened landscape barren and still -frozen about her, her dominant thought was a regret, almost passionate -regret, that she had not attached her fortunes to those of a more -successful man than Augustus of Saxony.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_141" id="page_141"></a>{141}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_IV-d" id="CHAPTER_IV-d"></a>CHAPTER IV</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span>HE unhappy Augustus went swiftly on the path of disaster; when Aurora -von Königsmarck failed and returned making the best she could of a poor -tale, the King-Elector appealed to the Diet still sitting at Varsovia, -by means of one of his partisans, the Palatine of Marienbourg.</p> - -<p>He asked that the army of Poland might be placed at his disposition, -promising to pay the men two quarters in advance, and requested -permission to bring to the defense of the country 12,000 Saxons.</p> - -<p>Cardinal Radziekowski, Archbishop of Gnesne, Prime Minister of the -Realm, and President of the Diet, the most powerful enemy of Augustus, -and the most active partisan of the Sobieski, the family of the last -King of Poland, was eager enough to seize this opportunity of insulting -a king elected against his wish and who was an object of his keen -personal dislike; the answer he returned to the Palatine of Marienbourg -was dry and hard.</p> - -<p>“His Majesty was advised not to bring any Saxons into Poland as the Diet -was on the point of sending an embassy to the King of Sweden.”</p> - -<p>In this extremity Augustus resolved to throw himself once more on the -mercy of Karl; he privately sent a chamberlain to the Swedish camp to -inquire how and where the conqueror would receive an envoy from himself -and from Poland.</p> - -<p>This secret ambassador suffered an even severer reception than that -which had been accorded to the Countess von Königsmarck; as the -formality of the passport had been overlooked Karl put the chamberlain<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_142" id="page_142"></a>{142}</span> -in prison without seeing him, declaring that while he might listen to -the Republic he would not hear anything from King Augustus.</p> - -<p>The only consolation that this unfortunate prince had in his disasters -was that of seeing that the Republic was treated almost as harshly as -himself.</p> - -<p>Karl received the five senators sent by the Diet in his tent near -Grodno, with a pomp that was unusual to him—surrounded by his dragoons -and generals, seated on a throne, and clad in a rich uniform with -damascened cuirass; but the two spokesmen, Tarlo and Galesky, could, -after all, only obtain from him the sentence with which he had sent away -Aurora von Königsmarck that he would “discuss peace in Varsovia.”</p> - -<p>Flooding the country with manifestos, in which he declared that his -cause was identical with that of Poland, and that his arms were directed -solely against the Saxon, Karl marched on the capital.</p> - -<p>His propaganda was insidiously aided by the Cardinal Primate, and by -those numerous senators who were either secretly of his interest or -actively opposed to Augustus, who remained abandoned by all save the few -nobles who were of his party and the envoys of Peter, the Pope, and the -Emperor. His orders to the Polish nobility to take arms with their -followers and come to his assistance were ignored while the Poles -hesitated, watching with more satisfaction than dismay, the daily -advance of the conqueror.</p> - -<p>Even those senators loyal to Augustus would not consent to his calling -in his Saxons, but he had secretly commanded the 12,000 he had asked for -to advance to his aid, and had recalled another 8000 that he had -promised to the Emperor to use against France.</p> - -<p>He knew that to do this was to violate the Polish law that did not allow -him more than 10,000 foreign troops, and that he was risking a revolt -throughout the country, but his necessity was desperate, and he believed -that he had now little to lose in Poland.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_143" id="page_143"></a>{143}</span></p> - -<p>While he was waiting for the arrival of these troops he left Varsovia -and went from one Palatinate of Poland to the other, endeavoring to -secure the nobility on his behalf, and to raise some sort of an army -with which to face the conqueror. Meanwhile, Karl arrived before -Varsovia, which, not fortified and without a garrison, opened her gates -at once.</p> - -<p>The victor contented himself with disarming the citizens and exacting -the moderate tribute of 100,000 francs.</p> - -<p>Among the first to present himself before the Swedish King was Cardinal -Radziekowski, who had left Varsovia to withdraw to his residence at -Lowitz.</p> - -<p>Karl received him, without pomp or ceremony, in his headquarters, which -he had established at Praga, near the capital.</p> - -<p>The Cardinal Primate looked at this youthful hero with a curiosity equal -to that with which Aurora von Königsmarck had first gazed at him, and -with the same desperate desire and eager hope to turn him to his own -ends.</p> - -<p>These ends were directly in opposition to those of the fair Countess; he -labored to overthrow the crown she wished at all costs to preserve. Karl -was standing with his brother-in-law, Count Piper, and several generals, -distinguished from the others by his height and the plainness of his -attire; he wore his heavy blue cloth coat with gilt leather buttons, -black satin cravat, white breeches, high boots, and leather gloves that -came to the elbows; he had his hair short, in contrast to the flowing -perukes of the other gentlemen, and his still beardless face was browned -above his fair proper complexion. He advanced to meet the Cardinal with -an air of friendliness, but there was but little change in his cold -countenance and the steady gleam of his blue eyes.</p> - -<p>The Cardinal felt chilled, and faltered a little in the high-flown -compliments that he had prepared to salute the conqueror.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_144" id="page_144"></a>{144}</span></p> - -<p>“You have come to speak of peace?” asked Karl, cutting short his speech.</p> - -<p>“Your Majesty,” replied the Cardinal, with some difficulty, rallying his -wits in face of this personality so unusual and so unexpected, “Your -Majesty promised peace in Varsovia.”</p> - -<p>“I promised to discuss peace in Varsovia,” replied the young conqueror, -“and I shall keep my word.”</p> - -<p>The Cardinal bowed his head; it was difficult to know what to say before -such imperious abruptness.</p> - -<p>“Your Eminence represents Poland?” added Karl.</p> - -<p>“All save that portion that remains with King Augustus,” replied the -cautious priest.</p> - -<p>“You are of the Sobieski party?” demanded the King.</p> - -<p>“Sire, I have striven to be of no party, but the servant of Poland.”</p> - -<p>Karl smiled; he was tolerably well acquainted with the intrigues and -factions of the Republic, and, though he disdained politics, on this -occasion he had allowed Count Piper to meddle in the affairs of Poland, -greatly to his own advantage. He glanced at the Duke of -Holstein-Gottorp.</p> - -<p>“We have not come to impose terms on Poland, have we?” he said briefly, -then turned again to the Cardinal without waiting for the young Duke’s -assent. “My quarrel is not with Poland.”</p> - -<p>“We are, indeed,” replied the Cardinal, with some dignity, “unconscious -of any offense towards your Majesty.”</p> - -<p>“But your King,” said Karl, “waged on me a most unjust and aggressive -war. He must make reparation.”</p> - -<p>“Sire,” answered the Cardinal, with secret exultation, “he is in no -condition to refuse your Majesty’s terms.”</p> - -<p>“We have not yet come to the discussion of my terms,” responded the -King, with an increase of his freezing hauteur. “If your Eminence is the -mouthpiece of your country—I have only this to say—that I will give -Poland peace when she has elected another King.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_145" id="page_145"></a>{145}</span></p> - -<p>No words could have been more grateful to Cardinal Radziekowski, who was -the adherent of the Sobieski, and the man who had, in default of James -Sobieski, rendered too unpopular by the memory of his father’s faults to -be a possible candidate for the Polish throne, caused the Prince of -Conti to be elected, and would have crowned him but for the power of -Saxon arms and Saxon money.</p> - -<p>“You may tell, sir, your palatines and nobles this news,” added Karl -curtly. “If they require peace they know the means by which they can -attain it.”</p> - -<p>He moved away in a manner which seemed to terminate the interview that -had not lasted more than a few moments; but the Cardinal Primate hardly -noticed the abruptness of his dismissal in his satisfaction at the news -he could now carry all over Poland, with a fair certainty of dethroning -Augustus.</p> - -<p>“This priest,” remarked Karl to his brother-in-law, “will save us much -trouble. The Poles will themselves cast off the Saxon.”</p> - -<p>He looked as he spoke at one of the officers who had remained in the -window-place during his interview with the Cardinal.</p> - -<p>This was a young man of a frank and pleasing countenance and attired -very richly, Stanislaus Leczinski, Palatine of Posen, and one of the -first Poles to join Sweden; his behavior was stained by some ingratitude -towards Augustus, to whom he owed his fortune, but whose election he had -opposed on the ground that no foreigner should rule over Poland.</p> - -<p>Karl had already shown a marked interest in this young man, who was in -most things more youthful than himself though eight years his senior.</p> - -<p>It pleased his peculiar pride to give his friendship to one who could in -no wise requite it; and just because Stanislaus had little influence in -Poland and could be of no assistance worth considering to Karl, that -monarch favored him above the Sobieski and Sapieha whose power might -have been of immense<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_146" id="page_146"></a>{146}</span> service to him; Stanislaus had held the office of -treasurer under Augustus, but had little weight in politics beyond that -given by eloquence and hardihood.</p> - -<p>It was to this young noble who had so early reported himself at the camp -of the victor to whom Karl now addressed himself.</p> - -<p>“Do you not think,” he asked keenly, “that Augustus will soon be -dethroned?”</p> - -<p>“I think, sire, that he will, when he is desperate, fight,” replied -Stanislaus. “When the Cardinal Primate make public your Majesty’s -ultimatum, the Elector will make an effort to redeem his fortunes.”</p> - -<p>“I hope so,” said Karl dryly; “he needs a further lesson. Is he not now -at Cracovia?”</p> - -<p>It was Count Piper who answered.</p> - -<p>“The last advices are, sire, that he has gathered the nobility of that -province about him, and awaits the arrival of the Saxon troops.”</p> - -<p>“We will advance on Cracovia,” said Karl calmly, “and when we have taken -that city, we will decide the question of the crown of Poland.”</p> - -<p>With these words, spoken too dryly to savour of pomp or bombast, Karl -smiled at the young Palatine of Posen, and left the room with a brief -salute to the others.</p> - -<p>“He will make himself King of Poland,” said Stanislaus Leczinski, as the -door closed.</p> - -<p>“He will not,” answered Count Piper, with a touch of sarcasm in his -voice. “That would be too ordinary an exploit to please His Majesty’s -temper.”</p> - -<p>“What can he do more astonishing or more magnificent than to take a -crown from his enemy’s brow to place on his own!” exclaimed the young -Palatine, turning his frank, pleasant face towards the Swede. “And I for -the first,” he added, with genuine admiration in his voice, “would be -ready to acclaim him in the greatness that he has so nobly won.”</p> - -<p>“You do not know the King,” said Count Piper<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_147" id="page_147"></a>{147}</span> dryly. “His pride is to be -the arbiter of other men’s destinies—he would not consider himself made -greater by another crown; his is a lofty pride, and a strict if hard -code of honor; he would disdain to turn a defensive and punitive war -into one of conquest. You will see that, as in the treaty with Denmark, -he will ask nothing for himself—unless it be one thing.”</p> - -<p>“And that?” asked Stanislaus.</p> - -<p>“John Rheingold Patkul.”</p> - -<p>“The Czar’s envoy!”</p> - -<p>“To Karl a rebel—and undoubtedly the Livonian was the arch-conspirator -in this plot to despoil Sweden.”</p> - -<p>Stanislaus did not reply; his secret sympathies were with Patkul, whom -he believed to be sincerely working for his own oppressed country, but -his interest and his admiration lay with Karl; the strange figure of the -young conqueror fascinated his chivalrous and ardent nature, and he had -been flattered by the notice of so remarkable a man.</p> - -<p>His wish to see Karl King of Poland was sincere; this was the type of -king he desired for a country to which he was attached with a strong -affection; he had never liked the indolent good-natured Saxon.</p> - -<p>“Naturally,” added Count Piper, with a glance at the Swedish officers, -“I shall do my utmost to persuade His Majesty to accept the crown of -Poland if it is offered to him; it would be a safe, sound step that -would bring Sweden some return for the expense of this war—but the -King,” he added with meaning, “is not likely to take my advice.”</p> - -<p>The Palatine did not think any the worse of Karl for this; he was -headstrong and independent himself, and could appreciate that a man in -the position of intoxicating glory occupied by the King of Sweden would -refuse to be led by the advice of a mere politician.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps,” he said, with his native pleasantness, “we may be able to -move His Majesty to our wishes.”</p> - -<p>Smiling, he picked up his gaily-feathered hat, and went<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_148" id="page_148"></a>{148}</span> out to find the -King who he knew at this hour would be taking one of his lonely rides -round Praga.</p> - -<p>The action of Augustus was exactly that predicted by Stanislaus -Leczinski.</p> - -<p>When the Cardinal Primate informed the Diet that it was necessary to bow -to the will of the conqueror and dethrone the Elector of Saxony, that -Prince resolved on a desperate battle for his kingdom, and advanced to -meet Karl who was marching from Varsovia, the new capital, to Cracovia, -the ancient capital which had been chosen as the Saxon headquarters.</p> - -<p>Karl had 12,000 men, picked Swedish troops; Augustus, his own soldiers -having arrived, had 30,000, of whom 20,000 were those that had lately -arrived from his own electorate, and the rest the Poles who had remained -faithful to him during his reverses.</p> - -<p>In numbers he was therefore greatly superior to the King of Sweden, and -the Saxons were as well equipped, armed, and trained as the Swedes, but -such was the respect inspired by the invincible Karl that Augustus went -to meet his fate with a heavy heart.</p> - -<p>“Why does the Czar do nothing?” asked Aurora passionately, when her -lover took leave of her.</p> - -<p>“What of his hordes of Muscovites?” she added.</p> - -<p>Augustus smiled sadly.</p> - -<p>“Those troops he has sent I should be better without,” he replied. -“Peter trains his men—I know not when he will be ready. Think not of -aid from him, dear heart.”</p> - -<p>The proud-hearted woman clasped her fair arms round his bravery of satin -and steel, and raised her sad countenance to the kind handsome face that -looked at her so tenderly.</p> - -<p>But no words of love or softness left her beautiful lips.</p> - -<p>“If you do not defeat the King of Sweden, I think that I shall never -forgive you,” she said fiercely.</p> - -<p>Augustus, harassed, perplexed, and overwhelmed, took leave of her with -less than his usual affection.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_149" id="page_149"></a>{149}</span></p> - -<p>Hélène D’Einsiedel gave him a gentler “God-speed,” while she thanked God -in her heart that Patkul was in Russia; far away, but safe from the -approaching horror of battle, thought the poor girl, as she watched the -army leave Cracovia.</p> - -<p>In a few days came the news that Augustus had met Karl at Klissow, and -that despite a desperate resistance and heroic bravery, had suffered a -complete reverse, his stores, flags, artillery, falling into the hands -of the Swedes who drove him before them in headlong flight.</p> - -<p>Karl entered Cracovia as he had entered Varsovia, overwhelmed all by the -sheer terror of his arms, established a Swedish garrison, taxed the town -100,000 rix-dollars, and proceeded to follow Augustus who fled towards -Marienbourg.</p> - -<p>Livid with anger and despair Aurora von Königsmarck had rushed from room -to room of the palace, snatching her jewels, her gold and silver -ornaments, her tapestries and clothes, calling together her maids, -pages, dogs, and monkeys, and in hasty retreat with coaches and -baggage-mules, fled to Lublin, accompanied by Mdle. D’Einsiedel, whose -entire being was occupied in prayers for the safety of General Patkul.</p> - -<p>When the weary women reached their new place of refuge they were -relieved by the news that Augustus had a respite.</p> - -<p>Karl, hotly pursuing his enemy, had fallen from his horse and broken his -leg, which necessitated his return to Cracovia and would keep him -confined several weeks to his bed.</p> - -<p>“Now—if you have a man’s courage and a prince’s spirit—is your -opportunity,” wrote Aurora, in a fiery letter to the vanquished Prince, -who was striving to gather together once more his resources at -Marienbourg.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_150" id="page_150"></a>{150}</span></p> - -<h3><a name="BOOK_V" id="BOOK_V"></a>BOOK V<br /><br /> -THE ELECTOR AUGUSTUS</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“Victrices copias aliam laturus in orbem.”—<span class="smcap">Lucan.</span><br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_I-e" id="CHAPTER_I-e"></a>CHAPTER I</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span>HE Czar Peter listened in silence to the news from Poland; he had -appeared lately to have forgotten the war, and to have become entirely -absorbed in the building of his new city and fort on the mud-banks of -the Neva.</p> - -<p>Anxious to break the spirit of the Malo-Russians who had shown -themselves restive under his autocratic rule, he had transported -thousands of these men whose forced labor was draining the morass as a -preliminary to the foundations of the new city.</p> - -<p>That hundreds of them died through the unhealthfulness of the district -and the hard conditions of their life was nothing to the Czar.</p> - -<p>He had decided that the new capital was to be called St Petersburg, and -that the great fortress therein was to be named St. Peter and St. Paul -and used for the burial-place of the Czars of Russia, instead of the -church of St Michael in Moscow.</p> - -<p>When General Patkul joined his master at the little house called Marli, -he found, to his great disappointment, that Peter exhibited a moody -indifference with regard to the war and the astonishing conquests of -Karl XII.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_151" id="page_151"></a>{151}</span></p> - -<p>He was now often in his carpenter’s shed dressed like a Dutch skipper, -and working with his hands.</p> - -<p>“Karl could not do this,” he said one day to Patkul, who was surveying -his occupation with some dismay.</p> - -<p>“Do what, sire?” asked the Livonian.</p> - -<p>Peter touched the planes and lathes on the carpenter’s bench.</p> - -<p>“This,” he said. “No, he could not turn a table-leg—nor found a city.”</p> - -<p>“He can conquer kingdoms,” said Patkul bitterly enough.</p> - -<p>Peter leant back against the rough wall of the shed; his short, soft, -dusky curls were hanging over his eyes; his expressive charming face was -pale and tired; his large dark eyes full of a veiled fire; his blue -blouse was open on a fine cambric shirt (he was always very nice in his -linen) and his breeches and woolen stockings were covered with sawdust -and chips of wood.</p> - -<p>He looked at Patkul kindly.</p> - -<p>“Do you think that what that man does will endure?” he asked.</p> - -<p>“Conquests have endured, sire, nations have been enslaved for -generations through the exploits of a man like this.”</p> - -<p>The Czar was not thinking of the freedom of future generations; he meant -to build a great nation, not a free one.</p> - -<p>“Sweden can never hold the Baltic Provinces,” he replied.</p> - -<p>“Who is to prevent him?”</p> - -<p>“I shall,” said Peter.</p> - -<p>Patkul looked earnestly at the Czar, as if to discover if he spoke in -jest or earnest.</p> - -<p>“Well,” added Peter, with narrowed eyes and signs of a rising temper. -“Do you not think I shall yet utterly crush the Swede? I have had my -lesson, Patkul.”</p> - -<p>He seized a knife and stabbed moodily at the carpenter’s bench before -him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_152" id="page_152"></a>{152}</span></p> - -<p>“Your Majesty has the genius to profit by it,” said Patkul gravely.</p> - -<p>“All my battles are not going to be like Narva,” continued the Czar. “I -have learnt something of war. The King of Poland is a fool. Why did he -not train my Muscovites?”</p> - -<p>“He told me, sire, that he had no officers, and complained that the -Russians were out of hand and ravaging Lithuania.”</p> - -<p>“I hope they may lay it waste from end to end,” said Peter. “At the same -time, if any ever return to Russia, I will have them knouted for -disobedience.”</p> - -<p>He frowned as he thought of Augustus, a character that intensely -irritated him; the elegant splendid Elector and the savage Czar had been -only able to tolerate each other when both had been intoxicated; only in -debauchery had they anything in common.</p> - -<p>“He is a fool,” repeated the Czar. “If he had kept to the treaty of -Birsen, Karl would have been ruined by now.”</p> - -<p>“He lacked both money and means,” said Patkul, who had a certain -friendship for Augustus, and a clear understanding of his difficulties.</p> - -<p>“I think, sire, you can hardly conceive how he was, and is, hampered by -the Polish Diet and families like the Sapieha.”</p> - -<p>“He should punish them all. Had I been King of Poland, by now there -would not be a rebel left,” answered Peter gloomily. “What is the merit -of governing if one cannot overcome opposition?”</p> - -<p>Patkul remembered the fate of the Strelitz who had ventured to oppose -the Czar’s innovations, and the vengeance he had taken on his own wife -and sister; certainly Peter knew how to make himself both feared and -obeyed.</p> - -<p>“Poland is in reality a Republic,” said the Livonian, “and Augustus is -not free, even to punish.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, Poland!” exclaimed the Czar impatiently.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_153" id="page_153"></a>{153}</span> “What matter the laws and -constitution of Poland? She can be dismembered as easily as that,” and -he pulled apart a piece of wood he had snatched up in his strong -fingers.</p> - -<p>“The King of Sweden may take the crown of Poland,” said Patkul, thinking -to rouse the Czar.</p> - -<p>“And invade Saxony, and frighten the Elector’s fiddlers and dainty -ladies!” laughed Peter.</p> - -<p>“And invade Russia, sire.”</p> - -<p>Peter rose.</p> - -<p>“That is his design?”</p> - -<p>“I am sure of it.”</p> - -<p>“Well, we have a little time in which to drill our armies.”</p> - -<p>“Sire, not so long.”</p> - -<p>Peter smiled; he still did not seem greatly stirred by the account of -the exploits of Karl.</p> - -<p>“Is he not at Cracovia with a broken leg, eh, Patkul?”</p> - -<p>“He mends fast; he is a creature of iron, and, once he is in the field -again, Augustus will be driven before him as he was before.”</p> - -<p>“Curse the Saxon,” exclaimed Peter, with sudden violence. “Had I faced -Karl with 20,000 trained troops I had sent this Swede reeling backwards -in his tracks!”</p> - -<p>He spoke with a passion and a simple grandeur that warmed Patkul’s heart -with some glimmerings of hope, unlikely as it seemed to him that out of -the chaos that was Russia even Peter could raise an army that would -overthrow the Swede, before whose arms the finest troops in Europe had -broken.</p> - -<p>“Klissow was extraordinary, sire,” he said. “The Saxons had never a -chance——”</p> - -<p>“And the Poles?”</p> - -<p>“They broke and fled at the first cannonade.”</p> - -<p>Peter made an impatient gesture.</p> - -<p>“And Augustus still thinks to raise an army from these materials?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_154" id="page_154"></a>{154}</span></p> - -<p>“He is at Lublin or Marienbourg, sire, endeavoring to rouse the -Palatinates.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, he had better return to Dresden and amuse himself with his toes,” -said Peter contemptuously.</p> - -<p>“Karl would not leave him in peace, even in Dresden.”</p> - -<p>“He will grovel?” asked Peter.</p> - -<p>“I think he will,” replied Patkul. “He sent the Countess von Königsmarck -to make terms. I know this, although the matter was kept secret.”</p> - -<p>“A fribble and a fool!” cried Peter. “Have I ever had a chance, Patkul, -with two such allies? This Saxon weakling—and Denmark, what does -Denmark do?”</p> - -<p>“He maintains a prudent silence, sire, and respects the treaty he dare -not break.”</p> - -<p>“A couple of dogs, of spiritless dogs!” said Peter fiercely. “But I, my -friend, do not need either of them. The issue lies between Sweden and -me.”</p> - -<p>He paused, and fixed his dark powerful glance on the slight, energetic -figure and resolute face of his general.</p> - -<p>“Do you think,” he asked, in a quieter tone, “that this man’s work is to -be compared to mine? I construct—he destroys. Is it easier to knock -down a house with cannon or to build it up, carefully, brick by brick, -with your own proper hands? And which is the more useful to mankind? I -make Russia and Karl destroys Sweden.”</p> - -<p>“But these conquests will enrich—as did those of the great Gustavus.”</p> - -<p>“Nay, he does not fight for trade, for liberty, for the advancement of -his people—for forts or markets, but for the empty fame of armies; he -drains Sweden of men and money—to the point of exhaustion—for what? -That he may make Europe stare at barren conquests.”</p> - -<p>Peter, roused, as was his capricious manner, suddenly from a gloomy -indifference to a deep enthusiasm<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_155" id="page_155"></a>{155}</span>—from melancholia, almost despair, to -firm self-reliance and confidence—spoke with a power and a force that -encouraged as it impressed Patkul, who hailed the man of genius and the -great ruler in this young man in the peasant’s blouse who paced amid the -litter of a workman’s shed; would to God, he thought, the Czar could -always have his faith in himself, this clear outlook, this patience and -calm judgment.</p> - -<p>“All these lands will belong to Holy Russia,” continued the Czar. “Aye, -and Poland too; his glory shall vanish, leaving but a name for -children’s tales. I shall leave a power that will fight the world.”</p> - -<p>He smiled, mournfully, almost tenderly, at Patkul.</p> - -<p>“Are you dismayed at the progress of this Swede?” he asked, “and at my -inaction? Do you think I show poorly beside his glory?”</p> - -<p>He stepped up to the Livonian and laid a hand on the sleeve of his rich -uniform.</p> - -<p>“Look you, Patkul,” he said, with a noble air far removed from boasting, -“he takes Varsovia and Cracovia—but I built St. Petersburg! He sets his -heel on Poland, I give my hand to Russia, and raise her up—a nation -among nations.”</p> - -<p>Patkul was both moved and comforted.</p> - -<p>“Ah, sire, would that you were always in this mood!”</p> - -<p>A shadow passed over the Czar’s expressive face.</p> - -<p>“Sometimes the devils get hold of me,” he muttered, “and nothing on -earth seems real. When this war is over, I shall travel again. I should -have seen Venice,” he added, irrelevantly, “had not that rebellion of -the Strelitz called me back—think, a city on the sea! I, too, will have -my city on the sea. A pity that Gordon died—he was a good man, a keen -soldier, a faithful envoy. Poor Gordon, but I gave him a fine funeral.”</p> - -<p>“Your Majesty is as well served now,” said Patkul gently.</p> - -<p>“I know,” replied Peter warmly and affectionately.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_156" id="page_156"></a>{156}</span></p> - -<p>“And those who serve me well shall be well rewarded.”</p> - -<p>“Your Majesty’s success would reward me sufficiently,” said the Livonian -simply. “Could I see the Swede defeated and my country freed——”</p> - -<p>Peter interrupted.</p> - -<p>“If you do not go down in these wars you will see Sweden ruined. As for -your country—I shall be an easier master than Karl, if only because of -my friendship to you,” he added, with a smile.</p> - -<p>With this Patkul had to be contented, nay, grateful; perhaps in his -innermost heart was a misgiving that Peter might prove as stern a tyrant -as ever Karl or his father had been; he admired the Czar, he was fond of -him, but he had not been able to deceive himself as to the terrible -aspects of Peter’s character; he knew of his excesses, his cruelties, -his fierce vengeances; it might have occurred to him that he was but -devoting his life to rescue his unfortunate country from one master to -place her under another, and that there could not be much liberty under -the autocratic rule of Peter, but he trusted, with something of the -faith of desperation, in the Czar’s love of progress and enlightenment, -and hoped that a man so remarkable would by degrees reform himself as he -reformed others.</p> - -<p>There was, however, a shadow on his pleasant expressive face as Peter -pronounced these words that referred to the future fate of his beloved -Livonia.</p> - -<p>The searching, though wild and mournful gaze of the Czar noted the shade -that clouded the ardor of his general’s look.</p> - -<p>“Patkul,” he said, “<i>believe in me</i>.”</p> - -<p>The Livonian eagerly seized and eagerly pressed to his lips the -work-worn hand of the Czar.</p> - -<p>“Did I not believe in you, sire, I could not live,” he said quietly, but -with intense feeling.</p> - -<p>Peter smiled.</p> - -<p>“Come into the house,” he answered.</p> - -<p>The two men, the Czar in his workman’s apparel<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_157" id="page_157"></a>{157}</span> and Patkul in the -splendid uniform of a Russian soldier, entered the little house called -Marli.</p> - -<p>In the room on the ground floor a meal was laid, roughly, yet many of -the articles were of carved gold and beaten silver.</p> - -<p>By the window where the late lilacs hung their blossoms from their -thicket of close-packed leaves against the casement, Patkul saw his -country-woman, now no longer Marpha, but baptized into the Orthodox -Church by the name of Katherina.</p> - -<p>She wore a handsome Russian dress of green velvet and orange-colored -silk, both embroidered with gold; a long white gauze veil with a pearl -edging hung from her stiff satin head-dress.</p> - -<p>She was seated in a clumsy attitude, eating sweetmeats; neither her -hands nor her face were clean, and already prosperity, idleness, and -good-living were coarsening and spoiling her opulent beauty.</p> - -<p>Patkul, looking at her, marveled at Peter; he was used to the refined -loveliness of women like Aurora von Königsmarck, and to a court where -women such as the Livonian would not have been tolerated as -chambermaids.</p> - -<p>Prince Mentchikoff entered, very splendid in European clothes, with a -great curling peruke and a star on his breast, and looking very much -like a courtier of King Louis.</p> - -<p>Peter eyed him with satisfaction.</p> - -<p>“My Lord Carmarthen had such a coat as that,” he said, fingering the -skirts of heavy gray silk. “Do you remember, Danilovitch, what a fine -gentleman he was? I should like to see him again—and his boat—that was -a fine boat, Danilovitch.”</p> - -<p>“When the war is over we will go again to England,” replied Mentchikoff. -“They are the most sensible people in the world, and live in the most -comfortable fashion.”</p> - -<p>“Yet in too confined and precise a way,” returned Peter. “Nothing is to -be changed or upset or altered.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_158" id="page_158"></a>{158}</span></p> - -<p>“Having achieved a fortunate constitution, under which it is a happiness -to live,” said Patkul, “they are jealous to preserve it, and this temper -shows in small things.”</p> - -<p>The Tartar servant brought in the dinner; several kinds of drink, kvas, -and pungent liquors, boiled cabbage and beetroot, pickled cucumbers and -a great dish of parboiled fish, another of stewed meat.</p> - -<p>The four took their places.</p> - -<p>Katherina smiled pleasantly and placidly at every one; her breath -already smelt of brandy, and she began drinking before she ate; her -finery was stained with grease, for she was as often as not in the -kitchen among the pots, and stale sugar disfigured her veil.</p> - -<p>Patkul sat opposite to her, and his glance rested puzzled on this woman -who had so entirely fascinated a man like Peter—perhaps the greatest -man in Europe.</p> - -<p>She accompanied him everywhere he went now; it was believed that he was -going to marry her, even to make her his Empress if he could divorce -Eudoxia; she was his confidante, and it was said, his adviser, in -everything.</p> - -<p>Her birth and breed made her sympathize with his schemes for a reform -that would humiliate the nobility, and with the abolition of customs and -conventions that made her own extraordinary elevation possible; like -Mentchikoff, she was in favor of a new Russia where she could find her -own fortunes; unlike him, no motives of patriotism, no appreciation what -the task Peter was endeavoring to perform, mingled with her satisfaction -at her personal good luck.</p> - -<p>She was fond of the Czar; she had been as fond of Mentchikoff; she was -ready to be as fond of any man whom it was her interest to serve; but as -she could look no higher than Peter, her placid affections had -concentrated on him; she was in many ways a remarkable woman, shrewd, -well-balanced, quick and courageous; but it was difficult to know -wherein Peter<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_159" id="page_159"></a>{159}</span> found the supreme attraction that caused him to be -inseparable from her unless it was the immovable good nature and placid, -healthy calm that took all his melancholies and caprices with a smile.</p> - -<p>Patkul contrasted her in his mind with Hélène D’Einsiedel, so fair and -soft and gentle; she seemed in his memory like a creature of another -world, and his heart contracted with a sense of bitter loss as he -recalled how she had come to him through the dark, snowy streets of -Varsovia and placed her cold hands in his and offered him her chill lips -in a mute sorrow of farewell.</p> - -<p>And he had let her go, because he had shrunk from bringing her to -Russia, among such company as the Czar kept.</p> - -<p>But was she any happier now, in flight before the conqueror, and in what -way, save for outward grossness, was Katherina worse than Aurora von -Königsmarck, who pandered to a worse man, and exacted a higher price -than did this peasant. While he was asking himself, with some -bitterness, these questions, Peter, hitherto absorbed in his food, -suddenly spoke:</p> - -<p>“I shall keep you here, Patkul, Saxony is not worth your pains.”</p> - -<p>The General flushed and started, the words came so pat on his -reflections.</p> - -<p>“I wish to return, sire,” he said.</p> - -<p>“Why?” asked Peter, with a certain annoyance, but Katherina -good-humoredly interfered.</p> - -<p>“Why, let him go—his lady is there.”</p> - -<p>Peter gave him a keen glance.</p> - -<p>“You are safer in Russia,” he said. “Never trust a weakling,” he added -shrewdly.</p> - -<p>“Sire,” replied the Livonian, “as your envoy I am safe anywhere.”</p> - -<p>“Never trust a weakling,” repeated the Czar.</p> - -<p>But Patkul was resolute to return to Saxony.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_160" id="page_160"></a>{160}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_II-e" id="CHAPTER_II-e"></a>CHAPTER II</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">A</span>UGUSTUS, with more energy than might have been expected from his easy -nature, set himself to redeem the disaster of Klissow.</p> - -<p>Having taken advantage of the accident of Karl to spread the news of his -death, he summoned a convocation of the Polish nobles, and in the -reaction occasioned by the belief in the death of the terrible captain, -Augustus, by promises, smiles, and largesses, gained the support of many -of the Palatinates, who were only hesitating as to which was the winning -side.</p> - -<p>The Cardinal Primate himself, who had been so eager to point out to the -Diet the necessity of dethroning Augustus to placate Karl, came to -Lublin and took, with the other magnates, the oath of allegiance to the -Elector.</p> - -<p>A fresh army of 50,000 was raised before it became known that Karl was -alive, and even in the face of this news it was voted that six weeks be -given to the Swedes in which to declare their terms for peace or war, -and the same time to the rebel Sapieha of Lithuania, in which to lay -down their arms.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile Peter showed signs of coming to his ally’s assistance when -Augustus had despaired of help from that quarter; moved by the energy -and eloquence of Patkul, the Czar sent that General to put some spirit -into the wandering Muscovite troops in Lithuania and Ingria, and these, -reduced to some order and discipline by the efforts of the gallant -Livonian, began to make vigorous attacks on the garrisons the King of -Sweden had left behind in the conquered Provinces; and even Karl’s -veteran troops admitted that the Muscovites were<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_161" id="page_161"></a>{161}</span> not so entirely to be -despised as they had been led to believe by Narva.</p> - -<p>Count Piper saw his master’s glory stationary if not dimmed.</p> - -<p>He did not urge the King to seize this moment to conclude a favorable -peace, having already proved the uselessness of such advice; but he -represented to him, as coldly as possible, that the renown won by his -arms might suffer by his entry into the confused field of Polish -politics, his meddling with intrigues so involved as to be hardly -understandable by a foreigner.</p> - -<p>“While your Majesty waits to dethrone the King of Poland, Muscovy grows -stronger.”</p> - -<p>“After Poland, Russia,” replied Karl from the bed where he lay confined -with his broken leg. “But I shall dethrone Augustus if I stay here fifty -years.”</p> - -<p>And despite the advices of his generals he continued to support the Diet -of Varsovia, which, acting in opposition to that of Lublin, had been -called together by the intrigues of the Cardinal Primate, and endeavored -to give expediency an air of decency by searching the laws for -justification for actions sufficiently indicated by necessity, and so -giving a glow of dignity to the submissions exacted by the conqueror.</p> - -<p>Karl, whose sole amusement was hearing the Scandinavian sagas read to -him, and who bore his enforced idleness, so bitter to one of his active -spirit, without either irritation or lament, had received greatly into -his friendship the young Palatine of Posen, whose chivalrous spirit, -high courage, and honorable character were pleasing to Karl’s code of -manhood. His brother-in-law, the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, had been -killed at the battle of Klissow (thus in reality rendering null the -object of the war, which was to restore this prince to his domains), and -the stern young King had no companion of his own age beyond this Polish -noble.</p> - -<p>Stanislaus, frank, affable, and generous, neither presumed on nor -cringed for Karl’s favor, and cherished<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_162" id="page_162"></a>{162}</span> no ulterior designs; he was -content to see his country delivered from Saxon rule and hoped nothing -for himself from Karl’s conquests.</p> - -<p>The Elector’s gleam of prosperity was short-lived. As soon as Karl could -mount his horse he advanced on the remnants of the Saxon army who, in -this brief breathing space, had rallied from their defeat at Klissow.</p> - -<p>Gyllenstierna had sent from Sweden troops to the number of over 10,000 -of whom 6000 were cavalry, and twenty pieces of cannon.</p> - -<p>The Saxons, under Steinau, fell back on Russia. Karl pursued them, and, -swimming the river Bug at the head of his cavalry, fell on them at -Pultask and utterly defeated them, Steinau and his staff being among the -fugitives; then they marched on Thorn on the Vistula, where the again -defeated Augustus had taken refuge, and proceeded to besiege the town.</p> - -<p>The desperate Elector contrived to escape from the beleaguered garrison -and retired towards Saxony.</p> - -<p>Karl was now master of Poland; General Rehnsköld with one division of -the army holding the center of the country, the frontiers of Russia -being guarded by other army corps, and Karl, with the flower of his -troops, camped a few miles outside Thorn.</p> - -<p>Nothing disturbed his glory which seemed now at the apogee; Denmark -respected the treaty at Traventhal and accepted in silence the near -approach of his hereditary enemy to its frontiers; Swedish ships were in -possession of the Baltic seas; and the arms of Karl threatened at once -Saxony, the Empire, and Russia.</p> - -<p>North Europe awaited in silence the next step of this conqueror who, as -soon as his transports with reinforcements had arrived from Sweden, -proceeded to close round the imperial town of Thorn.</p> - -<p>After a splendid resistance the city capitulated on the third of -October; Karl made a display of generosity by his munificence and -courtesy towards Röbel, the heroic governor, and one of meanness by -taxing the town, already ruined by the war, far more than it could<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_163" id="page_163"></a>{163}</span> -afford to pay; it was becoming more and more apparent that this King -cared for little but war, and knew not how to appreciate any but -military merit.</p> - -<p>Dantzic and Ebling, two free and imperial towns on the Vistula, having -been too nice in granting consent to the passage of the Swedish -reinforcements, were soon made to feel the terror of the conqueror’s -arms, Dantzic being forced to pay a heavy fine and Ebling being entered -by the Swedes, soldiers quartered with the burghers, cannon packed in -the squares, and the inhabitants reduced to throw themselves on their -knees in the streets before his triumphal entry imploring mercy.</p> - -<p>Karl mulcted the town in a large sum, seized her arms, and left a -garrison there, proceeding, with unmoved grandeur, on his implacable -conquests.</p> - -<p>The intrigues of the Cardinal Primate, waxing bolder as the fortunes of -Augustus waned, succeeded in inducing the Diet to declare the Elector of -Saxony incapable of wearing the crown of Poland. The Diet, inspired by -the wish of the conqueror, would have crowned the life-long intrigues of -the Cardinal with success, by offering the throne to James Sobieski, son -of the last King of Poland, but this Prince, together with his brother -Constantine, was kidnapped by Saxon troops at Breslau and sent to close -confinement in Germany.</p> - -<p>The assembly at Varsovia therefore found themselves bound to find -another rival to Augustus.</p> - -<p>The Elector’s fortunes now indeed seemed desperate; there was little -more to be hoped from Saxony, where he had exhausted every resource, and -nothing to be hoped from Poland, where his party had dwindled to a -faction among factions, and where Karl was more absolute master than -Augustus had been at the height of his prosperity.</p> - -<p>The Swede had taken up his winter quarters at Heilsburg in Polish -Russia, and from there surveyed tranquilly his conquests and his -neighbors who regarded him with the respect of fear.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_164" id="page_164"></a>{164}</span></p> - -<p>The war, which had now lasted four years, had been for him a series of -unchecked victories; his arms had suffered no reverse and his reputation -flamed in Europe; there had been no such invincible captain since the -great Condé, and men could not remember a king who made a war of -conquest with justice and mercy; no outrage, no massacre, no pillaging, -or burning, no excesses, large or small, could be imputed to the -soldiers of Karl.</p> - -<p>He had attained, in a few years, a glory which is seldom the reward of a -long and splendid career.</p> - -<p>“Are you not now satisfied, sire?” asked Count Piper, with a real -curiosity.</p> - -<p>Karl smiled; he was in a good humor, for he had made an end of the -Polish intrigues and was on the eve of giving a new King to Poland; he -gave little confidence to his minister, but continued to employ him as -one useful in those matters so distasteful to his own spirit, now -entirely absorbed in war.</p> - -<p>“You think to get me back to Stockholm, Count?” he asked.</p> - -<p>Count Piper smiled in his turn; he knew too well the iron obstinacy with -which he had to deal to attempt to persuade Karl to any design.</p> - -<p>“Sire,” he counter-questioned, “on whom now do you intend to make war?”</p> - -<p>Karl lifted his cold blue eyes.</p> - -<p>“There is always the Czar.”</p> - -<p>“But he has withdrawn himself, sire. I believe he cares no more about -the war, despite the appeals of the Elector. He is absorbed in building -his new city.”</p> - -<p>“I will topple over the foundations of his city,” replied the stern -young King. “Piper, have you ever known me alter my mind? I told you -some while since that I had a mind to dethrone the Czar.”</p> - -<p>“The occupation of your Majesty’s life is to be war?”</p> - -<p>“What other occupation is there for a gentleman?” asked Karl.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_165" id="page_165"></a>{165}</span></p> - -<p>Count Piper did not attempt to argue with him nor to express any opinion -on this speech; Karl’s career had been so startlingly and dazzlingly -successful that it seemed useless to warn him or advise him; the -cautious and prudent minister did not even venture now to point out the -immense difficulties of an invasion of Russia, and the almost superhuman -task it would be to subdue such a country and dethrone such a man as -Peter.</p> - -<p>Karl could point to achievements so splendid that it seemed an -impertinence to hint at possible disaster, or to urge caution on one -whose exploits had been heroic to the point of miracles.</p> - -<p>“At least, sire, accept some of the fruits of your victories.”</p> - -<p>“You mean the crown of Poland?” said Karl thoughtfully.</p> - -<p>He rose and went to the door of the tent, and stood looking out into the -encampment that was fresh with spring breezes.</p> - -<p>The minister gazed at him with the questioning curiosity and amazement -that this young man had never failed to rouse in his heart.</p> - -<p>Karl was now twenty-two years of age; a temperate, active, and simple -life had developed his already splendid constitution into perfect -hardihood; physically he was like the ancient Vikings whose exploits -formed the subject of the sole literature he cared to read; tall, in -fine proportion, with powerful shoulders and slender hips, and with the -easy carriage of the soldier and the horseman, a creature of bone and -muscle, nerve and sinew perfectly attuned.</p> - -<p>His face had slightly changed, broadened and grown harder in the lines, -but the expression was the same, the full lips, the curved nostrils, the -blank eyes showed the same unmoved courage, the same indifference to -things about him that had once made Count Piper liken him to a god—or -an animal.</p> - -<p>He still wore a dark blue uniform of the plainest cut, a black satin -cravat, and was without peruke or<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_166" id="page_166"></a>{166}</span> lace or ribbons or jewels; never in -the slightest particular had he deviated from the austere conduct he had -vowed to follow; his living was of the simplest, his couch a straw -pallet or his own cloak; his food such as that eaten by the meanest foot -soldier; since he left Stockholm he had never tasted wine nor spoken to -a woman beyond the few words he had been forced to exchange with Aurora -von Königsmarck. He passed his life in the camp, his companions were all -soldiers, and little seemed to interest him beyond the things of war; -the affairs of Sweden he left entirely in the hands of the regency; he -cared nothing for the news from his capital, and never corresponded with -his sole surviving relations, the Queen Dowager and his sisters.</p> - -<p>Count Piper could not love him; perhaps because he had schooled himself -to be above human weakness, no one loved him; certainly he never asked -for anyone’s affections and disclosed to no one his thoughts; his -immense pride seemed to be satisfied by the fear he inspired even in his -friends and respect accorded him even by his enemies.</p> - -<p>“The crown of Poland, sire,” said the minister, who could not resist -looking upon the present situation from a statesman’s point of view. -“Your Majesty is aware how easily you might obtain this for yourself?”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” replied Karl dryly.</p> - -<p>“It is what policy indicates.”</p> - -<p>“I never loved your policy, Count,” said the King.</p> - -<p>“Yet it is not to be disdained, even by a conqueror.”</p> - -<p>Karl gave his short, ugly laugh.</p> - -<p>“I think I can dispense with it. As for this crown, I think it pleases -me more to give it away than to wear it.”</p> - -<p>Piper had been expecting this; yet he resolved to endeavor to turn -Karl’s fantastic pride in another direction, and inspire him with the -desire for a glory more useful to Sweden and mankind.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_167" id="page_167"></a>{167}</span></p> - -<p>“Your Majesty might be truly the liberator of this distracted country -and unite all factions in concord under your protection; the Romist -faith whose arrogant clergy have enslaved these people might in this -manner receive a shrewd blow, and your Majesty appear as defender of the -Evangelical faith.”</p> - -<p>Karl did not reply to this proposition with that rude coldness with -which he generally received suggestions not entirely in accordance with -his own preconceived plans.</p> - -<p>The truth was that the prospect held out by Count Piper tempted him.</p> - -<p>The great Gustavus had established the Lutheran faith in Sweden and had -banished forever from the North the corruption, the tyranny, and the -superstition of the Roman priests; to do the same in a country as large -and as important as Poland would be a feat that recommended itself to -the ambition of Karl.</p> - -<p>To take Poland not only from Augustus, but from the Pope, would have -been a triumph such as he would have keenly enjoyed, for, while religion -had had little influence on his life, he accorded his hereditary faith -full respect and always enforced the observances of Lutheranism in his -camp.</p> - -<p>Count Piper watched him in silence, seeing that he was at least -pondering the idea.</p> - -<p>“Where will your Majesty find a King for Poland?” urged the minister. -“Not even your entreaties will prevail upon Alexander Sobieski to accept -the crown while his elder brothers are prisoners—and where is there any -other pretender worthy of notice?”</p> - -<p>Karl knew that he spoke the truth; with the romantic chivalry -characteristic of the Polish nation, the youngest Sobieski had refused -to accept the crown that the fortune of war prevented the eldest from -enjoying, and there was, indeed, no one else especially indicated.</p> - -<p>But to take this throne for himself was not sufficiently glorious for -Karl; he wished to do the unusual,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_168" id="page_168"></a>{168}</span> the extraordinary, to make the world -stare—not by what he accepted, but by what he refused.</p> - -<p>Even the design of appearing as champion of the reformed faith lost its -attraction for him, because a great prince lately dead had made his -chief fame in this part; Karl did not wish to follow in the footsteps of -anyone.</p> - -<p>“No,” he said sternly, suddenly letting the tent flap fall and turning -to look at his minister. “I have more pleasure in giving away crowns -than in taking them.”</p> - -<p>“You would, sire, sacrifice your interest——”</p> - -<p>Karl interrupted.</p> - -<p>“My interest!” he repeated as if offended, then with his ugly smile: -“You should have been minister to some Italian prince, Piper, you are so -fond of intrigues.”</p> - -<p>The Count bit his lip and was silent; he would have liked to have -mentioned Sweden and <i>her</i> interests, but knew the cold repulse he would -meet with.</p> - -<p>The King crossed to his camp table and turned over some papers the -secretary had left for his inspection, but with an absent look and a -careless hand.</p> - -<p>Count Piper was about to take his leave when his soldier servant ushered -in the young Palatine of Posnania and Alexander Sobieski.</p> - -<p>This latter had waited on Karl to urge him to revenge the capture of his -two brothers by Augustus; it entirely suited both the temper and the -policy of the King of Sweden to promise him satisfaction, but he was not -now so cordial towards the young prince whose obstinate refusal to -accept his father’s crown had rivaled and perhaps shadowed the -generosity and strangeness of his own action.</p> - -<p>But he greeted the two young Poles pleasantly, and offered each in turn -the strong white hand from which he had drawn the long buffle glove worn -with rein and sword pommel.</p> - -<p>They were both brilliantly dressed, charming and graceful in manner and -looks.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_169" id="page_169"></a>{169}</span></p> - -<p>Karl’s eyes, blue and cold as frozen water, cast a strange glance on the -elegant figure of Stanislaus Leczinski.</p> - -<p>“Count,” he said, “here is the future King of Poland.”</p> - -<p>The minister was startled into an imprudence; staring at the amazed face -of the young noble, he cried impetuously:</p> - -<p>“The Palatine is too young, sire!”</p> - -<p>“He is older than I am,” said Karl dryly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_170" id="page_170"></a>{170}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_III-e" id="CHAPTER_III-e"></a>CHAPTER III</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">K</span>ARL, having given a new King to Poland, and satisfied his somber pride -by being an “incognito” spectator of the election of the man whose -elevation he owed entirely to Sweden, marched on Lemberg, the capital of -Galicia, and took this town by assault, enriching his army with the -treasures of Augustus that were stored here, and that the inhabitants -surrendered to troops that neither burnt nor pillaged; he had hardly -established his garrison in the conquered town when he was joined by -Stanislaus Leczinski, cast from his throne after a reign of six weeks, -and forced to fly for his life before the Elector of Saxony, who had -appeared before Varsovia with a new army of 20,000 men, and had -triumphantly entered the capital, scattering the Polish guard of -Stanislaus and the Swedish garrison under Count Horn. His reverse was -received with calm by the King of Sweden; it did not touch him -personally, as he had not been present at the disaster, and he was not -displeased at the opportunity to twice give the throne of Poland to the -man whom he called friend.</p> - -<p>“Let Augustus amuse himself,” he told Stanislaus. “How long do you think -he will hold Varsovia when I am before the gates?”</p> - -<p>The words, spoken quietly and in no spirit of boasting, proved to be the -truth.</p> - -<p>Karl, with Stanislaus riding at his side, marched back on the capital, -and the army of Augustus, consisting of lukewarm Poles, raw Saxon -recruits, and vagabond Muscovites, melted before the approach of the -terrible captain.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_171" id="page_171"></a>{171}</span></p> - -<p>Count Schulenbourg, in command of the Elector’s army, did all that could -be done with such an army, and by a series of masterly marches, fell -back into Posnania where Karl overtook him near Runitz, and in a sharp -action forced him to retreat, without, however, throwing him into -disorder.</p> - -<p>With the small remnant of his army he managed to escape, passing the -Oder in the night, showing a generalship so superb as to force a -compliment from the victor.</p> - -<p>“We are the vanquished,” said Karl. “M. de Schulenbourg has -out-generaled us.”</p> - -<p>He could afford to be generous, for Augustus had once more fled into -Saxony, and was engaged in fortifying Dresden, a task that showed his -fear of his enemy.</p> - -<p>Stanislaus was crowned with splendid ceremonies in Varsovia by the -Archbishop of Lemberg, the Cardinal Primate dying that very day after -having refused to perform the ceremony on the grounds of displeasing the -Pope who had threatened to excommunicate all those who elevated a -Protestant King in place of a Catholic.</p> - -<p>There was now only one person who dare even threaten Sweden, and that -was the Czar. The bands of wandering Cossacks that he had sent to help -Augustus had been easily subdued by the Swedish generals, and campaign -after campaign opened and closed without his taking any part in the war -beyond this feeble aid to Augustus.</p> - -<p>But he was building St. Petersburg and creating an army and a navy, and -when Augustus was forced to abandon Poland, Patkul, the envoy of the -Czar in Dresden, was entrusted to persuade the Elector to meet Peter at -Grodno, and once more contrive plans against the might of Sweden.</p> - -<p>Peter appeared at Grodno with 70,000 trained troops, engineers, -artillery, horse, and foot.</p> - -<p>Augustus had nothing but a few Saxons under General<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_172" id="page_172"></a>{172}</span> Schulenbourg, and -some bitterness mingled with his marvel at the change in their -respective circumstances since last they had met at Birsen.</p> - -<p>“Karl will not find it so easy to dethrone you as it was to dethrone -me,” he remarked to Peter.</p> - -<p>“No,” said the Czar.</p> - -<p>He was called from the conference to put down a revolt in Astrakan, but -his generals proceeded to put into practise the plans agreed upon by the -two kings.</p> - -<p>Schulenbourg advanced on Poland, and the Russian army, divided in small -groups, marched into the Baltic Provinces.</p> - -<p>There Karl met and defeated them, one after the other; he captured the -baggage of Augustus with great store of gold and silver, and a large -quantity of specie belonging to Prince Mentchikoff.</p> - -<p>In two months the Russians were entirely defeated, and Schulenbourg -again obliged to retreat; Karl drove the Muscovites before him to the -frontiers of Russia, and Rehnsköld utterly defeated Schulenbourg at the -battle of Fraustadt.</p> - -<p>Karl then turned and marched on Saxony, passing through Silesia, without -heeding the consternation of Germany and the protests of the Diet of -Ratisbon.</p> - -<p>Saxony was at his feet in a few weeks, and from the camp of Altranstadt -he dictated his peace terms, forcing the Saxons to provide food and -lodging and pay for his soldiers, but most strictly preventing these -from the least insult, outrage, or disorder.</p> - -<p>He passed his word to permit no excesses of any kind if the inhabitants -submitted to his orders, and as his honor was well known to be -unblemished a certain tranquillity took possession of the conquered -country, which waited, with more resignation than despair, the terms of -the invincible Swede.</p> - -<p>Augustus, a fugitive in Poland, sent a certain Baron D’Imhof and M. -Pfingsten to the camp at Altranstadt to demand terms of peace.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_173" id="page_173"></a>{173}</span></p> - -<p>These two envoys arrived at night, but were immediately admitted to the -presence of the King.</p> - -<p>Each, despite the desperate importance of their mission, felt all -emotion absorbed in a curiosity as to this man who had in a few years -laid North Europe under his feet, and behaved in a manner so -extraordinary for a conqueror.</p> - -<p>Karl, who had no personal attendant, valet, or servant, rose from the -rough camp bed where he took his few hours’ repose, and came at once to -meet the envoys of Augustus.</p> - -<p>If he felt any satisfaction in this moment, when the man who had so -carelessly and contemptuously affronted him was reduced to send to sue -for mercy, it was not betrayed in his passive countenance.</p> - -<p>He might indeed be used to triumphs; few men of his years had ever had a -career of such uninterrupted success, and perhaps he was already -indifferent to the haughty position of conqueror or at least too well -used to it; he stood a moment holding up a little lamp and looking at -the two Saxon gentlemen who stood, still in their traveling cloaks, -bare-headed before him.</p> - -<p>For the first second they did not know who stood before them; they were -used to the magnificence and display of Augustus that he maintained even -in his downfall, and Karl in his plain coat and short hair looked like -an infantryman.</p> - -<p>“The King,” said Count Piper, with a curious pride in the man whom he -disliked.</p> - -<p>Karl cut short their rather confused compliments.</p> - -<p>“You are from the Elector of Saxony?” he demanded sternly, and set the -lantern on the table.</p> - -<p>Baron D’Imhof was the spokesman.</p> - -<p>“Yes, sire,” he said.</p> - -<p>“And what does the Elector want?” asked Karl.</p> - -<p>The Saxon was a little taken aback; he had not been prepared to meet the -King with so little ceremony, to converse with him with this dry -abruptness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_174" id="page_174"></a>{174}</span></p> - -<p>With a bow he handed Karl the letter of Augustus, in which that monarch -entreated for peace on any terms.</p> - -<p>Karl glanced at the seal.</p> - -<p>“Why this secrecy, gentlemen?” he asked, with his sudden, unpleasant -smile.</p> - -<p>The two plenipotentiaries were silent; they found themselves in that -position in which it is difficult to do anything with dignity or even -with grace.</p> - -<p>“The Czar of Russia knows nothing of these negotiations?” demanded Karl.</p> - -<p>“Sire,” said Baron D’Imhof, “my master wished this to be between himself -and you.”</p> - -<p>“He is ready then to abandon his ally who is not yet prepared to -submit?” asked the King, his face, still as smooth as a mask of stone, -unmarked by care or emotion, and radiant with the look of perfect health -turned full towards the two Germans, and his strange eyes, chill and -blue as his Northern seas, swept them with a glance of cold contempt. -Again the Germans were silent.</p> - -<p>“The Czar does not know of this letter?” demanded Karl.</p> - -<p>“No, sire.”</p> - -<p>“If he had known it would never have been sent, I think,” said Karl. -“Your master did well to keep this matter secret, seeing he is at the -mercy of the Muscovites.”</p> - -<p>“Sire, my master’s actions are dictated by necessity,” replied Baron -D’Imhof. “He trusts a conqueror whom the world knows clement.”</p> - -<p>“Clement,” returned the King. “I make no claim to be clement, sir. I am -just.”</p> - -<p>His glance flickered over both of them, then to the letter in his hand.</p> - -<p>“You have shown some courage in undertaking so unpleasant a task,” he -remarked.</p> - -<p>“I was entrusted by King Augustus,” replied the Baron, “to obtain from -your Majesty a peace on as<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_175" id="page_175"></a>{175}</span> Christian and reasonable terms as your -magnanimity would be pleased to grant.”</p> - -<p>“Why does your master,” asked Karl, “think I should be so merciful?”</p> - -<p>The Saxon disliked this last word, but had to take it; he flushed -slightly and bit his lip; this youthful conqueror was proving more -difficult to deal with even than he had imagined. M. Pfingsten took the -word.</p> - -<p>“King Augustus——” he began.</p> - -<p>“Call him the Elector,” said Karl. “It is the safer title—we give him -that out of courtesy since Saxony is as lost to him as Poland.”</p> - -<p>The envoy bowed, swallowed his humiliation, and began again.</p> - -<p>“My master trusted something in the blood that unites him to your -Majesty.”</p> - -<p>“Did he remember that we are cousins when he allied himself with Russia -to seize my provinces?” demanded Karl.</p> - -<p>With that, he turned his shoulders towards the two plenipotentiaries, -and broke the seal of the unfortunate Elector’s letter.</p> - -<p>Count Piper eyed him as he read.</p> - -<p>Half-leaning against the table with the lamp-light full over his figure, -the young King, with his perfect physique, air of strength and -hardihood, his noble face and soldier’s bearing, made a picture grateful -to the eye.</p> - -<p>“Generous and merciful!” thought the minister. “They think him that -because he punishes a soldier who steals a chicken, and gives away a -crown he might have worn—but we shall see if he knows even the meaning -of generosity and mercy.”</p> - -<p>Karl finished the letter, put it in his pocket, and glanced over his -shoulder at the two waiting Saxons.</p> - -<p>“Gentlemen,” he said, “you shall have your answer immediately.”</p> - -<p>He took up the lamp and went into a little cabinet<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_176" id="page_176"></a>{176}</span> that opened off the -chamber, closing the door behind him.</p> - -<p>The Saxons could not but stare at seeing the simplicity of the man who -had conquered Northern Europe.</p> - -<p>The plain room without hangings or carpet, the entire lack of servants -or guard, the King’s own appearance and the way in which he waited on -himself, caused them astonishment, and would, under other circumstances, -have roused their contempt and disgust.</p> - -<p>Count Piper noted their expressions and the glance they exchanged.</p> - -<p>“Ah, gentlemen,” he said, “you do not know with whom you have to deal!”</p> - -<p>“In what way, sir?” asked Baron D’Imhof, who felt more at ease in the -presence of the minister than in that of the King.</p> - -<p>“Your errand is desperate,” replied the Count, with some feeling for -fellow diplomats in a hopeless position, “and the success of it, -gentlemen, does not depend on any arts of your own.”</p> - -<p>“No,” said M. Pfingsten, “but entirely on the disposition of the King of -Sweden.”</p> - -<p>“Exactly,” said Count Piper. “Your only hope is that you may excite -compassion in the heart of a man who has never known a gentle emotion, -and turn from his course the most obstinate creature who ever breathed.”</p> - -<p>He smiled cynically, and made a movement with his hands as if he cast -away the responsibility of his master’s actions.</p> - -<p>“You give us good hopes,” said Baron D’Imhof, with some bitterness.</p> - -<p>Count Piper did not directly reply to this.</p> - -<p>“Gentlemen,” he said, “I will give you this advice—whatever the King -says accept it; take up your hats and begone with what good grace you -can, for he will never alter his mind.”</p> - -<p>As he spoke Karl entered from the cabinet, carrying<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_177" id="page_177"></a>{177}</span> a paper on which -the close writing still gleamed with the wet ink.</p> - -<p>He gave this to Count Piper and bade him read it to the Saxons.</p> - -<p>“I will give your master peace on these terms,” he said, “and you must -not hope that I shall alter any of them.”</p> - -<p>The minister bent nearer the two tall candles on the table that gave the -sole light in the rooms and read, in an even official voice, the terms -of the conqueror.</p> - -<p>The King had written his fiat with his own hand without troubling to -call his secretary, and the calligraphy was quick and flowing as that of -one whose thoughts move faster than his pen; as Piper knew Karl was only -now putting on paper the terms that he had in his mind from the first to -impose on Augustus.</p> - -<p>The conditions were four in number.</p> - -<p>“<i>Firstly.</i>—The Elector must renounce forever the throne of Poland, -recognize Stanislaus Leczinski as King, and, even in the event of this -prince’s death, make no attempt to regain the throne.</p> - -<p>“<i>Secondly.</i>—He must renounce all the alliances he has made against -Sweden—particularly those with Muscovy.</p> - -<p>“<i>Thirdly.</i>—The Princes Sobieski and other prisoners of war are to be -sent with honor to my Camp.</p> - -<p>“<i>Fourthly.</i>—He is not to seek to punish any one of his following who -have joined me, and he is to deliver to me all these deserters whom he -has with him, and especially John Patkul.”</p> - -<p>As Count Piper finished the two Saxons cried out in startled tones -against the hardness of these terms.</p> - -<p>Karl smiled.</p> - -<p>“Did you expect,” he asked dryly, “other terms? Think, gentlemen, what -Augustus would have exacted had he been at the gates of Stockholm as I -am at those of Dresden.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_178" id="page_178"></a>{178}</span></p> - -<p>“Sire,” returned M. D’Imhof, in great agitation, “my master is honorable -and merciful—he would never have propounded such a condition as that -last.”</p> - -<p>“You question these terms?” demanded the terrible young conqueror, with -a cold and disdainful look.</p> - -<p>“I say, sire,” replied the Saxon firmly, “that my master can never in -honor surrender General Patkul.”</p> - -<p>The sound of the name seemed to anger Karl; his blue eyes darkened and -flashed.</p> - -<p>“I do not argue,” he said. “These are my terms.”</p> - -<p>“But General Patkul,” urged M. Pfingsten anxiously, “is an envoy of the -Czar, and as such sacred——”</p> - -<p>“Since when,” interrupted Karl, with a biting contempt, “has the -Muscovite claimed the privileges of civilized rulers? Patkul is my -subject, a deserter and a traitor.”</p> - -<p>“The conditions are very bitter,” said Baron D’Imhof. “Let your Majesty -reflect if they are such as a Christian Prince can accept.”</p> - -<p>“Well,” replied Karl, with his cold air of stubborn hardihood, “no doubt -I can find another Elector for Saxony as I found another King for -Poland.”</p> - -<p>“We may, sire, discuss these terms with Count Piper?” asked M. -Pfingsten, clutching at straws.</p> - -<p>“As much as you wish,” said Karl, with a stern smile. “Count Piper knows -my mind and if I am likely to change it.”</p> - -<p>“I have already warned these gentlemen,” remarked the minister.</p> - -<p>Karl now turned and with a rude coldness was leaving the chamber.</p> - -<p>Count Piper gave the piece of paper that had so tremendous a meaning to -the confused and humiliated deputies of Augustus.</p> - -<p>M. Pfingsten took courage to speak.</p> - -<p>“Our master can never surrender the crown of Poland or General Patkul.”</p> - -<p>Karl paused on the threshold of the inner room.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_179" id="page_179"></a>{179}</span></p> - -<p>“Why was John Patkul arrested in Dresden the other day, as soon as his -protector, the Muscovite, had left for Astrakan?”</p> - -<p>“It was of some mistake, sire——”</p> - -<p>“Ah,” interrupted Karl, with an ugly laugh, “it was no mistake. Your -master saw that he had the Livonian in his house before he asked for -peace—and why? Because he knew that I should ask for Patkul and that he -would surrender.”</p> - -<p>With these words, spoken with a cold indifferency more than any -passionate tone of insult, Karl, disdaining to hold further argument -with the envoys of his fallen enemy or to take any ceremonious leave of -them, bowed briefly to the Saxons and left the chamber.</p> - -<p>Baron D’Imhof could hardly contain himself.</p> - -<p>“So this is greatness!” he exclaimed ironically. He put up the paper in -his bosom. “We will wait on you to-morrow, Count, though I doubt if it -will be of any use.”</p> - -<p>“You have heard my master’s will,” replied Count Piper, “and he never -changes his resolutions.”</p> - -<p>In the small, bare inner chamber the man, who had upset kingdoms and -altered the face of North Europe for no other reason than pride and the -desire for military glory, laid himself again on his straw mattress and -hard pillow.</p> - -<p>Augustus was conquered as effectually as had been Frederic; it had taken -longer, years instead of weeks, but it had been done.</p> - -<p>And Patkul, the arch conspirator, would finally be punished.</p> - -<p>There remained only Peter....</p> - -<p>Karl turned on his rude pillow and fell asleep, dreaming of the downfall -of the Czar, his last and greatest enemy.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_180" id="page_180"></a>{180}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_IV-e" id="CHAPTER_IV-e"></a>CHAPTER IV</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">W</span>HEN M. Pfingsten returned to Poland with the articles of peace that no -amount of interviews with Count Piper had served to alter, he found his -master once again in Varsovia, in the midst of “Te Deums” and -bell-ringings for the first victory over the Swedes that had been -attained during the course of this long war.</p> - -<p>The envoy from Saxony, almost confounded by this change of fortune, -learned that the Muscovites under Prince Mentchikoff had defeated the -Swedes under General Mardenfeldt who found himself in the Palatinate of -Posnania with 10,000 men against the combined Saxon and Russian forces -amounting to nearly 40,000.</p> - -<p>But what surprised M. Pfingsten was the fact that the Elector had been -in this battle and had irritated Karl in this manner at the very moment -when he was imploring that monarch’s mercy.</p> - -<p>He hastened through the ruined capital now being pillaged by the -Muscovites to the ancient palace where Augustus was again in residence.</p> - -<p>The Elector immediately gave him audience; it was early in the morning -and he sat over a fire, for the autumn air was keen, and was drinking -coffee dashed with cognac, out of a pale porcelain cup.</p> - -<p>Some attempt at refinement and splendor still surrounded the man who had -been one of the most brilliant princes in Europe; he was wrapped in a -blue and gold brocade dressing-gown, wore a French peruke, diamonds in -his lace cravat, and long ruffles of Mechlin at his wrists.</p> - -<p>Elegant and beautiful articles were scattered about<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_181" id="page_181"></a>{181}</span> the room, and a -cardinal of violet silk and a pair of heelless white silk slippers -bespoke the presence of a woman.</p> - -<p>But the fair face of the Elector was haggard and pale; he looked at M. -Pfingsten with eyes full of a cruel distress.</p> - -<p>“Sire,” this gentleman hastened to say, “I rejoice to find you in -circumstances which can enable you to deal on terms of equality with the -King of Sweden.”</p> - -<p>“Do not mock me, Pfingsten,” replied the Elector, in a tone of -agitation. “You find me in the most miserable position, and whatever the -terms you have brought back I must sign them.”</p> - -<p>“Nay, God forbid!” exclaimed the envoy.</p> - -<p>Augustus set down his coffee cup with a shaking hand.</p> - -<p>“Are they then so hard?”</p> - -<p>“Sire, they are impossible.”</p> - -<p>Augustus gave a miserable smile.</p> - -<p>“You do not understand my position,” he said bitterly. “This victory is -futile and barren and will only further serve to inflame the Swede.”</p> - -<p>“Then, why did not your Majesty wait my return before giving battle?”</p> - -<p>The Elector replied with the useless impatience of a weak nature.</p> - -<p>“It was the cursed Muscovite! What was I to do? Mentchikoff would give -battle, no excuse would put him off. I knew that it would mean a defeat -for Sweden, they were so outnumbered. I had only a handful of Saxons, -and had those savages guessed that I was in treaty with the Swede they -had murdered me—cursed be the day when I was allied with such dangerous -rascals!”</p> - -<p>M. Pfingsten could say nothing; he saw that this new victory had indeed -put his master in a delicate and difficult position; he was forced -either to affront his dangerous allies in whose power he was or to -offend the conqueror on whose mercy he had thrown himself; his was the -common fate of the weak, who, lacking<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_182" id="page_182"></a>{182}</span> all qualities of resolution and -daring, find that concession and subterfuge lead them into a position -where no way is open to them with both safety and honor.</p> - -<p>“I sent privately to General Mardenfeldt,” continued the Elector, -pouring out another cup of the strong coffee, “warned him of his danger -and my secret negotiation, and advised him to retire—but the -hard-headed fool took it for a trap and would fight.”</p> - -<p>“At least the victory was complete?”</p> - -<p>“Yes. I was surprised myself. The Muscovites can fight as well as -marauder, it seems. Mentchikoff is sending the Czar a bombastic account -of it, but it is all futile,” he added peevishly.</p> - -<p>M. Pfingsten, a man of more nerve than his master, did not entirely -agree with this dispirited view.</p> - -<p>He thought that at least Augustus could now refuse the shameful terms -imposed by Karl XII.</p> - -<p>Taking the letter from his breast-pocket he put it among the delicate -coffee service on the tulip-wood table by the Elector’s elbow.</p> - -<p>Augustus picked it up with nervous fingers, glanced at it, and fetched a -groan, a look of real anguish distorting his handsome face.</p> - -<p>Each of the four conditions were bitterly hard, the last struck at his -honor as a gentleman; Patkul had been in his service, had trusted and -did trust him, and was, moreover, sacred as the envoy of the Czar.</p> - -<p>Augustus had shrunk from abandoning his ally; he felt it would be -impossible to betray him by delivering to his enemy a man who was -general and ambassador of Russia.</p> - -<p>He put the letter down and sat staring into the fire.</p> - -<p>“There was no possibility of moving the King?” he asked, in a broken -voice.</p> - -<p>“Not the faintest; he prides himself on his obstinacy and sternness. I -think he is quite implacable,” replied M. Pfingsten, with dreary -memories of the hardness of the young captain.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_183" id="page_183"></a>{183}</span></p> - -<p>“Then there is nothing for me to do but accept these terms,” said -Augustus.</p> - -<p>This complete and instantaneous submission startled M. Pfingsten; he had -not believed that Augustus would have been so subdued by his miseries -and disasters as to have no spirit left with which to meet this -extremity.</p> - -<p>“There is one thing your Majesty can do—you can advance into Saxony -with these Muscovite troops and attack the King of Sweden.”</p> - -<p>Augustus gave the speaker a wild look.</p> - -<p>“Take advantage, sire,” urged M. Pfingsten, “of this moment of good -fortune.”</p> - -<p>Augustus hesitated; the terms offered by Karl were so hateful that he -was glad to catch at anything that seemed to promise relief from the -necessity of accepting them.</p> - -<p>At the same time his reverses had been so continuous and terrible, he -had gradually lost everything and exhausted every resource, he was so -convinced of the invincible genius of Karl, so worn out in this long -combat with one in every respect his superior, that his spirit, by no -means firm or martial, though he was, in his way, brave and ambitious, -was completely broken, and his terrified imagination saw no escape from -his present difficulties save by throwing himself utterly on the mercy -of the man in whose hands his fate lay.</p> - -<p>“If I could see Karl face to face,” he began in a distracted tone, “I -could surely induce him to soften these terms.”</p> - -<p>“Let your Majesty put that out of your head,” replied M. Pfingsten -firmly. “The King of Sweden is as hard as one of his northern rocks—his -plainness and his show of courtesy to the vanquished but mask a spirit -without sentiment, a heart without feeling. Count Piper told me that his -preference for Stanislaus Leczinski is but based on his temperate -life—he has given that man a throne merely because he is his own<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_184" id="page_184"></a>{184}</span> body -servant and sleeps on a straw mattress! He admires nothing but Spartan -virtues and respects nothing but military glory.”</p> - -<p>“Well, then,” cried Augustus, a prey to the most bitter distress and -agitation, “there is nothing for me to do but to sign this cursed -paper!”</p> - -<p>“Your Majesty might strike another blow.”</p> - -<p>“You do not understand my position—the Muscovites have defeated -Mardenfeldt, they cannot defeat Karl—and if they discover that I am in -negotiation with him, they will abandon, if not murder me. You do not -know, Pfingsten, the ferocity of this Mentchikoff or his devotion to his -master. As for my resources,” he added, with a sigh as of one who had -too well calculated, often enough, his hopes and fears, “you know what -they amount to—Saxony is barren both of men and money—Poland lost.”</p> - -<p>“Some help might be hoped for from the Empire, sire.”</p> - -<p>“Not while Austria wars with France.”</p> - -<p>“And surely, sire, the Electorate is not yet exhausted,” protested -Pfingsten.</p> - -<p>“Ravaged by the Muscovites, occupied by the Swedes, what can be hoped -for from my wretched country?” exclaimed Augustus bitterly; he rose, and -thinking of the only friend and confidante he now possessed, he went to -an inner door concealed under a hanging of stamped and gilt leather and -called a woman’s name.</p> - -<p>Aurora von Königsmarck immediately entered the apartment.</p> - -<p>She had remained faithful to this King who was without a throne, men, -money, or friends, perhaps out of compassion, perhaps because she had no -choice of a more glorious destiny; certainly she had accompanied him in -all his flights and battles and distresses as closely as had Katherina -the Czar, though with a colder sympathy and a more disdainful endurance -of evil fortune. She was the only person besides the two envoys who<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_185" id="page_185"></a>{185}</span> -knew of the embassy to Karl; she had sent even her women away, and was -alone in the apartment of the King.</p> - -<p>“Well?” she demanded dryly, seeing by the Elector’s face that it was -further ill news.</p> - -<p>Her bold glance flickered to M. Pfingsten.</p> - -<p>“You have come on a disagreeable errand, sir,” she remarked, “but these -are disagreeable times.”</p> - -<p>She came, with her quick, graceful walk, to the fireplace, and stood -before the flames looking at the downcast faces of the two men.</p> - -<p>Since she had, in the height of her pride, lowered herself before Karl -XII, she had lost something of her beauty and all of her magnificence.</p> - -<p>Like everything belonging to Augustus, she was tarnished by continual -ill-fortune; nor did she care for the neatness and order possible even -in poverty; she would be either splendid or careless, and disdained -those shifts that labor to cover deficiency with artifice.</p> - -<p>She who had blazed in Dresden as the most gorgeous lady of the court, -now showed in a negligent undress of soiled sprigged silk over a -petticoat of yellow taffetas, with her rich hair fastened in a loose -knot without either art or neatness; her beauty was not of that radiant -youthfulness that can overcome these disadvantages, and she looked as -damaged in her fortunes, as eclipsed in her charms, as was proper to the -favorite of a fallen prince.</p> - -<p>In silence Augustus handed her the letter from Karl.</p> - -<p>He had a great faith in her intelligence, and even now cherished a hope -that her wit would point out some way of escape from his dilemma that -had not occurred to either Pfingsten or himself.</p> - -<p>Aurora read the letter and her nostrils dilated.</p> - -<p>Not Augustus himself knew a bitterer humiliation than she experienced as -she read the conqueror’s terms.</p> - -<p>She hated Karl with all the hatred of which her passionate nature was -capable.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_186" id="page_186"></a>{186}</span></p> - -<p>As he had so easily resisted her fascinations, so rudely refused her -advances, so completely scorned her, she did not regard him as a man, -but as some soulless creature, a werlion or wertiger sent on earth to -plague mankind.</p> - -<p>She fumbled at her laces with a quivering hand and darted a keen glance -at the gloomy countenance of the Elector.</p> - -<p>“Are you going to take these terms?” she demanded impetuously.</p> - -<p>“Do you see anything else for me to do?” asked the disheartened Prince.</p> - -<p>“Nothing a man like you <i>could</i> do,” she replied sharply.</p> - -<p>“Madame,” said M. Pfingsten, “there is the Muscovite army.”</p> - -<p>“But where is the man to lead it?” asked Aurora, with a cruel glance at -Augustus.</p> - -<p>M. Pfingsten was encouraged by her presence, which breathed energy and -vitality.</p> - -<p>“Let your Majesty,” he urged, “tear up that paper—put yourself at the -head of the army now in Varsovia and march on Saxony—there is nothing -more to lose and everything to be gained.”</p> - -<p>“Sir,” said the Countess bitterly, “you discuss expedients only possible -with another prince—and with another prince we should not have been -brought to this pass.”</p> - -<p>Augustus flushed but could find no answer in his own defense.</p> - -<p>“What is it that you propose to do?” she added sharply.</p> - -<p>“To sign that paper and go to Saxony to entreat Sweden to soften these -terms,” replied the unfortunate Elector; he was indeed so absorbed in -the contemplation of his own misery as to hardly wince under Aurora’s -scorn.</p> - -<p>She tapped her foot in an angry silence; she saw this was the fatal way -of weakness, which would have<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_187" id="page_187"></a>{187}</span> neither the dignity of defiance nor the -advantage of concession, since she knew well enough that Karl would be -merely irritated by any attempt to dispute his terms.</p> - -<p>But she also knew the man with whom she had to deal, and that it was -hopeless to expect even the semblance of heroism from a Prince like -Augustus, overwhelmed by six years of a disastrous war that had stripped -him of everything, even faith in himself.</p> - -<p>“Well, you must sign,” she said.</p> - -<p>There was a little silence, then the Countess added in a hard tone:</p> - -<p>“Mdle. D’Einsiedel came here last night—hurrying from Dresden to beg -for General Patkul’s release.”</p> - -<p>“My God!” broke from Augustus, as he realized the baseness of the action -he contemplated.</p> - -<p>“And she has been to Prince Mentchikoff, who is going to ask for the -Livonian’s release in the name of the Czar.”</p> - -<p>Augustus stood in a wretched silence.</p> - -<p>“I never understood why Patkul was arrested,” continued Aurora, in a -curious tone.</p> - -<p>An uneasy flush stained the Elector’s distressed face; he did not look -up.</p> - -<p>“Was it because you foresaw this emergency?” added the Countess.</p> - -<p>M. Pfingsten was startled to hear her express the same question as had -Karl.</p> - -<p>He knew that General Patkul had been arrested, on some flimsy pretext of -having exceeded his duties, immediately after the Czar’s departure for -Astrakan, and that he had been kept in easy and honorable captivity at -Sonnenstein, but not even when Karl had flung his sneer had he thought -for a moment that there was any connection between the arrest of the -Livonian and the position of Augustus before the conqueror.</p> - -<p>Now, as he heard the sharp words of the Countess and looked at the -stricken figure of Augustus, it occurred to him as at least strange that -the very man, on<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_188" id="page_188"></a>{188}</span> the surrender of whom depended the peace, should be so -completely in the Elector’s power—so that no warnings by his friends, -no protection from the Czar, his master, could save him from being -delivered to Sweden.</p> - -<p>“If you had not had Patkul at Sonnenstein,” said Aurora, “you could not -have surrendered him to Karl, and there would have been no pacifying -this victor. You are fortunate.”</p> - -<p>Goaded, Augustus turned on her with a flash of impotent anger.</p> - -<p>“You talk so much of General Patkul, Madame—you do not seem to attach -any importance to the fact that I shall have to surrender Poland!”</p> - -<p>It was M. Pfingsten who replied—with great earnestness.</p> - -<p>“Sire, your Majesty, by the fortunes of war, may easily regain the crown -of Poland, but you can never regain what you lose if you surrender -General Patkul.”</p> - -<p>“You are a poor diplomat,” returned the Elector angrily. “Are there not -ways of saving General Patkul? I can appeal to the King of Sweden -personally.”</p> - -<p>His hedging weakness angered Aurora; it was true that she had suggested -the surrender of Patkul and even broached the subject to Karl, but that -had been while there had been something to gain by concession; now that -her side was thoroughly beaten her blood was up, and, if she had been -Augustus, she would have cast Sweden’s terms in his face. Also she was -naturally generous, and once she realized what the delivery of Patkul to -Karl meant she could not put her hand to it; she saw that Augustus would -yield, had always meant to yield, and she despised him for it, as women -will despise men for weaknesses and meannesses of which they are capable -themselves.</p> - -<p>“Very well,” she said, “sign those terms.”</p> - -<p>She came quickly up to him, putting her lovely hand on his brocaded -sleeve.</p> - -<p>“Patkul must escape,” she added, gazing into the trembling face of -Augustus. “Send an order to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_189" id="page_189"></a>{189}</span> Governor of Sonnenstein to let him, -secretly, go at once.”</p> - -<p>Augustus was relieved by this suggestion that seemed to suit both his -convenience and his honor, yet he hesitated; to do this would be to play -a trick on the man on whose mercy his very existence would depend; if -Karl, who would be already sufficiently irritated by the victory of -Kalisz, knew of this fresh attempt to fool him, he would undoubtedly -refuse any possible concession in the harshness of his demands.</p> - -<p>But Aurora had pushed pen and paper under the reluctant hand of -Augustus.</p> - -<p>“He trusted you,” she said, “and to give him to Karl is to give him to a -cruel death.”</p> - -<p>“Sweden might be merciful,” muttered Augustus.</p> - -<p>Aurora ignored this feeble futility and resorted to another argument, -more powerful to influence the distracted Elector than the last.</p> - -<p>“Sire, Prince Mentchikoff will demand Patkul, Mdle. D’Einsiedel will -rouse Russia—better, at least, compromise.”</p> - -<p>Augustus seized the pen and hastily wrote an order for the secret and -immediate release of Patkul; Aurora von Königsmarck took it from him and -left the room.</p> - -<p>Everything was lost, but the brilliant and wayward woman did not think -of that; she went to her bed-chamber, threw on a mantle, and hastened to -a little closet in her suite of apartments, now all dismantled and in -confusion.</p> - -<p>A pale girl stood with locked hands at the window, staring out at the -chill September morning.</p> - -<p>The Countess thrust into her hands the order for General Patkul’s -release.</p> - -<p>“That goes to-day, dear, by our fleetest courier.” In the evening -Augustus signed the terms dictated by Karl XII.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_190" id="page_190"></a>{190}</span></p> - -<h3><a name="BOOK_VI" id="BOOK_VI"></a>BOOK VI<br /><br /> -THE BETRAYAL</h3> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Il y a un vulgaire parmi les princes, comme parmi les autres -hommes.”—<span class="smcap">Voltaire.</span></p></div> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_I-f" id="CHAPTER_I-f"></a>CHAPTER I</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">P</span>RINCE MENTCHIKOFF returned at once to Russia to put before the Czar the -new turn of events in Poland.</p> - -<p>Peter was still at Marli, superintending the building of his new capital -which was rising out of the filled dykes and drained marshes of the -desolate flats of the banks of the Neva.</p> - -<p>Mentchikoff was almost beside himself with fury at the news he brought, -but his rage was as nothing beside that of the Emperor.</p> - -<p>Peter glared at his friend with a wrath he could hardly sustain; but -contrary to his use, he made a terrible effort to control himself that -he might hear the tale to the full.</p> - -<p>He had been, at first, vexed at seeing Mentchikoff, thinking that he -should not have left the newly regained Varsovia, but now he admitted -that the Prince had done right to bring news so tremendous himself.</p> - -<p>He sat on a gilt leather arm-chair, in the little front room of his -cottage, dressed in a rough green frieze riding suit, his boots muddy -and a riding switch in his hand; he had just returned from a visit of -inspection of St. Petersburg, where streets, shops, palaces, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_191" id="page_191"></a>{191}</span> -churches were already covering the outlines of the city.</p> - -<p>Mentchikoff stood before him in the rich costume of a Russian general, -European in cut, but Eastern in color and embroidery, a diamond in his -sword hilt, a star on his breast, lace at his throat and wrists.</p> - -<p>His long brown and lean face, with the sharp bright black eyes and thick -lips, was pale with the intense passion of a fierce and uncivilized -nature.</p> - -<p>“This is what he did, Peter Alexievitch! I put him back in Varsovia; he -did not want to give battle at Kalisz—one knows why now! And one -morning he was gone—gone! With his woman and his valets—gone! To -Altranstadt—to the camp of the Swede!”</p> - -<p>“You were properly fooled,” muttered the Czar, in a stifling voice.</p> - -<p>Mentchikoff made not the least attempt to deny this.</p> - -<p>“There was one Pfingsten, one of his Germans, whom he sent to Karl—and -who brought his terms writ on a bit of paper, and he, this cursed -Augustus, signed and fled, to put himself at Karl’s mercy.”</p> - -<p>The Emperor’s eyes showed red, a faint dew besprinkled his forehead, he -bent his whip across his knee till it cracked, then flung it away and -buried his face in his hands, running his fingers into his dusky curls.</p> - -<p>“Mdle. D’Einsiedel came to me, the very day before—for months she had -been trying to find me—to tell me about Patkul. The whole thing was -kept secret, but it seems that he was arrested when you were called to -Astrakan. Of course Augustus knew the Swede would ask for him.”</p> - -<p>“<i>My</i> ambassador—<i>my</i> general!” groaned Peter.</p> - -<p>“When the Elector fled, this lady went back to vantage of his hurried -departure to order at once the release of Patkul, but there was much -delay, he having been moved from Sonnenstein to Königstein; the -messenger reached the governor of this place in time—the Countess von -Königsmarck was very active in<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_192" id="page_192"></a>{192}</span> this intrigue—but he tried to get -Patkul to pay ransom, knowing of his wealth, and while this argument was -in progress the Swedish officers arrived, and Patkul is now in -Altranstadt, fastened in a cellar with a great iron chain round his -waist.”</p> - -<p>Peter raised his face which was quite distorted, the eyes infected with -blood, the lips livid.</p> - -<p>“May the Devil overtake Augustus and torture him in Hell forever!” he -stammered. “May he be steeped to the lips in sorrow and bitterness, the -vile, false coward.”</p> - -<p>He ceased with a sob of sheer fury; he had always despised Augustus, but -never believed him capable of this; disloyalty and cowardice were the -two unforgiveable crimes in the eyes of the Muscovite; his primitive -nature did not recognize the usual excuses offered by diplomacy for the -actions forced by necessity on states and princes; nothing could -palliate the Elector’s conduct in his eyes; he considered that he had -been treated with black treachery and base ingratitude, and that -Augustus had behaved with the utmost villainy. He certainly was -incapable of such conduct himself; he would have died cheerfully sooner -than submit to an enemy, and though he might punish even his own family -with savage cruelty if he suspected them of treachery, he would never -have deserted a friend or have betrayed an ally.</p> - -<p>Through all the Elector’s misfortunes Peter had been staunch to him, -and, to the best of his ability, held out a helping hand; and when he -remembered that last Conference at Grodno, the amiable flattery of the -Saxon, the mutual promises, the sworn treaties, the vows of friendship -and mutual help against the Swede, and thought how the Elector had taken -advantage of his hurried departure to order at once the arrest of the -man who was a valuable asset in dealing with the enemy, he was shaken by -an excess of fury.</p> - -<p>“Danilovitch!” he cried, “I shall never forgive you<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_193" id="page_193"></a>{193}</span> that you did not -discover this traitor and bring him in chains to me!”</p> - -<p>“I shall never forgive myself, Peter Alexievitch,” replied the Prince -simply. “But who would have thought of such vileness? He has that smooth -Western way of lies and smiles.”</p> - -<p>“The woman Königsmarck is in this.”</p> - -<p>“I do not think so. I know that she did her best to save Patkul; she has -more courage than he, and I think, more honor. She is a friend, too, of -Mdle. D’Einsiedel—that child will die of this, Peter Alexievitch.”</p> - -<p>“What will they do with Patkul?” asked Peter fiercely.</p> - -<p>“He is to be tried by a council of war. Karl treats him as a rebellious -subject. He will suffer a cruel death.”</p> - -<p>In Karl’s place Peter would have behaved with the same severity; he had -never shown mercy to those whom he judged rebels, and therefore he did -not feel the fury of hate towards Karl that he felt towards Augustus, -but he was conscious of a certain wonder that this young king whom he -had regarded with secret admiration as being much greater than himself, -could indulge in the same bloodthirsty vengeances.</p> - -<p>“Is this Sweden’s famous clemency?” he asked bitterly. “Is he then so -magnificent?”</p> - -<p>He was silent, communing with his own soul; he thought he would have -been more chivalrous than Karl, and not taken advantage of the weakness -of Augustus to demand the surrender of a man in the employ of another -monarch.</p> - -<p>From that moment the cold knightly figure of the Scandinavian, vested -with all the virtues to which he himself might never hope to aspire, was -smirched in the eyes of Peter.</p> - -<p>“The Muscovite prisoners were slain after Fraustadt—by whose orders?” -he said. “And now this. This man is no better than I,” he added, with a -strange simplicity, “and I shall defeat him.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_194" id="page_194"></a>{194}</span></p> - -<p>Then his thoughts turned to Augustus, and he flashed from brooding into -wrath.</p> - -<p>“How was the Elector received at Altranstadt?” he demanded.</p> - -<p>“The Swede met him privately, they say, and treated him with a cold -civility. Their talk was of trifles, mainly of the boots Karl wore, -which he had never been without, he said, for ten years, save to sleep, -and then Stanislaus Leczinski came, and Augustus had to salute him as -King of Poland.”</p> - -<p>“Is it possible there lives a prince so spiritless!” exclaimed Peter.</p> - -<p>“He must have suffered,” said Mentchikoff with satisfaction. “After -Kalisz Sweden’s terms became harder. Augustus had to send the archives -and State jewels to Stanislaus, cause his name as King of Poland to be -effaced from all documents and monuments, and write a letter of -congratulation to Stanislaus.”</p> - -<p>“And that is the mercy he obtained by throwing himself on the compassion -of Karl!” cried the Russian, “and I was allied with such a prince! What -does he mean to do now?”</p> - -<p>“Karl is supposed to retire from Saxony and leave him in peace,” said -Mentchikoff dryly. “As for the Palatine of Posnania, he has a poor gift -in the throne of Poland—the factious nobles, such as the Sapieha, have -laid waste what the Swedes and your Muscovites have spared. The country -is a smoking ruin.”</p> - -<p>“And that is what the King of Sweden has achieved by his conquest,” said -Peter grimly. “Why does he so favor Stanislaus Leczinski?”</p> - -<p>“No one knows—perhaps because he knows how to flatter him.”</p> - -<p>Peter gave his favorite an ugly look.</p> - -<p>“Do you think that is the sole reason for the friendship of kings?” he -demanded.</p> - -<p>Mentchikoff saw his danger and fell on one knee, kissing passionately -his master’s rough hand; he knew that there is nothing an absolute -prince dislikes more than the insinuation that he is ruled through his -vanity and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_195" id="page_195"></a>{195}</span> adroitly influenced by flattery, even though he is seldom -led by any other means or persuasion.</p> - -<p>Peter was mollified by this act of homage.</p> - -<p>“If you flattered me, Danilovitch, I should love you no longer,” he -said.</p> - -<p>“If I had been a flatterer,” replied Mentchikoff, “I should not have -brought you this ill news, Peter Alexievitch.”</p> - -<p>The Czar rose, raising his favorite also to his feet. He did not feel -any ill-will towards the Prince for his failure to detect the secret -negotiations of the Elector; all the force of his ardent soul was -absorbed in fury against his faithless ally.</p> - -<p>“Patkul must be saved,” he said. “Am I to submit to this treatment? I -will appeal to England, to Holland, to the Empire!”</p> - -<p>Mentchikoff did not voice his thoughts, which were that the name of Karl -now sounded so terribly in Europe that it was doubtful if any nation -would dare to interfere with him, besides the fact that the countries -mentioned by Peter were engaged in a costly war with France.</p> - -<p>He frowned at the floor and was silent; he could see no way by which -Peter could come by satisfaction and vengeance save through his own -genius and might.</p> - -<p>“Patkul shall not die,” said Peter. “Karl would not dare.”</p> - -<p>“There are the Swedish prisoners who might be executed in reprisal,” -remarked Mentchikoff.</p> - -<p>This suggestion suited Peter’s breed and training, and, perhaps, his -disposition, but that prudence and foresight that distinguished him from -his predecessors caused him to reject a proposal that was useless and -dangerous.</p> - -<p>“There are more Muscovites in Sweden than Swedes in Muscovy,” he said -grimly. “I will take another vengeance. I will march on Poland.”</p> - -<p>He paused and tore at his neckcloth as if to loosen it and give himself -air.</p> - -<p>“Of all those who joined against Karl, there is only<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_196" id="page_196"></a>{196}</span> Russia left,” he -added, with a terrible look. “But Russia will defeat him—listen, -Danilovitch, I will not stop until I have crushed him, beaten him, -reduced him, as he has crushed, beaten, and reduced Augustus! And if he -slays Patkul——”</p> - -<p>He paused and added in a low voice: “I loved Patkul.”</p> - -<p>He took a turn about the room in a great and increasing agitation.</p> - -<p>“Seven years have I fought him—with no weapons but those that I could -forge myself well; he had everything to his hand, and he conquered. But -I am ready now. Are not things different, Danilovitch? I have built a -city and a fort, a navy; I have trained an army—can I not defeat Karl -of Sweden?”</p> - -<p>“I never doubted,” replied Mentchikoff, a look of fiery enthusiasm in -his little dark eyes, “that your Majesty would bring down this insolent -braggart.”</p> - -<p>“To break him, Danilovitch!” cried the Czar. “To smash his invincible -armies, to send his veterans flying before me, to make him fly—to drive -him to ruin, to exile, to make the glory of his victories disappear like -smoke before the sun! That would be an achievement, Danilovitch!”</p> - -<p>He paused, exhausted by his own passion, and caught hold of the back of -the chair in which he had been sitting.</p> - -<p>“I did not enter into this war for lust of conquest,” he said, as if -justifying himself, yet with an almost wistful dignity. “Not for hate, -as Denmark did—not for folly, as Saxony did. I wanted my Baltic -ports—the trade, the commerce, the prosperity. No one understands -that.”</p> - -<p>“These things must be fought for, Peter Alexievitch,” replied -Mentchikoff.</p> - -<p>“To that end have I built a navy and trained an army,” said Peter -sternly. “I perceive that I shall get nothing of what I want as long as -Karl of Sweden is master of the North.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_197" id="page_197"></a>{197}</span></p> - -<p>He sat down again with something of a groan; rage at the defection of -Augustus so consumed him that he could hardly command his thoughts.</p> - -<p>“Sweden does not know,” remarked Mentchikoff, “what he has roused in -Russia. He thinks the Muscovites may be scattered by the whip and are -not worthy of powder and shot—he insults Augustus with impunity because -he does not think that we are to be feared.”</p> - -<p>Peter turned his inflamed eyes towards the dark, pearl-crowned ikon that -hung above the stove.</p> - -<p>“God, help me to do this one thing,” he muttered. “To smite Sweden.”</p> - -<p>His face assumed an expression of dark and lowering anger.</p> - -<p>“If Patkul is slain,” he added. “Now would Sweden dare?”</p> - -<p>Then, with a sudden and entirely unconscious pathos, “Europe will not -listen to me—I am only the Czar of Muscovy. They do not take me as a -power to be reckoned with, Danilovitch.”</p> - -<p>“They do not know you, Peter Alexievitch,” replied Mentchikoff.</p> - -<p>Peter pursued his own train of thought.</p> - -<p>“He breaks all international law—if Patkul had been the envoy of any -other country but Russia the world would have cried out against this -treatment.”</p> - -<p>Despite his passionate nature and his autocratic position he saw -shrewdly enough just how Europe held him.</p> - -<p>“I will make my protest, but who will take any notice of it?” he -continued.</p> - -<p>“Peter Alexievitch, you must make your own protest,” said Mentchikoff, -in an energetic tone. “Cannot you defeat Sweden?” added this fiery -Russian.</p> - -<p>“It has been done,” responded the Czar, with a sudden smile. “You beat -them at Kalisz!”</p> - -<p>He spoke warmly and without a trace of envy of his subject’s success in -a war where he had every time<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_198" id="page_198"></a>{198}</span> failed himself, thereby, had he known it, -showing himself greater than Karl, who had not been able to restrain his -jealousy on hearing of Mardenfeldt’s victory at Fraustadt.</p> - -<p>With equal generosity and selflessness Mentchikoff replied:</p> - -<p>“I was in a little way the forerunner of you, Peter Alexievitch—when -you strike, Sweden will quiver to the shock!”</p> - -<p>The Emperor fixed on him soft and lustrous eyes, tired and earnest.</p> - -<p>“I must call a council,” he said, “but I know what to do—I will descend -on Poland with my new army. Karl is likely to remain at Altranstadt?”</p> - -<p>“There is no talk of his leaving. The English are sending an envoy to -him—at least a rumor says so.”</p> - -<p>“They are afraid he will fall on the Empire,” said Peter instantly.</p> - -<p>“He will not,” replied Mentchikoff simply. “His design is solely against -Russia.”</p> - -<p>“He troubles himself not at all about the West?”</p> - -<p>“Not at all, I think. He would be Alexander—Saxony is but his -Thrace—Russia must be his Persia, and he thinks all his conquests -little things beside that battle that must be his Gaugamela!”</p> - -<p>“He would dethrone me, and I would break him utterly,” remarked Peter. -“It only is to be seen which is the stronger man.”</p> - -<p>He pressed Mentchikoff’s hand and left the room abruptly, seeking that -comfort which never failed to soothe him in his most gloomy and bitter -moods, Katherina, now his wife.</p> - -<p>He found her in the garden amid the lilac thickets that were just -beginning to be covered with their pale flowers.</p> - -<p>The Livonian peasant girl was now rather stout, heavy and indolent in -habit, slow in her movements, generally silent, with a good-natured -smile on her full lips.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_199" id="page_199"></a>{199}</span></p> - -<p>Her extraordinary elevation had in no way altered her disposition; she -was as unassuming as she had been when she was the servant of -Mentchikoff; she did not mingle in the least in politics of which she -understood nothing, but she was intelligent enough to at least feign an -appreciation of what Peter was trying to do for Russia, and her quiet -sweetness, her placid cheerfulness never grew stale to Peter; he looked -upon her almost as his savior, from the devils of melancholy and horror -that tore at his soul.</p> - -<p>He was not nice in his tastes. Her lack of refinement did not vex him; -her over-blown, untidy beauty still satisfied him, neither her manners -nor her past troubled him; with a certain grandeur he disdained -everything but the fact that she was the one woman he had found wholly -pleasing; she went everywhere with him and knew all his secrets; so far -she had been faithful to him, perhaps because in her heart she was -entirely afraid of him, and, for all her outward calm, very wary.</p> - -<p>The Czar flung himself on the seat she reclined on, and put his arm -round her shoulders, turning her fair countenance, framed in the long, -Russian veil, towards him.</p> - -<p>“Saxony has delivered my Patkul to Sweden!” he said.</p> - -<p>“Alas, poor gentleman!” cried Katherina, in genuine distress.</p> - -<p>Peter kissed her fiercely.</p> - -<p>“What do you think I shall do, my rose?” he asked.</p> - -<p>“Why, rescue him, Peter Alexievitch.”</p> - -<p>“That, if I can—if I am too late—” the veins stood out on his forehead -and a light foam gathered on his lips. “Do you not think I shall avenge -him?” he asked pitifully.</p> - -<p>Katherina answered as if he had been a child.</p> - -<p>“Why, of course,” she said.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_200" id="page_200"></a>{200}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_II-f" id="CHAPTER_II-f"></a>CHAPTER II</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">E</span>UROPE, absorbed in the war of the Spanish Succession, paid no heed to -the Czar’s bitter protests against Saxony and Sweden, and Patkul was -sent to Kazimicry.</p> - -<p>Peter, with an army of 60,000 trained men, officered by Germans, -obtained secretly from the Emperor of Austria, who was alarmed by the -near approach of the terrible Swede, marched into Poland.</p> - -<p>General Lewenhaupt was not able to guard the entries into this country -which was neither fortified nor united, and the Czar took Lublin which -had been left without a Swedish garrison, and there convoked a Diet on -the model of that of Varsovia, thereby further distracting an already -thrice distracted country.</p> - -<p>Augustus was now as hateful as Stanislaus in the eyes of Peter, and his -project was to give all that the Elector had renounced by the peace of -Altranstadt to a third king; he had in his mind Racoczy, Prince of -Transylvania.</p> - -<p>Russian gold and Russian promises soon gained a powerful faction in -Poland; Peter exerted himself to please.</p> - -<p>His portrait, enriched with diamonds, was presented to the officers who -had fought at Kalisz, and gold and silver medals to the soldiers; it was -the Czar’s great pride to mention that these records of his first -victory had been struck in his new capital.</p> - -<p>The Diet at Lublin, however, distracted by faction and intrigue, fearful -of Sweden and suspicious of the Czar, made little progress towards any -settlement of the affairs of Poland; it would recognize neither<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_201" id="page_201"></a>{201}</span> -Augustus nor Stanislaus, but was by no means agreed as to the man to put -in the place of these monarchs. Peter, with a slowness that led his -enemy into despising him, remained at Lublin watching these intrigues -and training his army, his sole encounters with the enemy being -skirmishes between wandering parties of Muscovites and detachments of -Lewenhaupt’s Swedes in Livonia and Lithuania; a kind of warfare which -ruined the wretched country without giving any advantage to either side. -Meanwhile the Sapieha and Oginski, again commenced pillaging and -burning, marauding friend and foe alike, causing Karl to send Stanislaus -with General Rehnsköld to Poland to endeavor to reduce these disorders.</p> - -<p>Peter, finding it impossible to maintain an army any longer in a country -so ruined and desolate, and pursuing his waiting policy, left the Diet -of Lublin to their deliberations and fell back on his base in Lithuania, -daily strengthening his forces and filling the courts of Europe with his -plaints against Karl and his demands for the return of Patkul.</p> - -<p>This left Stanislaus sole master of Poland, and the power of Karl was at -its height; his camp at Altranstadt held envoys from all the princes of -Europe, seeking his favor, endeavoring to discover his plans and to gain -his alliance.</p> - -<p>In this moment Karl gave little thought to Peter, save to issue scornful -orders for the suppression of his predatory bands of Tartars and -Cossacks.</p> - -<p>Karl now turned his attention to the Empire, and in revenge for a slight -he thought he had received at the hands of the Emperor’s chamberlain, he -demanded reparation from Joseph in the haughtiest terms, insisting not -only on the banishment of the offending Count Tobar, but on that -nobleman’s delivery into his own hands, and the surrender of the -Muscovite refugees that had escaped over the frontier into Austria.</p> - -<p>This abuse of the law of nations passed without a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_202" id="page_202"></a>{202}</span> murmur in Europe, so -powerful was Sweden, as did also Karl’s demand that their ancient -privileges be restored to the Protestants of Silesia.</p> - -<p>Joseph humbled himself as Augustus had done, and the court of Vienna was -as humble as that of Saxony.</p> - -<p>“If the King of Sweden had asked me to turn Lutheran I should have been -obliged to do it,” said the Austrian, in reply to the papal nuncio’s -protests.</p> - -<p>Peter heard these things with outbursts of fury, but continued to accept -the German officers secretly sent him by the feeble Emperor.</p> - -<p>He was in Lithuania, occupying his days with training and hardening his -troops, endeavoring to rouse Europe to save Patkul, and watching the -increasing splendor of his terrible enemy, when Hélène D’Einsiedel, who -had made her way from Dresden amid incredible difficulties, forced her -way into the Czar’s presence and besought him, in the accents of a -creature distracted, to rescue her lover.</p> - -<p>“I am helpless,” said Peter, with a dreadful look at the livid face of -the wretched girl.</p> - -<p>“He will be executed—in the most horrible way,” whispered Hélène. “We -were to have been married this autumn.”</p> - -<p>“Child,” said the Czar kindly, “I have done what I could. I do not need -a woman to urge me to this duty.” He looked away from where she knelt, -huddled on the dirty floor at his feet, in her dusty traveling dress, -all grace and beauty crushed out of her. “I will break Sweden,” he -added.</p> - -<p>“What is that to me,” cried Hélène, “if Patkul dies?”</p> - -<p>“Would it not be something,” asked Peter, “to have revenge?”</p> - -<p>She appeared not to hear him; her distraught mind was concentrated on -one thing only that was stronger than her fatigue or her despair—the -effort to save Patkul.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_203" id="page_203"></a>{203}</span></p> - -<p>“Cannot you, who are an Emperor, do this?” she implored.</p> - -<p>Peter turned fiercely to Mentchikoff.</p> - -<p>“Take away this woman,” he said, “I cannot endure it.”</p> - -<p>The shuddering creature staggered to her feet before the officers could -touch her, and flung out her poor, feeble hands with a shriek.</p> - -<p>“They will break him on the wheel!” she wailed. “Oh, let me die first!”</p> - -<p>Peter had looked on many frantic women before, and heard similar words -often enough. The wives, mothers and sisters of the Strelitz executed in -the Red Square, many of them by Peter’s own hand, had comported -themselves in similar fashion, mad with grief and horror, and he had -given them never a glance, yet the anguish of this fond creature, who -had traveled so far and through such perils that she was half-crazed -with terror and fatigue, to demand a protection it was out of his power -to bestow, moved him terribly; he could not bear to look on her, and she -was forced from his presence and given to the charge of the servants who -had come with her on this desperate journey.</p> - -<p>“Let Katherina go to her,” muttered the Czar. “Katherina has a gentle -mind and a soothing tongue.”</p> - -<p>For himself he sought Mentchikoff, that firm and tireless friend.</p> - -<p>Throwing an old mantle about his shoulders, for this autumn was -unusually chill, even for the North, he mounted his great, rough horse -and rode to the quarters of the Prince that were far more comfortable -than his own.</p> - -<p>He was humiliated and struck to the heart; with an impatience and gloomy -bitterness he eyed his huge encampment; what use was it to train these -men who fled at the very name of the King of Sweden? What good his -pains, his example, his rewards, his punishments, to mold a nation -uncivilized in every art and science?<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_204" id="page_204"></a>{204}</span></p> - -<p>The reactionary party was still at work; there were eager hands ready to -undo his every reform; his heir, son of the repudiated Eudoxia, was a -weakling, none of the children of Katherina, his chosen woman, had -lived.</p> - -<p>Almost his task seemed too great for the Russian; the war had been long -and entirely disastrous; if it had taught him the art of war, it had -done so in lessons rude and bitter.</p> - -<p>His allies had fallen away from him; his enemy was in every way -triumphant, had eclipsed his glory, dimmed his rising renown, made him -and his attempts at greatness a laughing-stock.</p> - -<p>Europe would not even listen to him when he complained of Karl’s breach -of international law and demanded his ambassador; instead they sent -their representatives to do homage to the conqueror in his camp. The -Emperor of Austria cringed, Europe was at the feet of this young man—in -truth a second Alexander, who had but to decide in which direction his -further glory should lie; and no one troubled about Muscovy and its -passionate ruler, so fiercely trying to educate his country into some -semblance of his ambitious dreams.</p> - -<p>“Sweden blocks me,” said Peter to Mentchikoff. “He must go, or all we -have done is in vain. He stops my progress, Danilovitch; he wants to -pull down, I to build. What am I to do—it seems that he is invincible.”</p> - -<p>He spoke without malice or hate now, only with a sadness that was -wistful in its sincerity.</p> - -<p>“And Patkul!” he added. “Patkul will be broken, Danilovitch.”</p> - -<p>“I would we could break Augustus,” said the Prince.</p> - -<p>“With my own hands,” remarked the Czar, “I would put him to the torture. -That little thing came from Dresden to ask me to save Patkul—and I can -do nothing!”</p> - -<p>It was the bitterest mortification to which he had<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_205" id="page_205"></a>{205}</span> ever been subject in -a life full of vicissitudes; Mentchikoff knew it and scowled; he could -not endure to glance at the cruel position in which his adored master -found himself; his own whole being was absorbed in a deep hatred of -Augustus and the Swede.</p> - -<p>But he had a greater faith in Peter than Peter had himself; the Czar -might be torn with doubts and fears, but the subject was certain of the -ultimate downfall of the Swede.</p> - -<p>Peter, with an effort, it seemed, to shake off the gloom that was -settling on him, asked Mentchikoff for a certain Pole who had been -employed as a spy in the camp at Altranstadt, and who had lately -returned to Lithuania.</p> - -<p>“I would like to see him,” said the Czar somberly.</p> - -<p>“But he knows nothing,” replied Mentchikoff; “nothing—I have already -examined him.”</p> - -<p>“He knows,” returned Peter, “something of the life of the King of -Sweden—bring him here, Danilovitch.”</p> - -<p>Mentchikoff was reluctant to do this; he felt that it was morbid for -Peter to be so interested in the habits of his rival and a certain -slight to his own dignity, but he did not dare refuse, and the Pole, a -tall, thin fellow with red eyes and sandy hair, was brought before the -Emperor. Peter eyed him gloomily.</p> - -<p>“Prince Mentchikoff tells me that you discovered nothing at -Altranstadt,” he said.</p> - -<p>“Sire,” replied the Pole, with a movement as if he would prostrate -himself before the Czar, “how can one discover the secrets of a King who -has no confidants?”</p> - -<p>“I think he has no secrets either,” remarked Peter, “his design is clear -enough. He wishes to dethrone me.”</p> - -<p>“Yet that is not clear, sire,” answered the spy earnestly. “All the -princes of Europe have envoys at his camp trying to find out his plans, -each begging for his favor and alliance. And he is dumb to all.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_206" id="page_206"></a>{206}</span></p> - -<p>The Czar glanced at his friend.</p> - -<p>“A proud position, Danilovitch!” he said. “A proud position!”</p> - -<p>“They wonder,” resumed the spy, eager to show that he had not been -altogether useless, “why he lingers so long in Saxony—there are many -comments as to that. He cannot,” added the Pole, who knew that he might -safely speak of the humiliation of Augustus to Peter, “further lower the -Elector who has even written a letter of congratulation to Stanislaus -Leczinski.”</p> - -<p>“May every ill overtake him for it!” exclaimed Peter in a loud voice, -and with a suffused face.</p> - -<p>“He has even, sire, had the mortification of having to deliver his -favorite, General Fleming, to the King of Sweden who claims him as his -subject, and only the entreaties of Stanislaus Leczinski stayed Karl -from putting him to death.”</p> - -<p>Peter was not interested in General Fleming, and was impatient of -hearing of what he considered further vileness on the part of the -Elector, whom he regarded as one dead and damned—no longer to be taken -into account, and only to be remembered to have his memory cursed.</p> - -<p>“Tell me how the King of Sweden lives,” he demanded, fixing his soft, -dark, bloodshot eyes on the ferret-like face of the spy.</p> - -<p>“Sire—as he has always done—he is the worst housed, the worst served -and fed in his army. He never touches wine, and his food is plain and -scanty, his bed a straw pallet. It is his pleasure to inure himself to -every kind of fatigue and hardship. He rides out three times a day, and -has no amusements or diversions of any kind.”</p> - -<p>Peter looked at Mentchikoff, regardless of the presence of the Pole.</p> - -<p>“Think what a man I could be, Danilovitch!” he cried enviously, “could I -so control myself!”</p> - -<p>“Peter Alexievitch,” replied the Prince hotly, “do<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_207" id="page_207"></a>{207}</span> you seek to compare -yourself with this hard, heartless automaton?”</p> - -<p>“It is a wonderful thing,” insisted the Czar, “for a man to be so master -of himself.”</p> - -<p>“It is their manner in Scandinavia,” said Mentchikoff. “They have few -passions and dull appetites. But Karl boasts himself too soon if he -would be above humanity—he takes his revenge on Patkul!”</p> - -<p>The spy glanced furtively at the two Russians, not himself daring to -enter on ground so delicate.</p> - -<p>“Where is he better than us wretched mortals in that?” added the -hot-hearted Prince.</p> - -<p>“Indeed,” said the Pole, “he is quite hard in these things. He has never -been known to grant mercy to those who offend him. There was a Livonian -officer captured and sent to Sweden, sire, and there in Stockholm judged -and condemned to death. The King would not listen to any entreaties, but -this soldier persuaded the Swedes that he knew the secret of the -philosopher’s stone, and the Queen-Mother sent to the camp to know if -she might offer pardon to the man in exchange for his secret. But the -King replied that he could not do for interest what he had refused to do -for compassion. And the officer was beheaded.”</p> - -<p>Peter had listened intently, his eyes full of a dark fire.</p> - -<p>“Did the King believe that the man knew how to make gold?” he asked -keenly.</p> - -<p>“Sire, it is said that he did,” replied the Pole, “for a pure bar of -gold was sent him that the prisoner had made in his cell before the -Swedish councilors.”</p> - -<p>“Then,” exclaimed the Czar, “this action shows a certain grandeur in -him!”</p> - -<p>But Mentchikoff was quick to seize on another aspect of the tale.</p> - -<p>“Did you say this fellow was beheaded?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, excellency.”</p> - -<p>“And Patkul is to be broken on the wheel—and his crime is equal to that -of this man. Where is the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_208" id="page_208"></a>{208}</span> grandeur in that, Peter Alexievitch? Not the -offense but the man is punished by this cruel sentence.”</p> - -<p>At this mention of his unfortunate general, Peter’s brow darkened again.</p> - -<p>“Whether such a man as this is to be respected or not, I cannot say—but -he is to be feared, Danilovitch!”</p> - -<p>The Czar then turned abruptly to the spy.</p> - -<p>“Is there no whisper in Altranstadt as to Sweden’s future designs?” he -asked.</p> - -<p>“Sire, there are many whispers. He has sent envoys into Persia and -India. The Sultan has sent an ambassador to him returning the Swedish -prisoners who fled into Turkey; his officers have always boasting -stories on their lips of what he will accomplish.”</p> - -<p>“And they are right!” exclaimed Peter. “What may not this man, -twenty-five, hardy, fearless, never defeated, and whose feats of arms -have astonished the world, expect to achieve?”</p> - -<p>“Nothing that you cannot thwart him in,” replied Mentchikoff, who did -not like his master’s attitude of admiration for his enemy.</p> - -<p>The Czar took no notice of this remark but continued to question the -spy.</p> - -<p>“He never looks at women, this Swede? There is no one who influences -him?”</p> - -<p>“No one, sire. For him it seems as if women did not exist. When he is -forced to meet them he treats them with a freezing coldness—and avoids -them when he can. They say he favored one woman when he was in -Stockholm, but she died soon after he left for the war.”</p> - -<p>“Indeed,” said the Emperor, who could hardly conceive of a life of such -austerity, “if he has never been drunk or in love or in a passion, he is -hardly human—and the more dangerous.”</p> - -<p>“He is neither invulnerable nor invincible,” remarked Mentchikoff.</p> - -<p>Peter suddenly flashed him a warm smile.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_209" id="page_209"></a>{209}</span></p> - -<p>“You are jealous for my dignity, Danilovitch,” he said. “I love you for -it. And it is true that I am not defeated yet, nor old nor sick, and I -have still to try conclusions with the Swede. Twenty times has he driven -me out of Poland—and twenty times have I returned.”</p> - -<p>But his heart was not as brave as his words; despite himself his -continued ill-success had induced in him a conviction of the -invincibility of Karl whom he admired for possessing all the qualities -he would have wished for in his own character, and whose glory, now at -its most dazzling height, a little blinded the eyes of Peter. He alone -knew the magnitude of the task that he had undertaken, the chaos of his -armies, and the factions in his court and among his people.</p> - -<p>Not even Mentchikoff could gauge the difficulties on which Peter labored -on that long hard road, unenlivened by any success or encouragement, -which he had set himself to travel.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_210" id="page_210"></a>{210}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_III-f" id="CHAPTER_III-f"></a>CHAPTER III</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">I</span>F the splendor of Karl’s achievements dazzled even Peter, to the rest -of the world it was indeed overwhelming.</p> - -<p>This monarch, still in the first flower of his youth, found himself in a -position unique in the history of the modern world.</p> - -<p>Louis XIV had begun his reign by conquests perhaps as considerable, but -his victories had been won by proxy; his cause was not so fine nor his -behavior so remarkable, and his vanity had taken a form more ordinary, -his pride had assumed the proportions to which men are most accustomed.</p> - -<p>But both the achievements and the character of Karl were extraordinary; -his victories were owing to his personal genius, the discipline of his -army to his own efforts, the austere behavior of his men, so rare in the -soldiers of a conquering army, to his own example.</p> - -<p>There was no danger or hardship that he had not shared with his meanest -soldier, and if they did not cherish that warm devotion for him that men -have felt for leaders more human in their weaknesses, at least they -accorded him an awed respect that did not permit them to murmur at his -most severe regulations.</p> - -<p>They had come, too, to believe that while under his leadership they were -invincible, the one reverse they had received having taken place while -he was absent; they told each other that Mentchikoff would never have -beaten the Swedes at Kalisz had they been commanded by Karl; in his -heart Peter had thought the same.</p> - -<p>The summer was waning, and still Karl remained at Altranstadt; Count -Piper, now become a feeble and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_211" id="page_211"></a>{211}</span> sickly man through the effect of a -sudden illness, watched with a dull, half-cynical eye the glory of his -master, and his place was largely taken by Baron Görtz, the -grand-marshal of the Bishop of Lubeck, whose daring spirit and military -enthusiasms entirely suited the peculiar temperament of the King.</p> - -<p>Stanislaus now reigned in Poland with as much security as was possible -to one who owed his elevation to a whim of fortune, and who ruled a -country so torn and exhausted by war; he had been recognized by the -leading courts of Europe, including that of Dresden, and in this -direction at least the ambition of Karl was satisfied.</p> - -<p>Among those who came to Altranstadt to endeavor to discover the policy -or gain the alliance of the redoubtable conqueror who had just humbled -the Empire was a man whose fame as a captain had rivaled that of Karl, -though in all save military genius he was different from the Swede.</p> - -<p>This was the English general, John, Duke of Marlborough, sent by the -English Government to sound Karl on the likelihood of his joining the -war of the Spanish Succession, either for or against the allies.</p> - -<p>This the Duke, as able a diplomat as he was a soldier, hoped to discover -by proposing Karl as a mediator between the allies of France, a design -that he thought would flatter the King into disclosing his real -intentions.</p> - -<p>Karl, who had treated with a cold indifference the other ambassadors and -plenipotentiaries who had waited on him, showed some eagerness to meet -this man who had never fought a battle that he had not won, nor besieged -a town he had not taken, and whose brilliant genius had broken the -mighty power of France.</p> - -<p>The Duke himself had applied to the Baron Görtz for an audience, and by -him and the English minister was taken to Karl’s plain and severe -quarters at Leipzig, where he then was.</p> - -<p>The King received him in a small room without <span class="pagenum"><a name="page_212" id="page_212"></a>{212}</span>hangings or carpets, and -with no furniture save a few chairs and a table of bare wood; he had -with him Count Piper, who looked ill and vexed; the minister was -prejudiced against the Englishman because he had applied to Görtz -instead of to himself for this audience.</p> - -<p>The Duke of Marlborough entered with a light step the poorest royal -chamber he had ever seen, and saluted Karl with a courtier’s bow; these -two remarkable captains faced each other with a flash of curiosity that -for a second obscured all other matters.</p> - -<p>The Duke was then nearly sixty years of age, but still of an unusual -handsomeness and an infinite grace in his person; he was attired in the -extreme of the fashion, black velvet brocade, white satin waistcoat -flourished in colored silks, a rich Mechlin cravat and ruffles, a black -satin cravat and a diamond buckle, a long curling peruke framing his -worn, charming, and vivacious face.</p> - -<p>He was both perfumed and powdered, and carried an elegant little sword -with brilliants in the hilt.</p> - -<p>The interest died from Karl’s blue eyes and a look of cold disgust took -its place; the Englishman was not the Swede’s idea of a warrior. Nor was -Karl in his old jackboots, worn blue great-coat with the rubbed leather -buttons, his black taffeta stock and soiled leather gloves, his stiff -air and ungracious look, the Englishman’s idea of a King.</p> - -<p>Karl wore a light peruke and a three-cornered hat; his face was -impassive and cold, and he gave a bare salute in return for the Duke’s -greeting.</p> - -<p>Marlborough was not in the least disconcerted. He had the perfect ease -of manner born of long acquaintance with princes and rulers, and was an -adept in dealing with all manner of men.</p> - -<p>He was as ready with his opening compliment as if he had met with a -gracious reception.</p> - -<p>“Sire,” he said in French, “I should be happy if I could learn under -your orders what I do not know of the art of war.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_213" id="page_213"></a>{213}</span></p> - -<p>Karl received this in a freezing silence; it was the type of flattery -that he most disliked, and he had taken a complete aversion to the -elegance of the great Englishman’s appearance and to his courtier-like -manners.</p> - -<p>Marlborough, in no way discomposed, entered agreeably into further -compliments, since it seemed that it was he who must make the -conversation.</p> - -<p>He spoke in French, and Karl, who knew this language but would never use -it, replied in Swedish, of which tongue the Duke was wholly ignorant.</p> - -<p>The English minister interpreted, and the conversation on general topics -became slow and fatiguing. The English envoy was not in any way thrown -out by this.</p> - -<p>He wished to discover if Karl was likely to interfere in the war between -France and the allies; he was dangerously near and had severely treated -the Emperor, the most doubtful member of the league against Louis XII.</p> - -<p>This object the Duke believed he could attain by merely watching the -King of Sweden.</p> - -<p>Karl, who knew his design, and disdained all those whom he thought were -wanting his favor or alliance, broached the subject with a cold -bluntness.</p> - -<p>“I wonder your grace takes the trouble to concern yourself in this -affair. I gave my word seven years ago not to meddle in this war.”</p> - -<p>Marlborough bowed gravely; he did not believe that anyone would -sacrifice power and interest to their word; he was too well used to the -ways of princes to be greatly impressed by what Karl said.</p> - -<p>Perfectly at his ease and with a charming smile he studied this -imperious boy who had put Northern Europe under his foot.</p> - -<p>With that graceful composure so natural to him he began to talk of the -war with France, naming some of the victories of the allies.</p> - -<p>Karl could not listen without interest to any matter<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_214" id="page_214"></a>{214}</span> connected with -military affairs, and he had a natural prejudice against the French, so -he remained silent, resting his hands on the hilt of his great plain -heavy sword that he held in front of him, and followed with attention -what the Duke was saying.</p> - -<p>But he was as impervious to the charm of Marlborough as he had been to -that of Aurora von Königsmarck.</p> - -<p>Marlborough, who was used to swaying men and exercising a strong -personal influence, soon perceived this.</p> - -<p>“Sire,” he said suddenly, his fine eyes keen, alert, and slightly -amused, “why do I speak of these things to one who has accomplished so -many greater ones? Your Majesty, who has already dethroned one King, and -will another——”</p> - -<p>Karl’s eyes suddenly lit.</p> - -<p>“Whom do you think I shall dethrone, my lord?” he asked, and signed to -M. Robinson, the English minister, to quickly interpret his question.</p> - -<p>“So you are human,” thought Marlborough.</p> - -<p>“Sire,” he said aloud, “I was meaning the Czar of Muscovy.”</p> - -<p>Now there was no mistaking the fire that leapt into the cold eyes of -Karl; he would not answer, but Marlborough read him plainly.</p> - -<p>There was a little map of Muscovy, in colored paints, lying on a table -by the window, and the Duke glanced at it as he spoke again.</p> - -<p>“There can be no doubt,” he continued, “that your Majesty’s task will be -as glorious as it will be tremendous.”</p> - -<p>When this was translated to Karl he turned imperiously to M. Robinson.</p> - -<p>“Tell the Duke,” he said, “that my designs are not disclosed even to my -intimates.”</p> - -<p>This was a little softened in the translation, but Marlborough was fine -enough to catch the full meaning of the words.</p> - -<p>He was quite indifferent to this rude rebuff; he had discovered all he -wished to know and continued to discuss<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_215" id="page_215"></a>{215}</span> indifferent matters, soon -taking his leave, nor did Karl seek to detain him, but most coldly -accepted his adieux.</p> - -<p>As the two Englishmen went away in Baron Görtz’s carriage, Marlborough -whispered to the other:</p> - -<p>“We need not trouble at all about that young mad-man—his one design is -to dethrone the Czar—God help him!” he added, taking a pinch of snuff.</p> - -<p>“Your grace thinks he will not succeed?” asked the English minister, who -was secretly impressed by Karl’s immense success and inclined to believe -him invincible.</p> - -<p>“My dear Robinson,” replied the Duke suavely, “these heroes who feed on -military glory are bound to die of hunger some day.”</p> - -<p>With which remark Marlborough, who was quite satisfied now that Karl -would never trouble Western Europe, dismissed the famous captain from -his thoughts.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile Count Piper, left alone with the King, for Baron Görtz had -retired with the Englishmen, turned to Karl and asked his opinion of the -great Duke.</p> - -<p>The King seemed to have forgotten his presence, for he had not spoken -during the interview, and turned to him with something of a start, as if -absorbed in dreams.</p> - -<p>“What do I think of my Lord Marlborough?” he repeated; then he dismissed -the Englishman with nearly as few words as the Englishman had dismissed -him. “I do not think that he has the air of a warrior.”</p> - -<p>“He is very pleasant,” remarked Count Piper, in a quiet tone that might -have been sarcastic, “and so is Baron Görtz.”</p> - -<p>“Ah!” exclaimed the King, with a sharp look. “You do not like him.”</p> - -<p>With that Karl paused; he was just enough to know that Piper had no -cause to like the younger man who was supplanting him and whose views -were so opposed to his own.</p> - -<p>“Count,” he added, “I have always honored you and always shall. If I -have not always taken your<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_216" id="page_216"></a>{216}</span> advice I have at least respected you for -giving it—but I am one who goes his own way. As for Baron Görtz, he is, -and will be, what you are not, and will not be, my tool.”</p> - -<p>This was a long speech for Karl to make and he was suddenly silent, as -if he already repented having said so much and so exposed his feelings.</p> - -<p>Count Piper flushed; he knew that by these words the King had paid him -the greatest compliment and the greatest kindness that he was capable -of, and that he need look for no further recognition from his master.</p> - -<p>He had long ceased to care much what Karl did and entirely to cease to -hope to influence him; he could smile now at himself for ever supposing -that he could have done anything with this young man, or moved him by -means of Viktoria Falkenberg.</p> - -<p>He felt himself to be a man whose strength and position were both almost -lost, and he was, perhaps, a little indifferent now to what had gone to -make his life, but, for the last time, he resolved to sound the mind of -the King—on two matters that he, Piper, had much at heart.</p> - -<p>“Sire,” he said quietly, “all these princes and potentates come here -with one object—to discover your Majesty’s future designs.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” answered Karl, “and you know better than any man that I have -disclosed these to no one.”</p> - -<p>“I do not seek,” replied the minister, “to endeavor to force your -Majesty’s confidence.”</p> - -<p>“But you want to know something,” remarked the King, with his sudden, -ugly smile.</p> - -<p>“Yes.”</p> - -<p>“Well?”</p> - -<p>Count Piper gave the King a straight look.</p> - -<p>“I want to know if your Majesty has any thought of returning to -Stockholm,” he said, and he could not keep a certain earnestness from -his tone.</p> - -<p>“That thought is ever uppermost in your mind,” replied Karl, not -unpleasantly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_217" id="page_217"></a>{217}</span></p> - -<p>“It is seven years since you left your capital, sire.”</p> - -<p>“Well?”</p> - -<p>“Sweden needs her ruler.”</p> - -<p>“Sweden is well governed.”</p> - -<p>“Not by her monarch.”</p> - -<p>“I do better things than govern Sweden,” replied the King haughtily.</p> - -<p>“Ah, sire—these conquests cannot, will not, benefit Sweden. The scope -of the war was attained years ago.”</p> - -<p>Karl was silent; he narrowed his cold blue eyes and stared at the grave -face and commonplace figure of his minister.</p> - -<p>“And now you would risk all in a campaign against Russia.”</p> - -<p>“Risk?” exclaimed Karl.</p> - -<p>“There is a risk, sire.”</p> - -<p>Karl smiled contemptuously.</p> - -<p>“And if you lose, it will be disaster for Sweden,” added the Count.</p> - -<p>“If I lose?” repeated the King, with rising wrath. “Do you not know that -it is impossible for me to lose?”</p> - -<p>“Ah, sire!” murmured the minister sadly.</p> - -<p>Karl suddenly laughed, throwing back his head and showing his fierce -white teeth.</p> - -<p>“You think that the Czar of Muscovy can defeat <i>me</i>!” he said.</p> - -<p>The minister answered:</p> - -<p>“Marlborough thinks that you attempt the impossible, sire.”</p> - -<p>The King was really angry now.</p> - -<p>“What does Marlborough know of my designs?” he demanded.</p> - -<p>“It is the common thought that you march on Russia.”</p> - -<p>Karl rose with an impatient movement.</p> - -<p>“Let be this matter,” he said sharply. “What I do, I do, and am -accountable to no one.”</p> - -<p>This was what the Count had expected; he bowed gravely.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_218" id="page_218"></a>{218}</span></p> - -<p>He felt a sad certainty that the next subject he had to broach would be -received with even more displeasure by the King; he resolved that it -should not be on his conscience that he had not made the attempt.</p> - -<p>“I would presume to ask one other thing,” he said, with a certain -effort.</p> - -<p>“Ask what you will,” replied the King, who had now regained his icy -composure, “but it is useless, Count, to touch on my future designs.”</p> - -<p>“I would only speak on a small subject, sire—that of Patkul.”</p> - -<p>The King flashed him an ugly glance.</p> - -<p>“What of Patkul?” he asked, in a cruel voice.</p> - -<p>“Will not your Majesty think again of your orders to the -court-martial—that he is to be tried and executed with the utmost -severity?”</p> - -<p>Karl was silent.</p> - -<p>“That means,” continued the Count, “that he will be broken on the wheel -and quartered alive.”</p> - -<p>“You speak for a rebel?” demanded the King.</p> - -<p>“Other rebels have received a death less cruel—might not your Majesty -show the same mercy to Patkul?”</p> - -<p>“You know in what he has offended me, Count Piper.”</p> - -<p>“Therefore I ask your Majesty to be lenient. The man is brave—he has -served his own country—he is not a Swede—he was to have been married -this autumn. Let him die without torture.”</p> - -<p>The King’s face was ugly to look upon.</p> - -<p>“It is such a chance for your Majesty,” urged the minister.</p> - -<p>“A chance?”</p> - -<p>“To show the world that you disdain a vengeance only worthy of the Czar -of Muscovy.”</p> - -<p>“You are a sick man and I forgive you,” replied Karl, “but speak no more -of this affair if you wish ever to come into my presence again.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_219" id="page_219"></a>{219}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_IV-f" id="CHAPTER_IV-f"></a>CHAPTER IV</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">K</span>ARL, having sufficiently humiliated the Emperor and Augustus, and -having firmly established Stanislaus on the uneasy throne of Poland, had -no longer any need to prolong his stay in Saxony, and began that autumn -of 1707 to make preparations for his departure.</p> - -<p>At this moment everything seemed possible to him; no one knew what -project he might have in mind or to what enterprise he might be -directing his genius.</p> - -<p>He had already threatened the Pope, who had interfered with the -Emperor’s signing of the treaty in favor of the Silesians, which Karl -had wrung from him, and it was considered possible that he might -meditate a descent on Italy by way of Persia and Turkey.</p> - -<p>All the nations regarded him with terror and admiration, and most -trembled as they noticed his preparations for departure from the country -where he had completely triumphed over all his enemies.</p> - -<p>His spirits rose as the time came for him to leave Saxony where he had -been idle a year; even his own generals did not know what his -destination was.</p> - -<p>“Give me,” he said to one of these, “the route from Leipzig to——”</p> - -<p>Here he paused, not wishing to betray his secret, and added with a -laugh—“to all the capitals of Europe.”</p> - -<p>This was brought him; at the top of the list was <i>route to Stockholm</i> in -large letters.</p> - -<p>Karl saw the meaning; he knew that the Swedes were longing to return -home.</p> - -<p>“I see,” he said, “where you would lead me—but we do not return to -Sweden so soon.”</p> - -<p>A few days after the army was in marching order, and proceeded through -Saxony towards Dresden.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_220" id="page_220"></a>{220}</span></p> - -<p>The forces of Karl consisted of 43,000 men, 8,500 cavalry, 19,200 foot, -and 16,000 dragoons.</p> - -<p>All the regiments were complete, and to many of them were attached -supernumeraries. These did not complete the resources of Karl; he had an -army of 20,000 men in Poland, under Lewenhaupt, 15,000 men in Finland, -and new recruits were on their way from Sweden.</p> - -<p>Karl had the satisfaction of hearing that on the first rumor of his -approach the Muscovites in Lithuania, where the Czar was endeavoring to -regain some of the ground Augustus had abandoned, had fled to Grodno, a -hundred leagues from Lublin.</p> - -<p>As the army approached the capital of Saxony, Karl, who always rode a -few paces in front of his guard, galloped off with a few of his -officers, giving no one a hint of his design, and throwing the whole -army into consternation by his sudden disappearance.</p> - -<p>The whim had taken him to visit Augustus, and within an hour of his -leaving the army he had presented himself at the private apartments of -the Elector, leaving his officers below.</p> - -<p>Augustus was then in his bed-chamber, in poor health and melancholy -humor, lounging in a white brocade dressing-gown by the wood fire, while -Aurora von Königsmarck, who had recovered something of her ancient -splendor, but who was also negligently gowned in pink taffetas, frothed -the chocolate over a silver lamp.</p> - -<p>Count Fleming, the Elector’s minister, had seen the King enter the town, -and had rushed to advise his master; but Karl, who had entered the gates -under an assumed name, and passed as a member of the King’s guard, was -before him, and had entered the chamber of Augustus before that prince -knew that he was in the town.</p> - -<p>Augustus vested himself in haste, being utterly bewildered and amazed.</p> - -<p>“The King of Sweden in my ante-chamber!” he kept saying.</p> - -<p>Aurora was deeply angry.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_221" id="page_221"></a>{221}</span></p> - -<p>“He comes to exult over you,” she said. “Before he goes on fresh -conquests he wishes to satisfy himself with the sight of the King he has -discrowned.”</p> - -<p>“It will give me an opportunity to speak for Patkul,” said Augustus. -“Surely he will not refuse me that favor.”</p> - -<p>“He will,” replied the Countess, “but he is in your power.”</p> - -<p>“Bah!” said the Elector, annoyed at this womanish point of view, “I am -in his.”</p> - -<p>Aurora could hardly restrain her impatient scorn; every time, according -to her ideas, that Augustus was called upon to show strength, he showed -weakness; she had long ceased to feel either affection or respect for -the Elector, and in secret scorned herself for the love of comfort and -luxury that induced her to stay with him, and accept the tarnished -splendor Augustus had secured by the treaty of Altranstadt.</p> - -<p>She had felt keenly the failure of her ruse to secure the release of -Patkul; day and night she was haunted by the last glimpse she had had of -Hélène D’Einsiedel, as, half-crazed by horror and fear, she had set out -on her wild journey to the Russian camp.</p> - -<p>“You could keep him,” she persisted. “It was one of his madman’s whims -to come.”</p> - -<p>“He has an army, an invincible army, at the gates,” replied Augustus.</p> - -<p>“Ah, you have not the courage,” replied the Countess, who had become -sharp-tongued in adversity. “But why do I speak to you? If you had had -courage you never would have signed the peace.”</p> - -<p>“God save me from your railing!” replied the harassed Elector. “Between -you and the King of Sweden I have had a merry life these last seven -years!”</p> - -<p>Aurora shrugged the fair shoulders that rose out of her ruffled lace -gown, and flung herself into a chair.</p> - -<p>“At least endeavor to save Patkul,” she said bitterly.</p> - -<p>She suddenly turned and looked at him over her shoulder, her beautiful -eyes fierce.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_222" id="page_222"></a>{222}</span></p> - -<p>“If Patkul dies—<i>that way</i>,” she flung out, “I shall never forgive -you.”</p> - -<p>The Elector did not answer; hastily dressed and red in the face he flung -open the folding doors that led into the room where the King of Sweden -waited.</p> - -<p>Strangely out of place in this chamber of gilt and satin, with the -rose-wreath cupids painted on panels and ceiling, the ormolu tables and -bric-a-brac of china and silver, looked the stern figure of the Swede.</p> - -<p>His worn high boots were covered with road dust; his attire, plain as -that of the trooper he had represented himself to be at the gates, set -off his tall, robust figure; his hands, in the long elbow gloves, were -clasped about the handle of his heavy sword; his light peruke was held -back by a black ribbon, and his hat hung on the back of the chair.</p> - -<p>He arose as Augustus entered, and gave him a brief salutation.</p> - -<p>“I did not think that your Majesty would have thus far honored me,” -stammered the Elector, flushing deeper.</p> - -<p>“I could not leave your Highness’s country without coming to bid you -farewell,” returned Karl calmly.</p> - -<p>He showed no trace of triumph over, or sympathy with, the man he had -discrowned; his manner was that of one casual acquaintance with another.</p> - -<p>“I would like to see your fortifications,” he added, and a flicker of -his unpleasant smile crossed his calm face.</p> - -<p>Augustus had to make an effort to preserve his equanimity; the -humiliations forced on him by Karl were too recent and too bitter even -for one of his good nature to endure without fierce resentment.</p> - -<p>But he knew that Karl, though seemingly in his power, had an army at the -gates that could reduce his capital to submission in a few hours.</p> - -<p>Also, all that was best in him longed to redeem the shameful delivery of -Patkul into the hands of Karl, and he thought this was an opportunity to -ask this one favor that the King of Sweden could scarcely refuse.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_223" id="page_223"></a>{223}</span></p> - -<p>The conversation became forced and general; the Elector invited Karl to -dine with him and the offer was accepted.</p> - -<p>Augustus and Count Fleming sat down to table with Karl and his general, -and some sort of conversation, embarrassed on the part of the Saxons, -and indifferent on the part of the Swedes, took place.</p> - -<p>The Conqueror ate bread and drank water, and Augustus drank heavily of -every wine that was offered to him, to give himself courage for the -coming interview with Karl, in which he would ask the life of Patkul.</p> - -<p>The meal being over the Elector conducted the Swedes round the -fortifications, and while the King was a little ahead took occasion to -ask General Hord, one of the Swedish officers, if he thought his master -would grant him a favor.</p> - -<p>“I think,” added Augustus, “that he will not refuse a small request to a -man from whom he has taken a crown.”</p> - -<p>“What is this small request of your Highness?” asked General Hord dryly.</p> - -<p>Augustus flushed; his whole position was one of cruel humiliation, and -he liked the Swedish officers little better than he liked their master.</p> - -<p>“I want the life of General Patkul,” he replied, with an air as easy as -he could manage. “I hardly think,” he added, with a forced smile, “that -your master will refuse me.”</p> - -<p>“You do not know him,” replied the Swede dryly. “He will certainly -refuse you.”</p> - -<p>“Why?” demanded the unfortunate Elector, with some sharpness.</p> - -<p>“First, because it is you want a boon that he will grant no one.”</p> - -<p>The Elector could not refrain from a bitter retort to this brusque -statement.</p> - -<p>“Is then the King of Sweden so cruel?”</p> - -<p>“Sir,” said the Swede, “he is just. Patkul is a traitor.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_224" id="page_224"></a>{224}</span></p> - -<p>“Will not an easier death content your master?” asked Augustus.</p> - -<p>“You will find that he will alter nothing,” smiled General Hord.</p> - -<p>The Elector, however, could not believe that Karl could be so deaf to -all promptings of clemency, chivalry, and courtesy.</p> - -<p>“He is my guest,” he urged.</p> - -<p>“For that very reason he will refuse you more certainly. The fact that -he is nominally in your power will make him scornful of any concession -to you. He will also disdain to accord any favor to you that he would -not give to anyone else.”</p> - -<p>But Augustus was not convinced, and if he had been, possessed sufficient -nobleness to persist in his endeavor to save Patkul.</p> - -<p>When they returned to the palace he opened the subject, nervously, but -with a certain dignity.</p> - -<p>“I regard myself as doubly fortunate in this visit, as I have something -on my mind and conscience to put before your Majesty.”</p> - -<p>Karl gave him one darting glance, then seated himself, resting his -gloved hands on the plain hilt of his sword.</p> - -<p>He had flung off his hat, and his eyes shone cold and clear beneath the -straight fair brows and smooth low forehead, shaded by the curls of his -light peruke.</p> - -<p>Seen thus, in perfect composure and repose, the face was beautiful, -marred only by the slight overfullness of the lips and the little ugly -twist of them, half a smile, defects not noticeable in his extreme -youth, but now becoming permanent. His complexion, despite his outdoor -life, looked fair and clear as a woman’s above the black satin stock, -and there was no line or shade of thought or emotion to soften or -enlighten those cold and noble features.</p> - -<p>Augustus, richly though carelessly dressed, his soft handsome features -disturbed and harassed in expression, and worn with anxiety and -sickness, his laced and brocade clothes hanging loosely on the powerful -figure<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_225" id="page_225"></a>{225}</span> that had lost so much of its strength, was in piteous contrast -to the man who had ruined him so completely and steeped him in such -utter humiliation.</p> - -<p>“I think we have done with matters of business,” Karl reminded him. “I -came as one prince taking farewell of another; would it not be as well -for us to leave our meeting at this friendly point?”</p> - -<p>This was clearly meant as a warning, but Augustus would not take it; he -turned pale, and took a rapid step across the room; his heart swelled -and his pleasant eyes darkened with the inner emotion he kept in check.</p> - -<p>“It is against my conscience to remain silent on this matter,” he said.</p> - -<p>“Your conscience, Highness?” repeated Karl, without changing a muscle of -his face or altering a tone of his voice, yet conveying, by the very -impassivity of his attitude, unspeakable contempt for the man who had -been beaten into signing the peace of Altranstadt.</p> - -<p>Augustus flung up his head.</p> - -<p>“I wish, I must,” he replied, “speak on a delicate matter—one that I -shame to mention, one in which I am at the mercy of your Majesty.”</p> - -<p>“Ah!” exclaimed Karl, as if he suddenly saw what was coming.</p> - -<p>“I mean to speak of General Patkul,” said the Elector, steadily but -hoarsely.</p> - -<p>“You will speak in vain,” answered the King of Sweden, with the utmost -coldness.</p> - -<p>“I cannot think so, sire. I appeal to your chivalry, your clemency, to -have mercy on this man—and mercy on me,” added the wretched Elector, -clutching his hands in his ruffles. “If Patkul dies I am ashamed before -the world.”</p> - -<p>“Did you not think of that when you signed the peace?” demanded Karl -harshly.</p> - -<p>“Sire, is there any need to thus humiliate me?”</p> - -<p>“Humiliate <i>you</i>?” replied Karl, with the slightest possible stress on -the last word.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_226" id="page_226"></a>{226}</span></p> - -<p>The blood flamed into the Elector’s thin cheeks. “Sire, we are cousins,” -he said passionately.</p> - -<p>“Did you remember that our mothers were sisters when you plotted with -Patkul to seize my Baltic Provinces?” demanded the King.</p> - -<p>He spoke with the utmost calm, and with an air of moderation, but he -contrived to emphasize the fact that the relationship to which the -Elector had referred was on the female side only.</p> - -<p>“I belong to my father’s family,” he added, in a fashion that showed -contempt for all women.</p> - -<p>Augustus did not know in what way to appeal to this icy character, this -stern, harsh demeanor.</p> - -<p>“I am at your mercy,” he repeated in desperation, “a fallen and a ruined -man. Your vengeance should be satisfied. What would it mean to you to -save Patkul? But an added glory. He was to have been married—the lady -is of my court, young and delicate and good. To gain some hope for her -lover she has fled into the wilderness of Lithuania to appeal to the -Czar.”</p> - -<p>“I have heard this before,” replied Karl.</p> - -<p>“Think how she suffered before she was reduced to this wild journey.”</p> - -<p>Karl rose.</p> - -<p>“She has appealed to Peter,” he said. “Let Peter answer her.”</p> - -<p>“But I,” said Augustus, “appeal to you, sire.”</p> - -<p>The two splendid men, each drawn to the full of his great height, stood -facing each other in the toy room, amid the frivolous elegances of silk -and satin, china and gilt.</p> - -<p>“At least,” added the Elector, “accord him a death less cruel.”</p> - -<p>He spoke without fear and even with a certain authority, being -profoundly moved, and, like many weak, emotional people, being strong -enough in the actual face of what inflamed his passions.</p> - -<p>Besides, he could not but feel that he was of equal birth with Karl, -considerably older, and of wider experience,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_227" id="page_227"></a>{227}</span> and that the young -conqueror was doing a cruel wrong.</p> - -<p>This tone, as of equal to equal, had never been heard by Karl since the -day he had forever silenced it in the Queen-Mother, and it inflamed him -to complete fury, which he did not betray, but which made his blood -tingle and his pulses bound.</p> - -<p>“I have nothing to give you but silence,” he said, in a terrible voice. -“I will take my leave, Highness.”</p> - -<p>Augustus, pallid to the lips with mortification, fell back before this -bitter rebuff, and, turning for a second, covered his face with his -hands. Karl picked up his hat and would have left without another word, -but the folding doors opened and Aurora von Königsmarck entered and -stepped straight up to him.</p> - -<p>This beautiful woman was in full court dress, white and silver, and -adorned with diamonds; she carried a long fan of white feathers which -she pointed at Karl with a gesture of supreme disgust.</p> - -<p>So full was she of vitality and passion that the King was stayed by her -entry and stared at her bright vivid face.</p> - -<p>“Patkul may die,” she said, in a loud voice, “but he will be revenged. -No man like you can triumph long. In the day of your disaster, sire, -remember me—and that there was one person to scorn you and your glory, -and know you for the little man you are.”</p> - -<p>She flung out this in a breath, then added, panting, “You vain, mad -boy!” in a tone of utter contempt.</p> - -<p>Karl stared at her, and the color slowly mounted up under his eyes; he -gave a harsh, short laugh, turned on his heel, and left the room without -a salute.</p> - -<p>Augustus caught the Countess by the arm.</p> - -<p>“What have you done!” he cried frantically.</p> - -<p>She flung him off with a passionate gesture of scorn.</p> - -<p>“I have done with you,” she said. “Pray God your son will be a different -man.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_228" id="page_228"></a>{228}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="PART_II" id="PART_II"></a>PART II<br /><br /> -POLTAVA</h2> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Nous n’avons de propre que l’honneur; y renoncer, c’est cesser -d’être monarque.”—<i>Peter the Great to Chofiroff.</i></p></div> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_I-g" id="CHAPTER_I-g"></a>CHAPTER I</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">L</span>ADEN with the plunder of Poland and Saxony, the spoils of their -brilliant feats of arms, the Swedes, amid the January ice, marched on -Grodno, the several parties of Muscovites in the neighborhood flying at -the mere rumor of their approach.</p> - -<p>Peter, surprised in Grodno, fled with 2000 men, while Karl with 600 -entered the city.</p> - -<p>When Peter learned that the bulk of the Swedish army was still five -leagues distant he returned and tried to retake the town.</p> - -<p>He was, however, fiercely beaten back, and the Swedes pursued the -Russians through Lithuania and Minsk, towards the frontiers of Russia.</p> - -<p>Karl, after clearing Lithuania of the forces of the Czar, intended to -march towards the North and on Moscow, by way of Pskof.</p> - -<p>The difficulties in his way were terrible; huge stretches of virgin -forest, of desolate marsh, of barren deserts, lay between him and his -objective. The only food that could be found was the winter stores of -the peasants in the small tracks of cultivated land, which were buried -underground; many of these had already<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_229" id="page_229"></a>{229}</span> been ravaged by the Muscovites, -and in any case were insufficient for the Swedish army.</p> - -<p>Karl, who was to be deterred neither by prudence, reason, nor fear of -any kind, had provided bread for his men which they carried with them, -and on this they had to support the ghastly hardships of the forced -marches.</p> - -<p>The heavy rains kept back even the indefatigable Swede. A road had to be -made through the forest of Minsk, and it was early summer before Karl -found himself once more face to face with Peter at Borissov.</p> - -<p>The Czar waited with the main body of his forces to defend the river -Bérézina; Karl, however, brought his troops across this river and -marched on the Russians, who once more retreated, falling back on the -Dneiper.</p> - -<p>At Halowczin he defeated 20,000 Muscovites by traversing a marsh -believed to be impassable, the King himself leading, with the water at -times up to his shoulders.</p> - -<p>After this decisive victory he pursued the Russians to Mohilew, on the -frontiers of Poland; by the autumn he was chasing the Czar from -Smolensk, on the Moscow road.</p> - -<p>At Smolensk, narrowly escaping death in a hand-to-hand fight with the -Kalmucks, Karl inflicted another defeat on the Muscovites, and proceeded -another stage on the way to the capital, from which city he was now -distant only a hundred leagues.</p> - -<p>At this moment Peter sent to Karl suggesting the opening of peace -negotiations.</p> - -<p>But Karl replied as he had replied to Augustus: “Peace in Moscow.”</p> - -<p>And even Count Piper wrote to the Duke of Marlborough, whom he was -keeping informed of the progress of the campaign, that the dethronement -of the Czar was inevitable.</p> - -<p>But Peter, still unshaken after the defeats of eight years, again -gathered together his scattered and disheartened armies.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_230" id="page_230"></a>{230}</span></p> - -<p>“The King of Sweden thinks to be a second Alexander,” he remarked, when -Karl’s haughty answer was brought to him, “but I have no mind to be -Darius.”</p> - -<p>The second winter of the Russian campaign was now setting in; it -promised to be of unusual severity even for these bitter regions.</p> - -<p>Even the Spartan endurance of the Swedes began to blench at the thought -of the almost unendurable hardships of the long Russian winter, with -neither sufficient food, firing, or clothing.</p> - -<p>But there was no murmuring, for the King supported all privations -equally with the poorest foot soldier.</p> - -<p>The scouts brought in news that Peter had torn up the roads, flooded -them from the marsh lands, cut down huge trees and flung them across the -way, and burnt the villages on the route to Moscow.</p> - -<p>There was barely a fortnight’s provisions in the Swedish army and not -the least prospect of obtaining any more in the ravaged, frozen wastes.</p> - -<p>Karl called a council of war in his rough tent amid the giant pines.</p> - -<p>There was no fire, and, as the tent flap swayed on its cords in the icy -wind, a few flakes of snow drifted in and melted on the frozen earthen -floor.</p> - -<p>Karl sat in a folding camp-chair, a mantle of rough blue cloth over his -usual uniform, his hands, covered by the long elbow gloves, employed in -turning over a few notes and maps on a plain pine table.</p> - -<p>The arduous labors and unceasing fatigues of this last campaign had told -even on his superb physique.</p> - -<p>He was thinner and pale, under the brown of exposure; his blue eyes -seemed slightly tired, but had lost nothing of their calm, courageous -stare.</p> - -<p>Near him sat Count Piper, looking ill and old, wrapped in a heavy cloak -of marten skin, lined with scarlet and gold brocade, the spoil of war of -some flying Russian Prince.</p> - -<p>Only a few of Karl’s generals, such as Rehnsköld,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_231" id="page_231"></a>{231}</span> Gyllenburg, and -Wurtemberg, were present; it was his habit to confide his designs to as -few as possible. Piper, whose forebodings had been silenced by the -splendid success of the Swedish advance into Russia, had now begun to -feel uneasy and to rediscover all his objections to the campaign. He -thought that Karl should have accepted Peter’s offer to treat for peace; -the barbarous country and the arctic climate told severely on his -spirits; he was in poor health and homesick. Whatever sentiment he may -have had left for his master had vanished when the cruel sentence on -General Patkul was carried out, and he was broken on the wheel, -suffering a death of frightful torture.</p> - -<p>Piper had heard that Hélène D’Einsiedel had not lived to hear this news.</p> - -<p>She had died in a Russian camp soon after her arrival there, and the -messages Patkul had sent to her by the chaplain who attended him on the -scaffold had been sent to one beyond the reach of comfort.</p> - -<p>Piper never spoke of these things, but he often thought of them now that -misfortune seemed at last to be overtaking his master.</p> - -<p>He considered now that Karl was in the most dangerous position he had -yet found himself in, and he did not hesitate to say so, unpalatable and -unacceptable as he knew his advice must be.</p> - -<p>“Your Majesty, in common prudence,” he remarked, shivering a little in -his furs, “can do nothing but await the arrival of Lewenhaupt.”</p> - -<p>This general, who was coming to Karl’s assistance with 15,000 men and a -quantity of provisions, was believed to be within a few days’ march of -the present Swedish camp.</p> - -<p>He had, indeed, been some time expected, and his retarded arrival had -been a matter of vexation to the stern King.</p> - -<p>“I most strongly beseech your Majesty to consider this advice,” added -General Gyllenburg, with an earnest glance at the King.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_232" id="page_232"></a>{232}</span></p> - -<p>Karl turned over the maps and papers without looking up.</p> - -<p>His full mouth was set in an obstinate curve; to this arrogant -conqueror, now face to face with his first check, any council of -moderation was displeasing.</p> - -<p>“We cannot, sire,” urged Gyllenburg, “advance on Moscow with barely -fifteen days’ food.” For he, in common with the entire army, believed -this mad project to be the one Karl had really at heart.</p> - -<p>“There is nothing we cannot do,” replied Karl, who had indeed often -achieved what had seemed to others the impossible.</p> - -<p>But Piper was vexed.</p> - -<p>“If your Majesty advances on Moscow, you advance on disaster!” he -exclaimed.</p> - -<p>The King gave him a cold stare.</p> - -<p>“Are you not yet convinced that I never take advice?”</p> - -<p>His bitter rebuke caused the minister’s worn cheeks to flush.</p> - -<p>It was long since he had given Karl any cause to silence him, so utterly -had he refrained from counsels that were useless.</p> - -<p>Karl took his face in his right gloved hand, with his elbow on the -table, and looked up and round his little council.</p> - -<p>“I propose,”, he said, in a manner that left no loophole for argument or -suggestion, “to neither march on Moscow nor wait for Lewenhaupt.” What -third alternative there could be no one knew.</p> - -<p>“I intend,” added the King dryly, “to advance into the Ukraine, to pass -the winter there, and continue the route to Moscow in the spring.”</p> - -<p>The haughtiness with which he made this announcement covered an inner -mortification; he had thought to dethrone the Czar in a year; he had -never meant to turn back once on the road to Moscow.</p> - -<p>But having reviewed his army and taken stock of his provisions, even his -daring could not advance to<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_233" id="page_233"></a>{233}</span> what was certain destruction. To his -listeners the present project seemed as mad as an advance on the Russian -capital, but they did not venture on any comment.</p> - -<p>With the fewest and barest words Karl proceeded to explain that he had -made an alliance with Mazeppa, Prince of the Ukraine, the country of the -Cossacks, who was in revolt against the Czar, and hoped to profit by the -alliance of the Swede to defeat Peter.</p> - -<p>This man, who dreamed to do for the Ukraine what Patkul had dreamed to -do for Livonia, was a Polish nobleman of considerable parts; cast out of -his own country by the vengeance of a compatriot, he had taken refuge -amid the Cossacks, grown to be their ruler, and now in his old age -essayed to play some important part in this momentous war.</p> - -<p>“Is he to be trusted?” asked General Rehnsköld, who did not dislike the -project as it was unfolded to him.</p> - -<p>“As for that I do not know,” replied the King coldly, “but his interests -lie with me, and not with the Czar, for if Peter discovered his secret -plans of revolt he would certainly impale him as he has threatened -before. Mazeppa knows what to expect from the mercy and justice of the -Czar.”</p> - -<p>Piper, thinking of Patkul, was silent, but Gyllenburg, thinking of -nothing but the present crisis, ventured to remonstrate with the -imperious King.</p> - -<p>“Whether or no the Cossacks can be relied upon, were it not well to wait -Lewenhaupt and his reinforcements—above all, his provisions?”</p> - -<p>But Karl was, as always, obstinate; he had, he said, a rendezvous with -Mazeppa on the banks of the Desna, whither that prince had promised to -come with 30,000 men, treasure, and provisions.</p> - -<p>Rehnsköld was prepared to credit that this was better either than -pressing on towards Moscow or waiting for Lewenhaupt.</p> - -<p>Piper and Gyllenburg were for remaining at Smolensk in expectation of -reinforcements; Karl listened coldly<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_234" id="page_234"></a>{234}</span> to all arguments, and remained -fixed in his original plans.</p> - -<p>The next day the army, to its intense surprise, received orders to march -into the Ukraine. Messengers were sent to Lewenhaupt to tell him to join -the main army on the banks of the Desna and the painful progress -commenced.</p> - -<p>It was yet autumn, but the cold had set in early, and the troops had to -suffer the rigors of extreme cold.</p> - -<p>Nature seemed bent on throwing obstacles in the way of the Swedes.</p> - -<p>The forests, deserts, and marshes were nearly inpenetrable; Lägercrona, -in charge of the advance guard, went thirty leagues astray, and only -after four days of wandering was able to find the route.</p> - -<p>Nearly all his artillery and heavy baggage he had been obliged to -abandon in the marshes or among the rocks.</p> - -<p>When after unheard-of troubles and privation, Karl reached the banks of -the Desna that the Prince of the Cossacks had appointed for a -meeting-place, the ground was found to be occupied by a party of -Muscovites.</p> - -<p>The Swedes, though fatigued by twelve days’ travel, gave battle, -vanquished the Russians, and continued to advance into this desolate and -unknown country.</p> - -<p>Now even Karl himself began to be doubtful of the fidelity of Mazeppa, -and uncertain as to his route.</p> - -<p>Perhaps feelings of doubt and apprehension were beginning to touch him -for the first time in his life, when Mazeppa finally joined the Swedish -army.</p> - -<p>He had, however, the worst of news to tell; Peter had discovered the -plot in progress in the Ukraine, had fallen upon and scattered the -Cossacks, capturing all the gold and grain and thirty Cossack nobles -whom he had broken on the wheel.</p> - -<p>Towns and villages had been burned, treasures carried off, and the old -Prince had with difficulty escaped with 6000 men and a small quantity of -gold and silver, of little use in a country where there was<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_235" id="page_235"></a>{235}</span> no one to -be bribed with gold and no commodity to buy.</p> - -<p>Karl would have found a few wagon-loads of grain more to his liking. -However, the Cossacks were useful if only from their knowledge of this -wild country, though Karl despised them as soldiers and waited -impatiently for the arrival of Lewenhaupt. But when this general finally -made his way to the Swedish encampment, he had a tale to tell as -disastrous as that of Mazeppa, and far more mortifying to the pride of -the King of Sweden.</p> - -<p>At Liesna he had been met by the Czar, and, after a fierce battle of -three days, severely defeated.</p> - -<p>He had continued to effect a magnificent retreat, but he had lost 8000 -men, seventeen cannon, and forty-four flags, together with the entire -convoy he was bringing to Karl, consisting of 8000 wagons of food, and -the silver raised in Lithuania by way of tribute.</p> - -<p>He had the satisfaction of knowing that Peter had lost 10,000 men, and -that he had held him at bay for three days, but this could not balance -the fact that he arrived at Karl’s encampment with his army depleted and -without either provisions, ammunition, or treasure.</p> - -<p>Karl received this reverse with his usual cold gravity; he neither -blamed Lewenhaupt nor took anyone into his confidence.</p> - -<p>His situation, so lately that of an all-powerful conqueror, was now -indeed dangerous, if not desperate.</p> - -<p>He was cut off from Poland, and an attempt on the part of Stanislaus to -reach him failed utterly.</p> - -<p>No news came through from Sweden, and it seemed as if this army, lately -all-powerful, was isolated from the rest of the world; they could -neither communicate with, nor receive help nor advice from, any part of -the globe.</p> - -<p>But the worst of their distresses was the weather; this winter of 1709, -long to be remembered, even in<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_236" id="page_236"></a>{236}</span> Western Europe, as one of the most -terrible on record, was almost insupportable in these arctic regions.</p> - -<p>Karl, who ignored human needs and human weaknesses, forced his men to -march and work as if it had been midsummer and they well fed.</p> - -<p>Two thousand of them dropped dead of cold in their tracks.</p> - -<p>The rest were soon reduced to a state bordering on misery.</p> - -<p>There was no replenishing their clothes, half were without coats, half -without boots or shoes; they had to clothe themselves in skins as best -they might, and suffer and die as best they might, for the mad King -tolerated no murmur, and such was his authority and the awe and respect -that his very name inspired that his troops endured what perhaps no -other general had induced men to endure before. Such food as kept them -alive was provided by Mazeppa, who alone prevented them from perishing -miserably.</p> - -<p>The old Prince of the Cossacks had remained faithful to Karl despite the -offers Peter made to him to induce him to return to his allegiance. The -Czar, not wishing to appear inferior to his enemy in spirit or daring, -advanced into the Ukraine, regardless of the frozen country and tempests -of snow.</p> - -<p>He did not, however, attack the King of Sweden, but merely harassed him -by small raids on his camp, thinking that hardships and cold would have -reduced them to extremity before succor could reach them.</p> - -<p>News from Stockholm finally came to the isolated army.</p> - -<p>Karl learnt that his sister, the Duchess of Holstein-Gottorp, was dead -of the small-pox. This gentlewoman was but a faint memory to the King; -it was eight years since this terrible and bloody war had been -undertaken to replace her husband on his throne.</p> - -<p>Karl had almost forgotten Stockholm; almost forgotten the cause of the -war; the young Duke was dead, and had but a small place in the stern -King’s mind,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_237" id="page_237"></a>{237}</span> compared to the vast designs that had grown out of his -quarrel.</p> - -<p>Not till the first day of February did the snow permit the Swedes to -move, and then it was amid terrible weather that Karl advanced on -Poltava, a fort full of supplies that Peter held across the Moscow -route.</p> - -<p>The taking of this place was a necessity to Karl pending the arrival of -his reinforcements, as his army was deprived of everything, and the -resources of Mazeppa almost at an end.</p> - -<p>The Swedish army was now reduced to 18,000 men, but besides these Karl -commanded the Cossacks of Mazeppa, and several thousand Kalmucks and -Moldavians, free lances attached to his standard by the love of booty -and of glory.</p> - -<p>With this force Karl advanced on Poltava; he had the mortification of -finding that Mentchikoff had outmaneuvered him, and flung 5000 men into -the town.</p> - -<p>The King pressed the siege and had taken several of the outworks when he -learnt of the approach of the Czar with 70,000 men.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_238" id="page_238"></a>{238}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_II-g" id="CHAPTER_II-g"></a>CHAPTER II</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">K</span>ARL, returning to his camp after having beaten one of the advanced -detachments of the Czar’s army, was noticed by General Rehnsköld to be -colorless as a man of stone, and when he came to dismount at the door of -his tent, those who accompanied him observed that his boot was dripping -blood, and the side of his horse soaked.</p> - -<p>The Prince of Wurtemberg ordered his servant to run for a surgeon, and -General Lewenhaupt caught the King’s arm.</p> - -<p>“Sire, you are wounded!” he exclaimed.</p> - -<p>Karl, in his proud obstinacy and his desire to endure everything in -silence, would have denied the fact even now, but the pain was so -intense that he could not conceal it any longer, nor could he put his -foot to the ground.</p> - -<p>“A ball struck my heel,” he said sternly.</p> - -<p>“How long ago, sire?” asked General Rehnsköld anxiously.</p> - -<p>“Soon after I left the camp,” replied Karl.</p> - -<p>The officers glanced at each other; they knew that this meant that the -King had been over six hours on horseback since his wound, giving orders -as usual, and not in any way betraying his pain.</p> - -<p>Leaning on General Lewenhaupt’s arm he entered the tent, his officers -crowding in after him. It was still only early summer, but the air was -dry and arid, and in the tent hot and close and full of a fine dust.</p> - -<p>Karl seated himself on the plain folding-chair he always used, pulled -off his gloves, and asked for a glass of water.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_239" id="page_239"></a>{239}</span></p> - -<p>“This is an ugly mischance,” he said coldly. “I should have liked to -have met the Czar on horseback.”</p> - -<p>No groan or sigh passed his pallid lips, but his left hand gripped the -side of the chair, and beads of agony stood on his broad forehead.</p> - -<p>The surgeon entered, a little man with an eager face, one Neumann, well -known for his great skill and learning in his profession; he was closely -followed by two others, and the King’s personal domestics.</p> - -<p>“Gentlemen,” said the King, lifting his blue eyes now dark with pain, -“let us see how far I am unlucky.”</p> - -<p>He held out his foot to the servant as if he wished him to draw the boot -off, but Neumann was instantly on his knees, and had taken the injured -limb delicately between his capable hands.</p> - -<p>It was necessary to cut the boot from the leg; when this was done it was -found that the heel had been completely shattered, and that gangrene had -set in; the instant opinion of the surgeons was that there was nothing -but amputation to save the King’s life.</p> - -<p>Karl sat silent, his foot covered with towels, and resting on a chair; -the pain was beginning to make him giddy, and, for the first time in his -life, he was realizing what it might be to be unfortunate.</p> - -<p>Hitherto he had deemed himself immune from such a chance as this; he had -never conceived of his splendid body as in any way failing him, and now -perhaps he was a maimed man for life.</p> - -<p>The officers looked dubiously at each other; to them this came as a -crowning misfortune; only the spirit, presence, and fame of the King had -kept the army together amid all its miseries, and now, at the climax of -their disasters, when their very existence depended on the taking of the -stores and ammunition of Poltava, the King was struck down.</p> - -<p>Count Piper came hurrying to his master’s side; the minister felt that -his worst prognostications, that for a time had been silenced by the -steady successes of Karl,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_240" id="page_240"></a>{240}</span> were now about to be realized, and he felt a -deep inner anger at the obstinacy that had landed them in this lost -country, cut off from help, without resources of any kind, threatened by -an enemy who was in his own country, and three times their number.</p> - -<p>Karl perhaps read some of these thoughts; he looked at his minister with -his usual coldness.</p> - -<p>“Piper,” he said, “they want to take my leg off.”</p> - -<p>Neumann looked sharply at the King, who he knew must be suffering -torture.</p> - -<p>This self-control will cost him something later on, thought the surgeon.</p> - -<p>He lifted the towels and looked again at the wound from which the purple -blood was welling, and staining the piles of linen laid beneath.</p> - -<p>“If one cut, and cut deep enough, the leg could be saved, sire,” he said -boldly.</p> - -<p>Karl looked at him straightly; it was one brave man facing another; the -great King and the great surgeon met on the common ground of fortitude -and daring.</p> - -<p>“Do your work then at once, M. Neumann,” said Karl. “Cut deeply and fear -nothing.”</p> - -<p>M. Neumann bowed, and directed his assistant to bring him his case of -instruments.</p> - -<p>Karl asked for another glass of water, and leaning back, drank it -slowly.</p> - -<p>Several other officers had now entered the tent including Poniatowski, -the commander of King Stanislaus’ Swedish guards, who had followed Karl -into the Ukraine out of affection for his person.</p> - -<p>Karl showed some pleasure at his arrival, and held out his hand.</p> - -<p>“Any news?” he asked.</p> - -<p>“Nay, sire, the last scouts sent out have not returned.”</p> - -<p>“To-morrow we will attack again,” replied Karl. “We must,” he added, -with an unusual earnestness in his tone, “take Poltava.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_241" id="page_241"></a>{241}</span></p> - -<p>“If we do not,” thought Count Piper cynically, “we are dead and damned.”</p> - -<p>He left the tent and passed to his own more luxurious quarters; he was -much too sick a man to be able to watch the operation to which the -heroic King was so calmly submitting, and too full of an increasing -agitation and consternation to be able to command his feelings.</p> - -<p>“Yet why should I care?” he asked himself, “Patkul was shattered like -that sixteen times.”</p> - -<p>The news of the King’s wound had now spread through the army, and there -was a growing uneasiness among these hitherto invincible veterans, now -ill-fed, ill-clothed, and ill-armed.</p> - -<p>Returning presently to the King’s tent Count Piper met General Rehnsköld -with whom he was on bad terms, but who now stopped to tell him that the -incisions had been made in the King’s foot, which was now being dressed.</p> - -<p>The minister, pale, restless, and dispirited, passed again into the -presence of the King.</p> - -<p>Karl, who had held the limb steady with his own hands while the surgeon -used the knife, and had displayed not the least emotion, now sat on his -bed while Neumann bandaged the leg.</p> - -<p>He had just given orders for an assault on the morrow; his voice had not -shaken or his hand trembled, but his face was pallid and damp, his lips -curved in a slightly distorted smile.</p> - -<p>Count Piper advanced, but before he could speak the Prince of Wurtemberg -entered the tent with every sign of agitation.</p> - -<p>“Sire,” he said briefly, “I have just been informed that the Czar is -advancing on us with his entire army.”</p> - -<p>Karl, with unshaken calm, looked at Rehnsköld.</p> - -<p>“How many will that be, General?”</p> - -<p>“We think, sire, about 70,000 men.”</p> - -<p>Karl had known this; he had merely spoken to gain<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_242" id="page_242"></a>{242}</span> time; the intolerable -pain was making it difficult for him to think clearly, and he realized -that never had he needed to think clearly as he needed now.</p> - -<p>Even his haughty spirit was forced to face the fact that he was in a -desperate position, and one which most men would have judged as -hopeless.</p> - -<p>Cut off from all reinforcements or supplies, lacking everything, half -his troops starving or sick, many bandits, untrained and unreliable, -shut in between two rivers with no shelter or cover in a country so -desolate and barren—and now helpless with a hideous wound—it might -well seem that he was about to lose the fruits of nine years’ victories, -and be deprived, in one sharp moment, of that glory for which he had -sacrificed himself and his country.</p> - -<p>“Seventy thousand men,” he repeated; he had himself but 32,000, of which -only 16,000 were trained troops, but he remembered Narva, where the odds -had been greater, and forgot the genius of Peter that in nine years had -created a nation.</p> - -<p>There was no council of war.</p> - -<p>When Count Piper came to see the King that night he found him on his -camp-bed, fully clothed, even to the boot on his uninjured foot, with -sword and pistols, and a lamp on the table beside him.</p> - -<p>The night was hot and breezeless; the sky cloudless, behind Poltava the -moon was rising.</p> - -<p>Karl lifted his eyes to glance at it as the tent flap was lifted.</p> - -<p>“Are you wondering when you will see Stockholm again, Count?” he asked -irrelevantly.</p> - -<p>“I dream no more of Stockholm,” replied Piper. “I came to see how your -Majesty does.”</p> - -<p>“Very well,” said Karl.</p> - -<p>He moved the lamp so that the rays did not fall fully on his face; he -was shivering and burning with fever, and knew it; he did not wish Piper -to notice his condition.</p> - -<p>“Have you seen Rehnsköld?” he asked.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_243" id="page_243"></a>{243}</span></p> - -<p>“Yes, sire.”</p> - -<p>“He told you nothing?”</p> - -<p>“Nothing.”</p> - -<p>Karl put his hand to his head, pushing back his short locks of fair hair -that were wet with sweat; his whole body ached with pain, and his -wounded foot was a fiery agony.</p> - -<p>“Ah, well,” he said, “I will tell you myself. We give battle to-morrow.”</p> - -<p>Count Piper lifted his head and looked sharply at his master; so -desperate a resolution was what he might have expected from the King, -yet it startled him, as a general may be startled by the trumpets -sounding the retreat he has himself ordered.</p> - -<p>In silence the minister stared at the King, whose noble face was in the -shadow beyond the deep glow of the oil lamp.</p> - -<p>“At last we are face to face!” cried Karl, with an excitement that he -would never have shown but for the fever in his blood. “Peter -Alexievitch and I, after nearly ten years! He has always fled from -me—ever since Narva.”</p> - -<p>Sitting up in his bed, Karl reached out his hand for his sword, then let -it drop while he stared at Piper.</p> - -<p>“I met a man crying because he could get no news from his wife,” -remarked the King, “and another who was sad for fear he should not see -Stockholm again; those who follow me must learn to forget family and -country—” pausing, he again put his hand to his forehead. “Aurora von -Königsmarck once foretold disaster for me,” he added. “Had I been a -greater prince if I had spared Patkul?”</p> - -<p>Piper thought that the King must be delirious to talk like this; never -had he known him to so unbosom himself, or to refer to these personal -matters, or to speak in this tone of excitement; it frightened him to -see his stern monarch thus reduced to ordinary humanity, and he went up -to the bed and caught Karl’s hand, which was burning hot.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_244" id="page_244"></a>{244}</span></p> - -<p>The King, however, had again perfect command of himself.</p> - -<p>He gazed at Count Piper with the usual serenity in the blue eyes now hot -and blood-flushed with pain.</p> - -<p>“I am still Karl XII,” he said grimly, “and my men are still Swedes. Go -to your prayers, Count, and leave me to my rest.”</p> - -<p>With this he lay down, and put his head on the hard pillow.</p> - -<p>A faint, half-stifled sigh escaped him, then he lay silent and still, -and either was or feigned to be asleep.</p> - -<p>Count Piper did not leave the tent, but stood at the open door, looking -sometimes at the tall figure of the King stretched on his narrow bed, -and sometimes at Poltava, dark against the paling midnight sky up into -which the moon was rising.</p> - -<p>A sadness was on Count Piper and yet a calm; at that moment his was the -clear vision of a man who has a premonition that his work is over, and -looks back quietly and steadily on his life.</p> - -<p>How differently he had dreamed it all!</p> - -<p>What had he not meant to do for Sweden. Karl XI, his beloved master, had -left his country greater than she had ever been before, and Count Piper -had resolved to continue his work, to carefully add stone to stone till -the fair edifice was complete—to do in his way and with his means what -Peter was doing for Russia.</p> - -<p>Instead there had been this nine years’ war, empty of all but that glory -that a day’s mischance might eclipse forever.</p> - -<p>Nothing had been done for Sweden—she had been drained of men, of money, -left unprotected, her King a mere name.</p> - -<p>There was no direct heir; it seemed as if a grandson of Karl XI would -never rule in Stockholm, as if the fine line was at an end.</p> - -<p>The King began to toss in the heat of the fever, and in his sleep a -groan of pain now and then escaped him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_245" id="page_245"></a>{245}</span></p> - -<p>“Ah, you, what have you done for all of us with your heroic deeds?” -muttered Count Piper; he came into the tent and looked at the tall -figure in the blue coat, with the flushed fair face and loosened -neck-cloth, sleeping the heavy slumber of an utter fatigue that was -stronger than the torture of his wound.</p> - -<p>Count Piper was certain of complete disaster on the morrow; he did not -believe that there was the least chance of a success against the Czar.</p> - -<p>He saw better perhaps than his master, how Peter had labored towards -this moment, how he had learnt bitterly and painfully the art of war -from many defeats; he knew that the Russians at Poltava would not be as -the Russians at Narva.</p> - -<p>He was aware also in what a desperate condition were the forces of Karl, -how two winters in this terrible country had tamed their pride and -lowered their faith in their own good fortune.</p> - -<p>And if this bubble of Karl’s invincibility was pricked, what then?</p> - -<p>Nine years’ brilliant success would be, in a moment, valueless; Europe -but yesterday at Karl’s feet would soon forget him, and Sweden, depleted -of her men, penniless and abandoned by her King, would be a prey to the -vengeance of her enemies.</p> - -<p>Peter, bitterly offended by Karl’s brief “peace in Moscow,” and with -many humiliations to avenge, would be no gentle foe.</p> - -<p>In that moment Count Piper almost hated the King.</p> - -<p>He was foolishly glad of the twinges of agony that caused Karl to moan -in his slumber, and when the King gave a half-unconscious murmur for -water the minister made no movement.</p> - -<p>It had been his own wish that he should be left alone till the dawn when -he was to be roused for the battle.</p> - -<p>“I will not interfere with his Spartan habits,” thought the minister -grimly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_246" id="page_246"></a>{246}</span></p> - -<p>He went to the door again and looked out on the fair night, opal pale, -and the long encampment, colorless light and dark shade under the moon.</p> - -<p>Count Piper thought as he had never thought before on the eve of any of -the many battles at which he had been present, of the men sleeping now -for the last time, of the distant homes they would never see again, of -the Swedish blood that would water this arid soil to-morrow, and the -Swedish bones that would crumble into the dust of this lost country.</p> - -<p>Already the camp was full of movement; the beautiful horses of the -Kalmucks and Cossacks could be seen moving among the tents, and here and -there the moonlight fell on the steel of cuirass or the bosses of -leather trappings, as the Swedish officers rode from one point to -another fulfilling General Rehnsköld’s orders.</p> - -<p>Count Piper was preparing to go to his own tent for an hour’s rest, if -indeed his body could repose when his heart was so heavy, but a sudden -exclamation from the King startled him into turning.</p> - -<p>Karl was sitting up, his right hand flung out and grasping his sword.</p> - -<p>His face showed ghastly in the mingled lamp and moonlight, his wet hair -looked dark on his forehead, and his eyes were staring and congested -from fever.</p> - -<p>“I thought I was being broken on the wheel,” he muttered in a low tone.</p> - -<p>He tried to move, and the pulsing anguish the effort brought him made -him remember his crushed limb.</p> - -<p>“Faugh!” he exclaimed, in a tone of angry disgust. The sword dropped -from his hand on to the earthen floor; he started, then peered at the -silent figure by the door.</p> - -<p>“Is that the dawn, Piper?” he asked, in a quiet, natural voice.</p> - -<p>“No, sire, the moon.”</p> - -<p>“Send one to bid Neumann come and dress my wound. I would sooner be -abroad than abed to-night.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_247" id="page_247"></a>{247}</span></p> - -<p>“I, too, could not rest, sire.”</p> - -<p>“There will be time enough to rest when we are in Poltava,” replied the -King; there was a note of wildness in his voice foreign to his -character; he seemed aware of this himself for he added fiercely: “Curse -this fever—I have Peter’s devils on me to-night. Fetch Neumann.”</p> - -<p>Count Piper bowed and turned away.</p> - -<p>Thus, without a word or handshake parted King and minister on the eve of -the Poltava fight.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_248" id="page_248"></a>{248}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_III-g" id="CHAPTER_III-g"></a>CHAPTER III</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">F</span>OR the second time the horses drawing the King’s litter were -killed—only three were left of the four-and-twenty guards who -accompanied him. Other soldiers hurried up, and began fastening fresh -horses to the litter.</p> - -<p>“Make haste,” commanded Karl, “make haste.” It was the thick of the -battle; the beginning of the second attack which had begun at nine in -the morning.</p> - -<p>The first battle had been successful for the Swedes with a fierce -onslaught of their famous cavalry; they had scattered the Muscovite -horsemen, and taken the outposts of the Russian camp; General Creutz, -however, who had been sent to reinforce the victors, lost his way, and -the Czar, having time to rally, drove back the Swedish cavalry and -captured Slippenbach, their general.</p> - -<p>Karl was then about to send for his reserves that had been left with the -camp and baggage when, with a brilliant movement, Prince Mentchikoff -threw himself between the Swedes and Poltava, thus isolating the King’s -forces, and at the same time cutting to pieces a detachment that was -coming to his assistance.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile the Muscovite infantry were advancing on the main body of the -Swedish army. When Karl heard of Mentchikoff’s exploit he could not -refrain from a bitter exclamation.</p> - -<p>“Too well has he learnt from me the art of war!”</p> - -<p>Quickly regaining his habitual composure he gave orders for a general -battle, arranging, as best he might, his diminished forces.</p> - -<p>He had now only four pieces of cannon, and was<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_249" id="page_249"></a>{249}</span> beginning to lack -ammunition; Peter had at least 120 guns.</p> - -<p>It was one of the first volleys from these that had killed the King’s -horses and guards.</p> - -<p>Karl shivered with rage as his glance swept over the battle, and he -thought of the artillery that he had been obliged to abandon in the -marshes and forests of the Ukraine, either through the weather or -because the horses had perished, and he remembered with a pang the men -who had dropped from cold and hunger on those terrible marches.</p> - -<p>It was burning hot as the sun rose higher into the pale cloudless sky; -the air was foul with dust and smoke, and full of curses, shouts, and -orders, and the irregular booming of the Russian guns.</p> - -<p>Before the horses could be harnessed to the King’s litter, another -cannon-ball fell near; again several of the guards were killed and the -litter this time reversed, shattered to pieces, and flung on top of the -King who was cast on to the trampled ground.</p> - -<p>Four of his officers dragged him from the ruins; he was covered with -dust and blood, and almost speechless.</p> - -<p>The first line of the Swedes was beginning to fall back.</p> - -<p>The swooning King perceived this, but he was almost past speech.</p> - -<p>The Muscovite cannonade was so continuous and fierce that those about -the King thought of retreating also, to get their master to a place of -safety in the rear.</p> - -<p>A stretcher was hastily constructed of pikes, and the King was raised -shoulder high.</p> - -<p>He raised himself on his elbow and cried out for his sword which he had -dropped; they gave him this, and a pistol which he grasped in his left -hand.</p> - -<p>His blue eyes, inflamed with rage and pain, shot a desperate glance over -the battle-field. On every side the Swedes were giving way; each line -falling back<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_250" id="page_250"></a>{250}</span> on the other, and the cavalry breaking at either wing.</p> - -<p>“Swedes! Swedes!” cried the King.</p> - -<p>Rallying his strength with a mighty effort he directed his bearers to -take him to the head of several regiments, mentioning these by name. But -it was too late; already everything was in irredeemable confusion; -General Poniatowski forced his way through the mêlée to the King, and -ordered the soldiers to take him to the rear.</p> - -<p>Karl made a sign with his head that he would not go, but he could not -speak.</p> - -<p>“Sire,” said Poniatowski, “the day is lost—Wurtemberg, Rehnsköld, -Hamilton, and Stackelberg are prisoners.”</p> - -<p>It was doubtful if the King heard; he lay like one insensible, though -his blue eyes were open wide and staring through the battle-smoke.</p> - -<p>They were now being hotly pursued by a charge with bayonets, pikes, and -swords; the intrepid Pole, though he held no rank in the Swedish army, -rallied some of the Swedish horse round the person of the King.</p> - -<p>Some of those supporting him had fallen, and he lay on the ground.</p> - -<p>Poniatowski dismounted and shouted to the King’s valet whom he saw -pressing close; the little band of horsemen, guards, officers, and -troopers, who did not number in all 500, but who were all that were left -to Karl of his hitherto invincible army, kept off the fierce attacks of -the Muscovites, while Poniatowski and the valet, with the help of a -horse soldier, got the King up and on to Poniatowski’s horse, a noble -dark Arab.</p> - -<p>Karl did not speak a word; he had tried to mount a horse at the -beginning of the engagement, but had been unable to do so, and now the -agony of his wound, the shock of his fall, the passion of rage and grief -he was in, had so weakened him that he fainted twice while they were -getting him on to the charger.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_251" id="page_251"></a>{251}</span></p> - -<p>At last it was accomplished, and the valet, mounting behind his master, -clasped him round his waist.</p> - -<p>The anguish caused to his shattered foot by the movement of the horse -brought Karl to his senses; but he was incapable of anything; he had -dropped both his sword and pistol, and his head sank on to the breast of -the young man behind him.</p> - -<p>In this manner did the Swedish cavaliers, fighting off the fierce -Muscovite attack every inch of the way, escort their unhappy master.</p> - -<p>They had not reached their objective, the baggage camp (the other -Swedish camps being already in the hands of the Muscovites), when Karl’s -horse was killed under him; one of the officers with him, Colonel -Gierta, though sorely wounded himself, gave the King his mount, and -again with infinite difficulty Karl was helped into the saddle.</p> - -<p>The little troop, fighting through ten Muscovite regiments, at length -brought the King to the baggage of the Swedish army.</p> - -<p>The Russians were hotly pursuing them, and Poniatowski saw that a -moment’s delay might be fatal.</p> - -<p>Among the baggage was the only carriage in the Swedish army, that of -Count Piper.</p> - -<p>The King was helped into this and the Pole, who by tacit consent had -taken command of this band of fugitives, ordered a retreat with all -haste towards the Dnieper.</p> - -<p>He and the valet, Frederic, entered the carriage with the King, and -supported him, as best they could, against the jolting on the rough -roads.</p> - -<p>Karl had not spoken a word since Poniatowski had conducted him from the -field of battle; he now sat up, drew out his handkerchief, and wiped the -sweat and dirt from his face, at the same time glancing at the blood -that was soaking from his reopened wound on to the cushions and floor of -the carriage.</p> - -<p>“Where is Count Piper?” he asked.</p> - -<p>His voice and face were calm, but the ghastly hue of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_252" id="page_252"></a>{252}</span> his usually fresh -and glowing face told of his intense suffering.</p> - -<p>“Sire,” replied Poniatowski, “Count Piper is taken, with all the -ministers. He came out to look for your Majesty, and wandered into the -counterscarp of Poltava where they were taken prisoners by the -garrison.”</p> - -<p>Karl gave not the least sign of emotion.</p> - -<p>“And the Prince of Wurtemberg and General Rehnsköld?” he asked.</p> - -<p>“They also are prisoners,” said Poniatowski mournfully.</p> - -<p>The King shrugged his shoulders.</p> - -<p>“Prisoners of the Russians!” he exclaimed. “Let us rather be prisoners -of the Turks!”</p> - -<p>He said no more, and the flight towards the Dnieper was continued.</p> - -<p>Another misfortune overtook the unhappy King; a wheel of the carriage -was wrenched off on the barbarous road, and there was no time to stop -and repair it; he was therefore obliged to continue his journey on -horseback.</p> - -<p>The day was insufferably hot; they could find neither food nor water, -nor was there any prospect of obtaining any in this desolate country, -arid and uninhabited; several of the men were lost on the way or had -dropped with fatigue; only a small number remained with the King.</p> - -<p>These, towards evening, lost themselves in a vast trackless wood that -was believed to stretch to the banks of the Dnieper.</p> - -<p>Here, while they wandered about in the endeavor to find some road, the -King’s horse fell under him with fatigue, and no efforts could get Karl -any further.</p> - -<p>Blood-stained and soiled with dust and powder, without food, drink, or -repose, maddened by the pain of his wound which increased with his -fatigue, his spirit tortured equally with his body by the agony of -defeat at the hands of the man he most hated, even the courage and -endurance of Karl could support him<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_253" id="page_253"></a>{253}</span> no longer, and though he was told -that the Muscovites were searching for him in this very wood, he made no -effort to move but crept under a great tree and lay there motionless.</p> - -<p>Poniatowski put a horse-blanket under his head and sat beside him to -watch, together with the few horsemen who now comprised the royal -bodyguard.</p> - -<p>As soon as the moon was up another body of fugitives, by rare good luck, -came up with them.</p> - -<p>These were Cossacks, headed by their hetman, General Mazeppa.</p> - -<p>From them the Swedes learnt some further particulars of the battle.</p> - -<p>The Muscovites had taken everything; baggage, guns, stores, such as -there were, and the treasure consisting of 6,000,000 crowns in specie, -the remains of the spoils of Poland and Saxony, together with many -thousand men taken prisoners and many more slain.</p> - -<p>Lewenhaupt, Mazeppa added, was flying towards the Dnieper with the -remainder of the army; and he himself, added the old Cossack chief, had -managed to bring away some mules laden with provisions, and a number of -carts loaded with silver and gold.</p> - -<p>Karl did not hear this news, either good or bad; he lay in a swoon of -fatigue and pain, the moonbeams striking through the thick summer -foliage on to his low fair head and blood-stained uniform.</p> - -<p>Mazeppa glanced at him; their mutual disaster was so complete that any -lamentation or even comment seemed grotesque.</p> - -<p>The Prince said nothing, therefore, but with the fortitude that belonged -to his character and his mode of life, directed that the food and water -that he had brought with him should be distributed among the Swedes, -then lay down on the grass and slept.</p> - -<p>The next day the painful march was continued, and a juncture effected -with Lewenhaupt on the banks of the Dnieper almost at the same moment as -news was received of the approach of the Muscovites.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_254" id="page_254"></a>{254}</span></p> - -<p>Lewenhaupt’s men had not eaten for two days; they lacked powder, -provision—everything; they had no means of crossing the river.</p> - -<p>But their spirit did not fail them; they had been the victors in a -hundred fights that even Poltava could not efface from their -remembrance, and there was not a man among them who did not believe -that, now their King had rejoined them, they would once more conquer, or -else completely perish, selling their lives dearly. But the man on whom -they relied was no longer the man who had led them to victory; Karl, -whose wound was become poisoned and who was in a violent fever, -unconscious of his actions, was hurried into a small boat that the army -had with it, and taken across the Dnieper with Mazeppa and his treasure, -which was afterwards obliged to be cast overboard to lighten the boat.</p> - -<p>A few other craft having been found, a certain number of officers -managed to cross the river, but the desperate Cossacks who endeavored to -swim on horseback or on foot were all overwhelmed and drowned.</p> - -<p>While the army was in this pass, Prince Mentchikoff, having found his -way by the broken bodies of the Swedes along the route, arrived and -called upon Lewenhaupt to surrender.</p> - -<p>One colonel of this army that had been so long glorious hurled himself -with his troop at the ranks of the enemy, but Lewenhaupt bade him cease -his vain defiance.</p> - -<p>It was all over now; everything was lost, even the chance of a glorious -and splendid death; several officers shot themselves, others leapt into -the waters of the Dnieper.</p> - -<p>Lewenhaupt surrendered.</p> - -<p>The remnant of that triumphant army that had so confidently marched out -of Saxony was now in the hands of the Russians; slaves henceforth who -might come to envy their compatriots who had perished of misery in the -forests of the Ukraine.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_255" id="page_255"></a>{255}</span></p> - -<p>The news of the end of his nine years’ war was brought to Karl by the -last fugitives who were able to cross the Dnieper.</p> - -<p>He seemed incapable of understanding what was taking place, but lay -silent in the poor carriage which was all that had been able to be -procured for him. Without food, save the scantiest, and almost entirely -without water, the little party traveled for five days across a desert -country until they arrived at Oczakow, the frontier town of the Ottoman -Empire.</p> - -<p>The bureaucratic delays of the local officials hindered the progress of -the fugitives into Turkey.</p> - -<p>All the able negotiations of Poniatowski were unavailing, and pending -the permission that was to come from the Pasha at Bender, the Swedes -were forced to take what boats they could lay their hands on and cross -the river Bug that lay between them and safety. The King and his -immediate suite reached the opposite shore, but 500 men, the bulk of his -little army, were captured by the pursuing Muscovites, whose cries of -triumph echoed in the ears of the flying King.</p> - -<p>So, sick, penniless, without hope or resource, his glory shattered in a -day, his prestige gone forever, Karl XII entered Turkey, to throw -himself on the mercy of the infidel.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_256" id="page_256"></a>{256}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_IV-g" id="CHAPTER_IV-g"></a>CHAPTER IV</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">P</span>ETER ALEXIEVITCH now found himself in the position hitherto occupied by -his rival.</p> - -<p>The army that had foiled and humbled him ever since Narva was no longer -in existence; the terrible Karl was in exile, without allies and with -nothing to rely on but the exhausted resources of a distant and -dispirited country.</p> - -<p>The astute minister, Piper, the dreaded generals, Rehnsköld, Lewenhaupt, -Wurtemberg, were all prisoners.</p> - -<p>The Czar in one day had won the fruits of nine years of toil. More than -half the Swedes were slain or slaves and there was no one to prevent his -claiming the disputed Baltic Provinces.</p> - -<p>Of the Poles he had no fear; he knew that Stanislaus could not stand -without Karl, and that, if he had a mind, he might set up Augustus -again.</p> - -<p>In brief, he had made himself, in one battle, Arbiter of North Europe.</p> - -<p>It was possible that Karl might endeavor to inflame Turkey into a -revival of her old quarrel with him; but he had the remembrance of Azov -to render him confident of mastering the Turks.</p> - -<p>Not that it was in his nature to think and act other than prudently.</p> - -<p>He had not begun this war for glory nor fought any battle for display, -but always with the idea of some solid advantage, of taking some step -towards the attainment of his final objective—the raising of Russia to -a great place among the nations of the world.</p> - -<p>The building of St. Petersburg and Kronstadt had<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_257" id="page_257"></a>{257}</span> already shown his -intention of making his empire not Eastern but Western, and he had now -demonstrated that he had mastered the art of war sufficiently to defeat -utterly the greatest captain of the age.</p> - -<p>He was not unduly elated at this success which was so much more than he -had dared to hope for.</p> - -<p>At first he had thought the Poltava battle lost; he had been in the -thick of the fight and twice a ball had pierced his hat; perhaps Karl -himself was no more surprised than Peter at the final issue of the -combat.</p> - -<p>The Czar’s manner of celebrating his victory was at once generous and -savage.</p> - -<p>He treated the Swedish generals with courtesy and consideration, -drinking their health as “My masters in the art of war,” but the -Cossacks and Kalmucks were broken on the wheel and the Swedish soldiers -sent as slaves to Siberia.</p> - -<p>He would have liked to have taken Karl, not from pride, but because he -wished to know personally so remarkable a man, and he wished to capture -the old hetman of the Cossacks that he might impale him alive.</p> - -<p>“I wonder Sweden tolerates such a villain near him,” he exclaimed. “It -must have been by his advice he came into the Ukraine.”</p> - -<p>He spoke to his two generals, Mentchikoff and Alexis Golowin, as he took -his ease after dinner in the fortress of Poltava.</p> - -<p>“Sweden is insane,” said Mentchikoff calmly. “No man in his senses would -have come so far from his base.”</p> - -<p>“Nor turned into the Ukraine without guides or provisions,” added -Golowin.</p> - -<p>Peter made no reply; leaning against the frame of the open window he -stared out into the sunny, dusty courtyard.</p> - -<p>He was now thirty-six years of age and had lost all the bloom of youth; -he was getting stout and his excesses had left their mark on his face, -which, though still<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_258" id="page_258"></a>{258}</span> soft and handsome, was lined and swollen and an -unhealthy color.</p> - -<p>The thick locks were tinged with gray and his eyebrows and lips twitched -with incipient disease.</p> - -<p>He was now unbuttoned because of the heat; his green coat was -grease-stained, his linen soiled.</p> - -<p>In his right hand, coarsened by manual labor, he held a glass full of -some sweet liquid round which the flies buzzed.</p> - -<p>A star of the purest brilliants hung by a common ribbon from one of his -buttonholes, which gleamed as his breast rose and fell with his heavy -breathing.</p> - -<p>The two generals were magnificent in satin coats, perukes, stars, and -laces, but neither had clean hands or linen.</p> - -<p>The air was heavy with the odors of the sour, greasy Russian cooking and -the smell of brandy.</p> - -<p>The room was roughly and coarsely furnished, but a valuable ikon hung in -one corner adorned with pigeon blood rubies and still garlanded with the -wreaths of wax fruit from the Easter offerings.</p> - -<p>Peter’s thoughts were far away.</p> - -<p>He was not dwelling on the personal advantages likely to accrue to him -from this great victory, nor even on its military aspect; he was -thinking that now at last he could secure his Baltic ports and gain for -Russia that enormous trade once in the hands of, and so jealously -guarded by, the Hansa League. The Russians, long treated as barbarians -by the industrious and crafty Germans, had sold their goods to the great -Hansa station at Novgorod always at a great loss, despite their -persistent efforts to cheat, or bartered them for the English and -Flemish cloths which could have been made in Russia.</p> - -<p>Peter, who admired as much as he disliked the Germans, intended now that -the Russian woods, metals, furs, wax, and honey should be traded direct -with Europe.</p> - -<p>He meant also to get the trade with Asia, and by<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_259" id="page_259"></a>{259}</span> this -intercommunication with nations to teach arts and crafts to his own -people. While he drunk his kvas, regardless of the circling flies, and -stared absently into the sunny courtyard, Golowin and Mentchikoff were -discussing the present plight of Karl XII.</p> - -<p>The fugitive King had gone to Bender in Bessarabia, and was being -treated with generous courtesy by the Porte.</p> - -<p>He was, however, for all the pomp that surrounded him, nothing but a -prisoner, and it was doubtful if, even had he wished, he could have left -Turkey.</p> - -<p>“He will give no further trouble,” remarked Prince Golowin.</p> - -<p>But Mentchikoff was not of this opinion.</p> - -<p>“A man of those lion-like qualities,” he said, “is not so easily -subdued.”</p> - -<p>“He may not be,” replied the other shrewdly, “but without resources he -can do nothing.”</p> - -<p>Peter turned his head and listened to this conversation.</p> - -<p>“How many men has Sweden with him?” he asked, setting down his glass.</p> - -<p>“They do not know, Peter Alexievitch,” replied Mentchikoff, “but it -cannot be many—only those fugitives who contrived to escape across the -frontier.”</p> - -<p>“No one of importance?”</p> - -<p>“Not beyond Poniatowski, Müllern, his chancellor, and a few -officers—and the old Mazeppa,” said Mentchikoff.</p> - -<p>At the mention of the hetman of the Cossacks Peter’s face twitched with -fury.</p> - -<p>“May the devil overtake that ancient traitor,” he cried, “and roast him -to all eternity!”</p> - -<p>He did not care to dwell on the thought of the escape of this rebel, who -had indeed behaved with ingratitude and falsity to the monarch who had -so warmly befriended and protected him.</p> - -<p>Without any more words he left the room and went<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_260" id="page_260"></a>{260}</span> to the apartments of -his wife, who accompanied him on all his campaigns.</p> - -<p>He intended soon to marry her publicly and proclaim her as Czarina.</p> - -<p>Not that Katherina had ever demanded this of him (indeed she had not -expected him to marry her at all), but to please his own passion for -this woman, who still continued to entirely please his curious fancy.</p> - -<p>There were those who believed that if she had had a living child he -could have disinherited Prince Alexis in favor of the offspring of -Katherina, since the heir was not only the son of a disgraced and -imprisoned mother, but showed already strong reactionary tendencies -towards the barbaric customs Peter was so painfully eliminating from -Russia.</p> - -<p>Katherina was now clothed in Western fashion; a tight bodice and full -skirt of blue silk, a pearl necklace, and her hair rolled into long -curls.</p> - -<p>She was now very stout, and her teeth were ruined through eating -sweetmeats; her complexion was greasy, and her hands ill kept; she had -acquired no air of dignity, but an expression of complete good nature -showed still on her handsome features.</p> - -<p>A Tartar maidservant with Asiatic features was seated on a scarlet -cushion, singing as she worked a piece of orange and gold embroidery on -a frame.</p> - -<p>Peter spoke to neither but seated himself on the low covered chair -beside his wife who knew better than to speak to him when he was silent.</p> - -<p>The little maid, with an unchanged countenance, continued singing, in a -low, melancholy, and monotonous voice, an old Tartar song:</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">The gentle baby died, mother, died when it was born.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">He will never saddle horse, mother, nor eat the cakes of corn,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Or ride before his soldiers in the glory of the morn,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Nor chase the bitter tiger or the fleet and lovely fawn.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The gentle baby died, mother, died when he was born.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>Peter stared at the singer, as if fascinated by her flat, brown face.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_261" id="page_261"></a>{261}</span></p> - -<p>Katherina was not thinking of the song nor of him; it was very hot and -she was almost asleep in her comfortable chair.</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">They wrapped him in a silken swaith and in a golden shawl,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And laid him ’mid the tulips, him the fairest of them all.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I saw him as a chieftain, magnificent and tall,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Riding red from combat or playing of the ball.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">They wrapped him in a silken swaith and in a golden shawl.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">And I am left so lonely, all in the twilight clear,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">A-holding of my bosom where lay my tender dear,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">A-watching of the tent door when the first stars appear,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Crying for my baby in the great desert near.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And I am left so lonely, all in the twilight clear.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>Katherina glanced rather uneasily at the Czar; she had hoped that now he -had achieved this great victory he would be less moody and melancholy.</p> - -<p>Even her placid good-humor did not always find Peter easy to manage; -sometimes her ease-loving temperament was inclined to regret the days of -her comfortable prosperity with Prince Mentchikoff.</p> - -<p>“The King of Sweden has not been captured?” she asked gently.</p> - -<p>“Nay, he crossed the Bug and is safe in Turkey, flattered by the -Sultan.”</p> - -<p>“Well, he will trouble you no more,” said Katherina pleasantly.</p> - -<p>The little Tartar maid rose and crept away, with a furtive look at the -terrible Czar.</p> - -<p>“I do not know,” replied Peter. “He is a very able man. But I think I -have secured the Baltic Provinces.”</p> - -<p>Leaning forward with a sudden eagerness he began discoursing of this -Baltic Empire and what the acquisition of it would mean to Russia, what -she could do when she commanded the town and gulf of Riga and all the -islands, of the new naval base of Kronstadt, and the new arts and -sciences already beginning to flourish in St. Petersburg.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_262" id="page_262"></a>{262}</span></p> - -<p>As he spoke, his rough voice, suffused face, and swollen eyes became -inspired; he forgot the ignorant woman to whom he spoke, and declaimed -as if he was before a nation of men.</p> - -<p>All that he said Katherina had heard before; she, who was not able to -read or write, was not interested as to whether Esthonia, Livonia and -Lithuania were in the hands of the Czar or not. As for his new city, she -preferred Moscow to the new buildings that had risen on the marshes of -the Neva.</p> - -<p>It seemed to her a thing sufficiently tremendous to be Czar of Russia, -and in her heart she wished that Peter would leave his ambitions and be -content with the greatness he already had.</p> - -<p>She was slightly disappointed that he was not satisfied with the great -success he had just gained; she had hoped that when Karl was defeated -Peter would enjoy the greatness and power he possessed in that peace and -quiet and comfortable pomp that were her ideals of happiness.</p> - -<p>Therefore a certain weariness came over her at hearing him once more -expound the schemes she had never understood and now was tired of; even -his project of making himself Emperor of All the Russias and her his -Empress did not excite her; ease and tranquillity were what this lazy -woman wanted, and she would sooner have been left in a secure obscurity -than be dragged forward to a dubious and perhaps dangerous greatness.</p> - -<p>Peter, talking vehemently and absorbed in these matters so near his -heart, rose and began to walk up and down the room without noticing -Katherina.</p> - -<p>And she, half dozing, did not trouble to reply, but began to nod in her -chair.</p> - -<p>The Czar, suddenly turning to enforce some point, saw her heavy attitude -and half-closed eyes; as he stared at her she yawned.</p> - -<p>Peter instantly flamed into terrible wrath.</p> - -<p>“Ah!” he cried. “You sleep while I talk, eh?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_263" id="page_263"></a>{263}</span></p> - -<p>She sat up at once, wide-awake and pale.</p> - -<p>“I heard every word you said, Peter Alexievitch,” she stammered.</p> - -<p>“You lie,” returned the Czar fiercely, “but what does it matter if you -heard or no? It was all beyond your pitiful understanding.”</p> - -<p>Katherina began to whimper.</p> - -<p>“I have always been faithful,” she murmured, twisting her plump hands -together.</p> - -<p>Peter looked at her with contempt.</p> - -<p>Anger would sometimes give him a clear-sighted vision of the creature -who had so long infatuated him; he saw her now as a stupid peasant -woman, and despised himself for the dominion she had over him.</p> - -<p>His anger dropped to gloom.</p> - -<p>“It is not your fault, but mine,” he said, “for putting you where you -are.”</p> - -<p>Katherina, grateful that his wrath had passed, dared not risk inflaming -him by another word, but sat meekly pulling at the folds of her blue -silk skirt.</p> - -<p>Peter shrugged his shoulders and left her abruptly; his mood had been -crossed and he had no wish for the company even of Mentchikoff, who was, -like Katherina, a creature of his own creating, and accordingly -sometimes despised by the Czar, who, despite his Western reforms, -remained Eastern in his ideas of autocracy and his own almost divine -power and privileges.</p> - -<p>He went heavily downstairs, called for his horse and rode, alone, round -the counterscarp of Poltava.</p> - -<p>Karl would molest him no more—North Europe lay open to his armies; he -could pull Stanislaus down as quickly as he had been set up, and put -whatever puppet he chose on the throne of Poland.</p> - -<p>He had accomplished his army, his navy, his port, his capital—and yet -in his half-savage heart was still this brooding melancholy, this -lingering dissatisfaction.</p> - -<p>His own cruelties, his own excesses, seemed even to himself to mar his -triumph.</p> - -<p>The wife and the friend he had chosen dragged him<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_264" id="page_264"></a>{264}</span> down and he knew it, -yet he could have no more avoided them than the diseases that hampered -his body and clouded his brain.</p> - -<p>He reined up his beautiful black Arab on the ramparts and gazed across -the plain where he had broken Karl XII.</p> - -<p>And even at that moment he felt a half-wistful envy of the man whom he -had vanquished—the man who could conquer himself.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_265" id="page_265"></a>{265}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="PART_III" id="PART_III"></a>PART III<br /><br /> -EXILE</h2> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Que craignez-vous encore? Dieu e moi nous sommes toujours -vivants.”—<i>Medal of Karl XII.</i></p></div> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_I-h" id="CHAPTER_I-h"></a>CHAPTER I</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">N</span>EARLY four years after the battle of Poltava on a cold clear day of -early spring the Pasha, who was governor of the Turkish province of -Bender, turned sadly away, followed by his suite, from three stone -houses, strange in structure and design, that stood near the village of -Varnitza, near the banks of the Dniester.</p> - -<p>These houses had been recently built by the King of Sweden, whose camp -in Bender had been threatened by floods.</p> - -<p>One was occupied by the King himself, one by his friend Grothusen, and -the third by his ministers, and these plain buildings looking so -incongruous in the eastern landscape, had become an eyesore and a terror -to the Porte.</p> - -<p>Ever since Karl had flung himself on the mercy of the Turks, sooner than -fall into the hands of Peter, intrigue and counter-intrigue had -distracted the Ottoman government.</p> - -<p>Count Poniatowski, able, subtle, and tireless, had used every art to -persuade the Sultan to take up arms for the defeated King, and the -Muscovites had done their best to check him at every turn.</p> - -<p>Viziers had risen and fallen, plots had become complicated<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_266" id="page_266"></a>{266}</span> and bitter, -war had been declared on Russia, peace made, war declared again, then -peace once more, and finally the Sultan had wearied of his guest, and -every effort was made to induce Karl to return to his own country.</p> - -<p>After long and involved negotiations Karl had consented to go if his -expenses were paid; more than the sum asked for had been sent him -thankfully by Ahmed II, but Karl, after receiving the money, had again -refused to depart, alleging that he suspected a plot to deliver him into -the hands of his enemies.</p> - -<p>Even Eastern hospitality was now exhausted, and on Karl’s cool demand -for more money an order came from the Sultan that if he would not go -willingly he was to be moved from Turkish territory by force.</p> - -<p>It was this order that the Governor of Bender, grieved to his courteous -soul by the turn of events, had just delivered to Karl, without making -the least impression.</p> - -<p>Four years of what was in truth but an honorable captivity, of idleness -and exile, had by no means lowered the lofty spirit or softened the hard -obstinacy of the King of Sweden. Through all the ramifications of the -intrigues of which the Porte was the center, his one purpose had -remained clear and unshaken.</p> - -<p>He wanted an army to lead against Peter, and latterly he wanted the -punishment of Mahomet Baltadgi, the vizier who had let the Czar escape -with the easy terms of the Peace of Pruth.</p> - -<p>While Ismail Pasha was galloping, a thing unusual in a Turk, away from -Varnitza with the news of the King’s obstinacy to the Khan of the -Tartars who, conjointly with him, had received the Sultan’s orders, he -met M. Fabrice, the envoy of the Duke of Holstein, who had his residence -with Karl, and reined up his sweating steed.</p> - -<p>“What news, Ismail Pasha?” asked M. Fabrice anxiously.</p> - -<p>The Turk’s expression was mingled grief and indignation;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_267" id="page_267"></a>{267}</span> he knew that -this affair might cost him his place and perhaps his life, since he had -given the twelve hundred pieces to the Swedes trusting to their honor to -depart.</p> - -<p>“Your King will not listen to reason,” he replied, “and we shall see -strange things.”</p> - -<p>M. Fabrice rode on through the sunny afternoon and, by the time he -reached the camp at Varnitza, found that the Governor was carrying out -already the instructions brought him that day by the Sultan’s grand -equerry. The guard of janissaries that had attended Karl during his -exile had been removed, the supply of provisions stopped, and all the -followers of the King told that if they wished for food they must leave -the Swedes and go to the town of Bender.</p> - -<p>Consequently, M. Fabrice met a stream of Poles and Cossacks, hastening -from the village of Varnitza, and the huts and tents they had raised -round the King’s house, to put themselves under the protection of the -Porte.</p> - -<p>The heart of M. Fabrice sank; long and weary had been the exile, bitter -the hope deferred, the suspense, the waiting, fatiguing, the long -idleness to those used to an active life, deadening this suspension of -all part in the affairs of Europe, and he for one could not understand -why Karl should have preferred to prolong such a life sooner than take -his part in the politics of the world, nor how he could have so long -permitted himself to be misled by the chimera of Turkish assistance.</p> - -<p>Sadly he went to the King’s house; the domestics were depressed, the -Swedish soldiers eyed with gloomy contempt the departing crowd of -Russians and Poles, as if they regretted the good food that these -people, so worthless in the hour of need, had for so long consumed.</p> - -<p>The King had just risen from the table, and it was in his ante-chamber -that M. Fabrice found him.</p> - -<p>Poniatowski was still at Constantinople, endeavoring to serve Karl by -his endless intrigues among the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_268" id="page_268"></a>{268}</span> ministers and favorites of the Sultan, -but the rest of Karl’s few faithful friends were with him, as if they -all took counsel together.</p> - -<p>There was M. Grothusen and the Baron Görtz who between them had taken -the place of Count Piper, now miserably dead in Russia, General Hord, -and General Dahldorf, and Colonel Gierta, who had saved Karl’s life at -Poltava, and several other officers and ministers together with the -King’s chaplain, and another Lutheran priest.</p> - -<p>The house, contrary to the King’s tastes, was furnished magnificently, -to impress the Turks who were not apt to respect a monarch entirely -without pomp, and this room was richly hung with silken tapestry, -covered with Persian carpets, and filled with Eastern and European -furniture of costly material and pattern.</p> - -<p>All of this had been bought out of the Turkish bounty, which had been -generously lavished on Karl until these disputes about his departure -arose, and only lately withdrawn; Karl was now subsisting on borrowing -the money his reckless munificence had enriched his friends with, and -raising loans at 50 per cent from Jew and English bankers in -Constantinople.</p> - -<p>Karl was seated in an ebony chair with sapphire-blue velvet cushions; -his own dress was unchanged; he was booted, spurred, wore a black -taffeta cravat, and no peruke but his own hair, now close-cropped and -scanty on the forehead.</p> - -<p>He had never altered the stern austerity of his life, nor his rigorous -exercises, and was in perfect health and superb strength.</p> - -<p>He was now thirty-two years of age, and his noble face, unlined, and -fresh and clear in color, still had the look of extreme youth; his -figure was heavier but yet active and graceful, he had hardly reached -the flower of his strength, and began to show the magnificent -proportions of a Viking, deep-chested, long-limbed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_269" id="page_269"></a>{269}</span> strong, without -being coarse, and powerful, without being clumsy.</p> - -<p>Adversity had given him neither a sense of humor, gentleness, nor -gaiety, yet in some way he was more attractive than he had been, and the -uncomplaining fortitude with which he had endured his cruel fortune -inspired a noble pity in the hearts of brave men.</p> - -<p>Not by a hair-breadth had he deviated from the code of pride, of honor, -and endurance that he had followed when North Europe trembled at his -feet, nor in any way faltered from the serenity that had been his when -his conquests had dazzled mankind.</p> - -<p>Nor was his obstinacy, a less admirable virtue, in any way abated, as -his present attitude showed.</p> - -<p>M. Fabrice found that the generals and ministers were engaged in -persuading the King to abandon the design of opposing to the utmost the -wishes of the Sultan.</p> - -<p>Karl’s blue eyes, that had more fire than formerly, glanced at once at -the new-comer.</p> - -<p>“Ah, M. Fabrice,” he said, “have you come to join your prayers to those -of these gentlemen who want me to run away?”</p> - -<p>The envoy from Holstein did not know what to say; despite what he had -heard from Ismail Pasha, and his knowledge of the character of Karl, he -could hardly believe that the King meant to make an armed resistance -with 300 men against 26,000, which was the number of the Tartars and -Turks in Bender.</p> - -<p>“God knows,” broke out Councilor Müllern, with tears in his eyes. “Your -Majesty does not need to prove your courage to the world, and it would -be a nobler part to submit.”</p> - -<p>“Submit! submit!” repeated the King angrily. “You tire me with words!”</p> - -<p>General Hord, who had fought by Karl’s side at Poltava, and who was -still maimed as a result of his wounds, now addressed the King.</p> - -<p>“Sire,” he asked, “will you condemn to a miserable<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_270" id="page_270"></a>{270}</span> death, at the hands -of the infidel, these poor Swedes, the remnant of your victories?”</p> - -<p>“I know, by those victories, that you know how to obey,” replied the -King sternly. “Till now you have done your duty, General Hord—continue -to do it to-day.”</p> - -<p>M. Fabrice now found his voice.</p> - -<p>“Sire,” he said, “I was with the Khan, and on leaving him met Ismail -Pasha; from what I learnt it is but too true that they have received -orders from the Porte that every Swede who resists is to be slain, even -to your Majesty!”</p> - -<p>“Have you seen this order?” demanded the King quietly.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” replied M. Fabrice, “the Khan showed it to me.”</p> - -<p>“Well,” said Karl, “tell them from me that I give another order—and -that is that no Swede leaves Bender.”</p> - -<p>M. Fabrice was in despair; he glanced at the sad faces of Karl’s -faithful friends who had suffered such pains and hardships for him, and -he felt it was unendurable that all should end in a useless death.</p> - -<p>He fell on his knees, grasping the skirts of the King’s coat.</p> - -<p>“For the sake of these others, sire, who are all that are left to you, -out of so many who have perished for your sake——”</p> - -<p>“Get up, M. Fabrice,” said Karl kindly, “and return to your lodging. -There is no need for you to remain to share my fortune.”</p> - -<p>M. Fabrice sprang to his feet, angry and agitated.</p> - -<p>“This obstinacy is not worthy, sire. You have no right to fling away so -many lives for a whim!”</p> - -<p>Karl only smiled; he was not easily angry with M. Fabrice.</p> - -<p>Holstein-Gottorp had always been specially under his protection, nor had -he ever forgotten the young Duke for whose sake he had first gone to war -and who had been killed at his side.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_271" id="page_271"></a>{271}</span></p> - -<p>It was his nature to be most tenaciously faithful to any cause or -friendship he had once undertaken, and he had never faltered in his -resolve to uphold the rights of his brother-in-law; he intended to make -the little orphan Duke, his elder sister’s son, his heir, and to that -end kept M. Fabrice near him, and gave him as much of his confidence as -he accorded to any man.</p> - -<p>Therefore he endured calmly the reproaches, the anger, and the pleadings -of the excited envoy who was listened to with approval by the others, -yet they, who had tried the like arguments in vain, had little hope from -the eloquence of M. Fabrice.</p> - -<p>All, as the listeners had foreseen, was useless.</p> - -<p>“Return to your Turks,” smiled the King. “If they attack me, I shall -know how to defend myself.”</p> - -<p>M. Fabrice had not the heart to reply, and in the little silence that -followed the King’s speech, Jeffreys, the English minister, entered the -chamber.</p> - -<p>He advanced and kissed the King’s hand with the air of one bringing good -news; he also had been trying his good offices with the Khan, and had -obtained this favor—that an express should be sent to Adrianople, where -the Sultan then was, to demand if in reality extreme measures were to be -taken against the King of Sweden, and in the meanwhile permission to -allow provisions to be sent to the King.</p> - -<p>Karl received this very coldly.</p> - -<p>“You are a voluntary mediator, sir,” he said. “I ask for no favor at the -hands of the Sultan.”</p> - -<p>“Nor did I, sire,” replied the Englishman. “But it is possible that the -Porte may repent of the delayed severity of these orders, and in any -case this gives your Majesty time to leave with dignity.”</p> - -<p>“M. Jeffreys,” remarked the King, with freezing coldness, “as you leave -my house you will see my entrenchments.”</p> - -<p>“Can it be possible——” began the minister.</p> - -<p>“Sir,” interrupted the King, “more things are possible than you may -dream of. I do not want your<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_272" id="page_272"></a>{272}</span> mediation. Nor do I want the provisions of -the Turks. What I need I can pay for.”</p> - -<p>The Englishman, who, in common with every man present, had lent the King -money and knew the difficulty Poniatowski had in raising forced loans in -Constantinople, thought this pride as ill-timed as the King’s obstinacy, -but he knew that it was in keeping with Karl’s character, and that he -did not speak out of flaunting vanity but from that superb disregard of -money that he had always possessed; gold and human life, worldly -dignities, and common prudence had alike been always too utterly -disregarded by the King of Sweden.</p> - -<p>“I will mingle no more in the affairs of a monarch so inflexible,” said -the Englishman, with a slight smile, as he prepared to retire.</p> - -<p>“A wise resolution, M. Jeffreys,” replied the King gravely.</p> - -<p>The clergy now essayed to attempt what ministers and soldiers had alike -failed to effect.</p> - -<p>Karl’s chaplain, coming forward, addressed him in stern tones.</p> - -<p>“Has your Majesty considered how long and generously these Turks have -succored you? What Christianity is it that so rudely returns such -generosity? Have you considered your poor subjects who yet hope, after -these weary years of wandering and of exile, to see their homes?”</p> - -<p>In this the chaplain was seconded by some other pastors who threw -themselves on their knees before the King.</p> - -<p>Karl started to his feet; though the discipline of the Lutheran religion -was peculiarly suited to his temperament, and the observance of its -rules had always been a factor in his success, still there was little of -the fanatic in him, and his long sojourn in Turkey had induced a -considerable indifference towards Christianity in the heart of one who -had always admired pagan virtues and pagan heroes.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_273" id="page_273"></a>{273}</span></p> - -<p>He therefore viewed with real anger the interference of these pastors -whose appearance at the conference he had hitherto hardly noticed.</p> - -<p>His face flushed, and his blue eyes darkened ominously.</p> - -<p>On the heads of the clergy broke all the anger the other remonstrants -had failed to provoke.</p> - -<p>“I keep you,” he said, with cutting anger, “to say prayers, and not to -give me advice.”</p> - -<p>With that and a general glance of contempt for the entire company he -left the chamber, and the only man who dared follow him was Baron Görtz, -a man of a spirit akin to his own.</p> - -<p>“I wish Poniatowski was here—he might do something,” remarked Grothusen -despondently.</p> - -<p>“Not an angel of God could do anything,” said the chaplain, who, in -common with the other clergy, found himself in the ridiculous position -of rising from his knees in front of an empty chair.</p> - -<p>“He will be massacred!” cried General Hord in despair.</p> - -<p>“We shall all be massacred,” said Müllern. “How long do you think 300 -men will resist 26,000?”</p> - -<p>“I know,” put in Colonel Gierta, “that the King will suffer the roof to -be pulled over his head sooner than surrender.”</p> - -<p>“The Sultan may grant a respite,” suggested M. Fabrice.</p> - -<p>But Grothusen shook his head.</p> - -<p>“His patience has been too greatly tried—and the vizier dare not risk -our presence here long.”</p> - -<p>“But Poniatowski may do something,” urged Müllern, who had much -confidence in the tireless and resourceful Pole.</p> - -<p>The words had hardly left his lips before several shots rang out, and -all started to their feet, thinking this the signal for an attack on the -house.</p> - -<p>But immediately after, Neumann, the King’s surgeon, entered.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_274" id="page_274"></a>{274}</span></p> - -<p>“The King is having all the Arab chargers given him by the Sultan shot,” -he announced, “and the carcases flung to the Tartar troops.”</p> - -<p>The Swedes were silent.</p> - -<p>In their hearts they knew there was no excuse for Karl’s behavior, and -that reason, right, and justice were all on the side of the Sultan, who -had from the first been forbearing, chivalrous, and generous to a -stranger whom he neither liked nor understood, and who had been the -cause of much annoyance to him and of many distractions in his court. -Yet they all loved Karl, who till the days of his exile had awakened -little affection in any heart, and who now exhibited few lovable -qualities.</p> - -<p>But his unyielding determination, his iron inflexibility, his austere -life, his high ideals of heroic virtues had inspired a feeling that was -almost reverence in the hearts of those who had shared his dreary exile.</p> - -<p>And in this bitter pass to which his obstinacy had brought them it was -not of themselves they thought, but of the King—it was his peril, not -their own, that forced the tears to their eyes.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_275" id="page_275"></a>{275}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_II-h" id="CHAPTER_II-h"></a>CHAPTER II</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span>HE answer from Adrianople was to the effect that the Swedes were to -leave Bender at all costs and that all who resisted were to be forcibly -ejected, and, if need be, slain.</p> - -<p>Their commands were not at all to the liking of the Khan or Ismail -Pasha, both of whom had come to like Karl, a type admirable in the eyes -of a Mussulman, and M. Fabrice again tried his talents as mediator.</p> - -<p>All these efforts, like so many others, proved fruitless, and for the -same reason—the inflexibility of Karl.</p> - -<p>Even Baron Görtz thought the King went too far, and he knew, better than -any man, the real cause of Karl’s bitter obstinacy.</p> - -<p>And this was the treaty of Pruth.</p> - -<p>When, after years of dreary waiting, the endless intrigues of -Poniatowski had at last succeeded in causing the Porte to declare war on -Russia, Karl had believed that his patience was rewarded and that his -downfall would be avenged.</p> - -<p>And it seemed as if fortune was again favoring him; Peter, marching into -Turkey as recklessly as Karl had marched into the Ukraine, found himself -on the banks of the Pruth, isolated, outnumbered, without provisions or -stores, in a position as desperate as that in which Karl had found -himself at Poltava.</p> - -<p>So terrible was the prospect, so certain seemed defeat, slavery, the -triumph of his defeated rival, and the failure of his own life’s work, -that the Czar fell into a state of despair which brought on a fearful -attack of convulsions.</p> - -<p>While he was thus helpless a council of war was called at which -Katherina presided.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_276" id="page_276"></a>{276}</span></p> - -<p>By the advice of this ignorant but astute woman, now roused from her -usual placidity, all the available treasure in the camp was gathered -together and sent as a present to the Grand Vizier in command of the -Turkish army, together with a demand to know his terms of peace.</p> - -<p>The result of this was the treaty of Pruth or Ialciu, by which Peter -ceded all the advantages he had gained in his previous war with Turkey, -including the town of Azov, and agreed to withdraw his troops from -Poland and to renew the tribute to the Tartars that he had long ceased -to pay. In return he was allowed to retire with his army, cannon, flags, -and baggage, furnished with food by the Turks, and Karl, hastening to -the battle and hoping to find the Czar as he had been himself before -Poltava, found that the Russians had retreated untouched.</p> - -<p>Nor had Poniatowski, who was with the vizier, been able to obtain a -single advantage for his master in the signing of the peace, beyond an -article by which Peter engaged not to trouble the return of Karl to his -dominions, should he choose to come through Russia.</p> - -<p>Karl, who had ridden fifty leagues from Bender, swum the Pruth at the -risk of his life, and dashed through the Muscovite encampment, had been -driven beyond his usual control at the news which he received on -entering Poniatowski’s tent.</p> - -<p>In a cold fury he went to face the vizier, but received no satisfaction -from the calm Turk, who, having as he believed secured his master’s -interests, cared little for the rage of the fugitive King of Sweden.</p> - -<p>“I have the right,” he said, “to make war and peace.”</p> - -<p>“But you had the whole Russian army in your power!” cried Karl.</p> - -<p>“Our law,” replied Mahomet Baltadgi, “tells us to give peace to our -enemies when they demand our mercy.”</p> - -<p>“And does it order,” retorted Karl, “that you make<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_277" id="page_277"></a>{277}</span> bad treaties when -you might make good ones? Do you not know that you could have led the -Czar prisoner to Constantinople?”</p> - -<p>The vizier replied gravely and dryly in words that Karl never forgot.</p> - -<p>“We cannot shelter all the Kings of Europe in Turkey.”</p> - -<p>The King, turning with disdainful haste, caught his spur in the Turk’s -long robe, purposely tore it with an angry movement of his foot, and -galloped back to Bender, blacker despair in his heart than there had -been after Poltava.</p> - -<p>He then resolved that he would not leave Turkey until he had secured the -punishment of Mahomet Baltadgi and another army with which to march -against Peter.</p> - -<p>The vizier took care that his plaints and protests should not reach the -Sultan; all letters from Bender were intercepted on the road, but after -a while Karl’s hopes were flattered by the Porte which became indignant -at the behavior of the Czar. The Keys of Azov did not arrive, the -tribute was not paid, and Poniatowski was able to convey to the Sultan -the news that Muscovite troops were still in Poland.</p> - -<p>Peter, however, had soon accommodated matters with the Porte, and -Mahomet Baltadgi was more resolute than ever in insisting on the removal -of the man whom he now knew to be his enemy.</p> - -<p>He obtained from Vienna a safe-conduct for Karl if he chose to return -through the territories of the Empire, and he put galleys at his -disposal if he wished to go by sea.</p> - -<p>But Karl, bitter and humiliated, had been from the first resolute not to -be chased from Turkey, but to leave at his own convenience.</p> - -<p>He had been confirmed in this attitude by the discovery of a -correspondence between the Khan of the Tartars and General Fleming, the -minister of Augustus of Saxony, in the ambiguous phrasing of which he -and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_278" id="page_278"></a>{278}</span> Baron Görtz had thought they had discovered a design to deliver -Karl to the Saxons on his return.</p> - -<p>M. Fabrice had satisfied himself that the Khan spoke the truth when he -denied these allegations, but Karl was not to be convinced.</p> - -<p>The express having arrived from Adrianople, the predictions of M. -Fabrice and the English minister having failed, and Karl being still -inflexible, there remained now but to expect an assault of the Tartars -and janissaries.</p> - -<p>The King had already entrenched his 300 troops and disposed his -household for the defense of his house.</p> - -<p>Müllern, with Karl’s secretary, the clergy and the other ministers were -to defend the chancellor’s house; Baron Fieff was to command the little -garrison of cooks and servants and grooms in the house of Grothusen.</p> - -<p>The King assigned to every one his post, and promised rewards to those -who should conduct themselves bravely.</p> - -<p>The Turks came to the attack with ten pieces of cannon, but Grothusen -rode out to meet them, unarmed and bareheaded, and appealed to these -janissaries, who had so often enjoyed Swedish bounty, to desist from -this attack on helpless and brave men, and to grant a delay of three -days in which to ascertain if in reality the orders of the Sultan were -so severe.</p> - -<p>These words produced a revolt among the janissaries, who swore to accord -the three days to the King, and rushed in a tumult to the Pasha of -Bender, declaring that the orders of the Sultan were forged.</p> - -<p>Despite the protests of the Khan, Ismail Pasha postponed the assault -till the next day, and drawing aside sixty of the oldest janissaries -showed them the positive order of the Sultan, at the same time telling -them to go peaceably to Karl and request his departure, offering -themselves as his escort; so anxious was Ismail Pasha to avoid hurting -Karl or any of his suite.</p> - -<p>While these veterans were proceeding, armed only<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_279" id="page_279"></a>{279}</span> with the white wands -they bore in times of peace, to the King’s camp, M. Fabrice, who could -not now come to see the King in his state of siege, sent him a letter by -the hands of a Turk, enclosing one from Poniatowski, then at -Constantinople.</p> - -<p>Baron Görtz took this dispatch to the King who was then (it was an early -hour of the morning) alone in his chamber.</p> - -<p>A great sadness filled the heart of this faithful friend as he looked at -the King.</p> - -<p>Karl, despite his strength and pride and obstinacy, was in a piteous -position.</p> - -<p>There was something heartrending, almost ridiculous in the King’s -attitude; this useless heroism, this futile defiance—all that had been -splendid at Poltava was pitiful at Bender.</p> - -<p>And all the more so because Karl saw neither the pathos nor the tragedy -of his situation, and disposed his cooks and grooms, his pastors and -clerks, with as much gravity as he had disposed his veteran troops -before Varsovia or Klissow.</p> - -<p>Yet he was more moved than Grothusen had ever seen him, save in the -Turkish camp at Pruth. Something of the old Viking fury that could only -be satisfied by an orgy of blood was upon him, apart from his real -conviction that it would be dishonor to depart peaceably; he lusted to -fight.</p> - -<p>A warrior by birth, inclination, and training, these four years of -idleness had been almost unendurable to his fierce spirit.</p> - -<p>He longed to draw his sword once more and feel that atmosphere of -excitement and peril that was the breath of life to him.</p> - -<p>Added to this he was deeply angry with the Turks; no one could tell the -bitterness of his disappointment in having failed to achieve a Turkish -army to lead against Peter.</p> - -<p>And the news from Europe could hardly have been worse; all his enemies -had attacked his estates during<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_280" id="page_280"></a>{280}</span> his absence, Augustus was once more -King of Poland, and Russia occupied the place Sweden had so lately held -as Arbiter of the North.</p> - -<p>All these reflections weighed on Grothusen as he addressed the King.</p> - -<p>“Sire, there is a party of janissaries on their way to your Majesty, and -I beseech you to listen to them.”</p> - -<p>Karl looked up as if he had been startled from a reverie.</p> - -<p>Without replying he took the letter from M. Fabrice, broke the seal, and -read the enclosure from Count Poniatowski.</p> - -<p>The intrepid Pole had fallen into disfavor with the Sultan after Karl’s -imprudent demand for more money and was not permitted to be with the -Court, then at Adrianople; he had, however, managed to keep in touch -with affairs, and he now wrote to inform the King that it was but too -true that Ahmed had ordered the Khan to proceed to extremity if Karl -refused to move from Bender.</p> - -<p>In impassioned words of love and respect Poniatowski implored the King -to relinquish his mad design of resistance, to think no more of -assistance from Turkey, and to return to his own country, trusting to -his own genius to retrieve his fortunes.</p> - -<p>The King put down the letter and rose.</p> - -<p>“All, all so ready to persuade me to my own dishonor!” he exclaimed.</p> - -<p>He was deeply moved, and his eyes showed dark in a pale face as he flung -back his head and stared at Grothusen.</p> - -<p>“On my soul,” cried that nobleman, “these Turks mean no dishonor.”</p> - -<p>“Have you not yourself seen,” returned Karl, “the letters to the Khan -from Count Fleming? I believe they mean to sell me to Augustus.”</p> - -<p>“I am sure, sire,” replied Grothusen, with some heat, “they do not. I -know truth when I see it, and I am<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_281" id="page_281"></a>{281}</span> convinced that the Khan and Ismail -Pasha are acting as honorable men.”</p> - -<p>“Very well, then,” said Karl, “I also will act as an honorable man. I -refuse to be forced to do what I would not do willingly.”</p> - -<p>“You know that this may mean your life, sire, which is sacred to your -people? That all your friends, servants, and guards, so long faithful to -you, and looking to you for protection, will be either massacred or -taken into slavery?”</p> - -<p>“Grothusen,” replied the King coldly, “if you fear to share my fortunes, -join the Poles and Cossacks who have gone to Bender.”</p> - -<p>At this cruel remark the Swede flushed hotly all over his fair face.</p> - -<p>“That you are beyond reason, sire, does not mean that I am beyond -loyalty.”</p> - -<p>“No,” replied the King more gently, “I have no doubt as to your -loyalty—nor as to that of any with me.”</p> - -<p>“The generals are in despair, sire.”</p> - -<p>“They have rusted too long—like my sword,” remarked the King briefly. -“Have you any other news, Grothusen?”</p> - -<p>He spoke as if he would dismiss the subject of their present position, -and Grothusen endeavored to follow his humor, though indeed there was no -subject on which he could speak that would be particularly pleasing to -either.</p> - -<p>“M. Müllern had an express this morning to say that King Stanislaus was -still on his way to the Turkish frontier.”</p> - -<p>“He is my friend,” replied Karl. “Were he not I should call him weak and -foolish.”</p> - -<p>In truth, the inflexibility of the King of Sweden had for some time been -forced by the pliability of the man whom he had made King of Poland.</p> - -<p>Stanislaus, faithful as Karl to an ancient friendship, had, on being -driven from the Polish throne, gone to Pomerania to defend the dominions -of his benefactor.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_282" id="page_282"></a>{282}</span></p> - -<p>After many vicissitudes he had resolved to abandon the crown that was -the real cause of contention between Karl and his enemies, and by -admitting the claim of Augustus to pave the way for a peace for Sweden.</p> - -<p>To this end he had written to Karl several times begging him to leave -him in retirement, and not for his already lost cause to risk blood, -treasure, or his own advantages.</p> - -<p>In acting thus the generous Pole showed that he did not know the man -with whom he dealt; Karl was merely angry at this self-sacrifice; he was -haughtily decided never to permit Augustus to keep the throne of Poland, -and equally to never permit Stanislaus to resign it; he had never, in -the dreariest, most hopeless hours of his exile relinquished the dream -of unthroning the Czar, and the chivalrous withdrawal of Stanislaus -Leczinski from the combat merely irritated the indomitable Swede.</p> - -<p>Learning his humor, but still convinced of the wisdom of his own -decision, Stanislaus had decided to come himself to Bender to inform -Karl of the state of Europe and the desirability of his resigning the -crown of Poland.</p> - -<p>It was this journey, that the Pole was making incognito, that Grothusen -now referred to.</p> - -<p>It was not a happy change of subject, for it vexed Karl almost as much -as that of the deputation of the janissaries.</p> - -<p>“He too comes to dissuade me from what I have already set my mind on,” -remarked the angry King. “Well, let him come. If I meet him, I shall -tell him that if he will not be King of Poland, I can find another who -will.”</p> - -<p>He walked up and down the room, slowly and in a controlled manner, but -the heaving of his bosom, the pallor of his face, and the dark flash in -the eyes usually so cold, told that he was angry in no common fashion.</p> - -<p>He suddenly stopped before his friend.</p> - -<p>“And you, Grothusen!” he exclaimed, “you too would<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_283" id="page_283"></a>{283}</span> wish to see me a -laughing-stock for the Czar—turned from this country at his pleasure.”</p> - -<p>His emotion overpowered him as he mentioned his chief enemy; he turned -to the window and leant his sick head against the mullions.</p> - -<p>Peter Alexievitch!</p> - -<p>That name was the cause of all his wrath and soreness, all his stubborn -pride and deep fury; the Czar, the only man who had been worthy of his -steel—the man who had defeated him—the man, who, through what Karl -considered the baseness of Mahomet Baltadgi, had escaped vengeance on -the banks of the Pruth.</p> - -<p>In many bitter ways had Peter made Karl feel the sting of defeat.</p> - -<p>Piper, Rehnsköld, Wurtemberg, and other ministers and generals, famous -and glorious for their part in Karl’s great victories, his close -companions for ten years, had marched in chains, two by two, through the -streets of St. Petersburg, following the barbaric triumph with which the -Czar impressed his people.</p> - -<p>And the Muscovite ambassadors at Constantinople had flourished with -Swedish slaves, the heroes of Klissow and Poltava, in their train.</p> - -<p>And Karl had the humiliation of knowing that the rest of his veterans, -the flower of the army, were working as slaves in Siberia or teaching -their masters their native handicrafts.</p> - -<p>Every way Peter was prosperous; his navy rode the waters of the gulf of -Riga and the gulf of Finland; his armies spread all over the Baltic -Provinces, and held Poland at their mercy; his ambassadors were received -at every Court; the arts and sciences grew apace in Russia.</p> - -<p>It was no wonder that his name inspired with despair the proud young -warrior who had thought to dethrone him in a year.</p> - -<p>“Do you think,” he suddenly asked aloud, “that I shall leave Turkey till -I secure the punishment of Mahomet Baltadgi?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_284" id="page_284"></a>{284}</span></p> - -<p>He now hated this man, who had snatched his patiently waited-for -vengeance from him, almost as much as he hated Peter Alexievitch.</p> - -<p>“Count Poniatowski does his best——” began Grothusen.</p> - -<p>“Cease to weary me with that useless talk,” interrupted Karl fiercely.</p> - -<p>Grothusen looked mournfully at the strong noble face; he felt an -overwhelming pity for this life that was so strong and brave and -steadfast, and so lonely and so thwarted, for this nature that had -greatly dared, greatly achieved, and then had to endure the humiliation -of complete failure.</p> - -<p>Karl was not lovable, but in that moment his friend yearned over him as -if he had been a woman.</p> - -<p>Before either could speak again Baron Görtz entered.</p> - -<p>The sixty janissaries, white-bearded veterans, unarmed and on foot, had -arrived.</p> - -<p>They sent the most humble, most respectful message to the King.</p> - -<p>If he would only leave Bender they would themselves escort him anywhere -he wished, even to Adrianople, so that he might put his case to the -Sultan.</p> - -<p>“I will not see them,” said the King.</p> - -<p>“Sire, I fear they will never leave until you have spoken with them,” -replied Görtz.</p> - -<p>The King gave a deep sigh and rang the bell; Frederic the valet, who had -held him on his horse at Poltava, appeared.</p> - -<p>“Go to these old Turks,” commanded Karl, “and bid them leave my house, -or else,” he sought for the worst insult one could give a Mohammedan, “I -will send my soldiers to cut off their beards.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_285" id="page_285"></a>{285}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_III-h" id="CHAPTER_III-h"></a>CHAPTER III</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span>HE janissaries, utterly outraged at this insult, retired muttering in -anger: “Ah, head of iron, head of iron, if you will perish, you shall!”</p> - -<p>The Turks and Tartars were now again advancing to the attack.</p> - -<p>Karl ran out, mounted and galloped, in company with three generals, -towards his little camp. He was in time to see the 300 Swedes surrounded -and overwhelmed by the Turks to whom they surrendered without firing a -shot.</p> - -<p>When the King beheld his veterans thus delivering themselves into the -hands of the enemy, in his very presence, the deep color sprang into his -cheeks.</p> - -<p>For an instant he covered his face with his hands, then, throwing back -his head haughtily, he spoke to the officers who accompanied him.</p> - -<p>“Come, let us defend the house, then,” he said, and turned swiftly -about, and followed by the generals gained his residence that he had -left garrisoned by forty servants and fortified as best he could.</p> - -<p>These defenses, however, had been useless before the onslaught of an -army; the Turks had stormed the house and entered by the windows, a -surging crowd of janissaries heaved before the door.</p> - -<p>The King’s servants had retired into the large dining-hall that opened -off the entrance chamber on the ground floor, their fair frightened -faces could be seen at the great window, in strange contrast to the dark -triumphant faces shouting without.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_286" id="page_286"></a>{286}</span></p> - -<p>The King leant forward from the saddle; his look was as intent as that -of an eagle bending from a rock to drop on its prey. He glanced forward -at his beleaguered house then back at those about him.</p> - -<p>His following numbered in all twenty persons, including the generals -Hord, Dahldorf, and Sparre, M. Fabrice who had contrived to join the -King, and Frederic his valet.</p> - -<p>“Stand by me now,” cried the King, “and we will gain the house.”</p> - -<p>Mad as they thought his action, there was not one of them who would not -have been ashamed to draw back now.</p> - -<p>Flinging himself from his horse, grasping in one hand his sword and in -the other a pistol, Karl threw himself on the crowd of janissaries who -surged before his door, and began to cut his way through the press.</p> - -<p>The Turks hurled themselves on him; Ismail Pasha had promised eight -golden ducats to each man who could only touch the habit of the terrible -king, if he was captured, and the janissaries fought and struggled to -get near the tall figure in the blue uniform.</p> - -<p>Karl laughed; the fury and the joy of battle, doubly grateful after -years of enforced idleness, filled his veins; he cut down all those who -stood in his way and, a head and shoulders above the crowd, forced -through to the door.</p> - -<p>A Turk placed a musket at his head, Karl turned and ran him through the -chest; the musket went off, the ball grazed the King’s nose, wounded his -ear, and broke the arm of General Hord.</p> - -<p>The Turks began to fall back before this man who appeared invincible and -even superhuman; his long sword dripping blood, his pistol hot and -smoking, his fair face calm yet lit with that cold fury of the North, so -strange a thing to Eastern people, Karl of Sweden smote to right and -left until he had cut his way to his doorstep.</p> - -<p>The little garrison, who had been watching the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_287" id="page_287"></a>{287}</span> desperate fight with -breathless agitation, threw open the door.</p> - -<p>The King strode in, followed by his escort; the door was instantly -bolted and barricaded with chairs, tables, and other articles of -furniture. Karl now found himself in the large dining-hall; his entire -retinue consisted of sixty men, of whom several were wounded, General -Hord severely so.</p> - -<p>The King’s own face was all bloody from the gash in his ear; he wiped -this away with a gesture of impatience and tossed down the soaked -handkerchief.</p> - -<p>The little company looked at him, no one saying anything; all were -standing save the wounded general, who was seated while a valet tied up -his arm with rough splinters and bandages. They all of them counted on -certain death, and had only the melancholy satisfaction of resolving to -sell their lives dear.</p> - -<p>Only one or two intrepid spirits shared the King’s humor, and were -indifferent to the issue of the fray as long as they might acquit -themselves with honor.</p> - -<p>Among these was Baron Görtz, a daring, audacious, and courageous man -full of nerve and resource, Grothusen, a calm, bold spirit, and -Frederic, the faithful and intrepid valet.</p> - -<p>For a moment the King stood silent, leaning on his bare sword, and -listening to the Turks who had overrun the rest of the house and were -hurrying from room to room, pillaging and searching for the King.</p> - -<p>Shouts and heavy steps told that they had entered the adjoining -apartment which was the King’s bed-chamber.</p> - -<p>Karl wiped his sword on the blue damask cover of a chair and picked up -his musket and loaded it.</p> - -<p>“Come,” he said, “help me to turn these barbarians from my house.”</p> - -<p>So saying he flung open the inner door that led to the bed-chamber and -strode in among the Turks, raising his musket as he did so and firing -into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_288" id="page_288"></a>{288}</span> group of plunderers. These, startled at the sudden apparition -of the man whom they had believed dead or captured, and loaded with -booty, were taken at a disadvantage.</p> - -<p>The magnificent figure with the calm face now so fierce in expression, -that they had been used to respect, filled them with awe; they retreated -before Karl, dropping the gold and silver vessels, the rolls of -tapestries, the knives and firearms that they had despoiled from the -King’s stores.</p> - -<p>Karl advanced among them, throwing away his musket; he drew his sword -and drove the Turks backwards before him; many jumped out of the window, -two crawled under the brocade valences of the King’s bed.</p> - -<p>Karl, perceiving this, ran his sword through one; the other crawled out, -and bending low before the King besought his mercy.</p> - -<p>Karl turned to Grothusen, now close behind him.</p> - -<p>“Tell him,” he said, “that I will give him his life if he tells Ismail -Pasha what he has seen.”</p> - -<p>Grothusen translated this; the shivering Turk eagerly promised, and was -suffered to jump out of the window after his companions.</p> - -<p>The invaders had now taken refuge in the cellars; from these Karl and -his now heartened followers soon dislodged them; some were killed, -others contrived their escape through doors or windows.</p> - -<p>Karl ordered the dead to be flung out after the living, and in a short -space of time the house was free of the enemy.</p> - -<p>The Swedes now proceeded to barricade doors and windows, and to fetch -such arms as were available.</p> - -<p>A large store of muskets and powder had not been discovered by the -Turks, and these proved ample for the arming of the garrison.</p> - -<p>Karl, as composed and cool as always when in the midst of battle, was -nevertheless animated by a furious anger and passion; his blood was up, -and he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_289" id="page_289"></a>{289}</span> utterly reckless of all consequences both to himself and -others.</p> - -<p>“We will make this house famous,” he said, when he had given -instructions to his men to resist to the very utmost and the very last.</p> - -<p>“But too famous!” General Dahldorf could not help saying, “if it is to -be the scene of your Majesty’s——”</p> - -<p>He could not say the word, and the tears rose to his eyes.</p> - -<p>“My death,” finished the King. “Well, if these are our last hours it is -the more needful that we should make them honorable.”</p> - -<p>He posted such as he had of guards and soldiers and the more skilled of -the servants at the windows, with orders to fire on the swarms of Turks -and Tartars pressing about the house.</p> - -<p>The Khan and Ismail Pasha now brought their cannon into action, but with -no avail; the balls fell harmlessly from the stoutly built stone walls.</p> - -<p>In a few moments the Swedes firing from the windows had killed over 200 -Turks and wounded a great many others.</p> - -<p>“See you,” cried the King to Grothusen, “if my soldiers had stood firm -we had defeated all these infidels!”</p> - -<p>“Ah, sire,” replied Grothusen, “had every man a spirit such as yours we -should be invincible!”</p> - -<p>It was no mere flattery he spoke, he meant and believed what he said.</p> - -<p>And in his heart he thought—“If you had not been sick we had fought and -died like this on the banks of the Dnieper, and not lived to see this -exile.”</p> - -<p>The King was at one of the barricaded windows, firing over the heads of -his crouching soldiers who were picking off the Turks who seemed in a -certain confusion, when Baron Görtz gave a sudden cry and a deep curse.</p> - -<p>He had perceived that the Turks, ashamed at being so long kept at bay by -a handful of men, were sending<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_290" id="page_290"></a>{290}</span> arrows, twisted with flaming straw, on -to the roof, the doors, window-frames, and all the inflammable portions -of the building. The exclamation had hardly left his lips before a great -gush of flame invaded the room where the King was.</p> - -<p>The roof, burning with a hundred flaming arrows, was falling into this -upper chamber.</p> - -<p>Karl, without a change of countenance, called two guards to help him -find water.</p> - -<p>General Dahldorf dragged along a small barrel from the stores.</p> - -<p>With his own hands the King staved it in and hurled the contents on to -the advancing flames; with a roar the fire increased so that all had to -hurl themselves against the door; the perukes of the officers were -singed, and arid smoke filled the eyes of all.</p> - -<p>The barrel had been filled, not, as was thought, with water, but with -brandy.</p> - -<p>There was nothing to do but to retire into the next apartment; this was -already menaced and full of smoke.</p> - -<p>The roof was blazing, and flames began to creep round the walls.</p> - -<p>The Turks, now passive, waited, with a kind of awe, for the Swedes to -leave the doomed building; they had ceased their cries and shouts, and -their excited faces were all turned towards the flaming house.</p> - -<p>The King’s position was indeed becoming untenable; driven from room to -room by the darting flames the Swedes were forced to take refuge on the -ground floor.</p> - -<p>Even this was invaded by smoke and large sparks from the burning -woodwork.</p> - -<p>The fumes were becoming blinding, choking. They could hardly see each -other’s faces; only the King, Görtz, and Grothusen continued to fire -from the flaming window.</p> - -<p>A soldier, with singed clothes and hair, staggered up to the King and -cried out, with his arm flung up to protect his eyes, that they must -surrender.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_291" id="page_291"></a>{291}</span></p> - -<p>“Surrender!” cried the King, looking over his shoulder. “Who dared say -that word?”</p> - -<p>“Sire,” answered the wretched guard, “we shall burn alive!”</p> - -<p>“Here is a strange man,” said Karl contemptuously, “who thinks it is -better to surrender than to die!”</p> - -<p>Another soldier, who was near the King now, ventured to speak.</p> - -<p>“Sire, could we not gain M. Müllern’s house that is not fifty paces -away, and that has a stone roof that is fireproof?”</p> - -<p>The King’s straight gaze was turned for an instant on the speaker; then -his blue eyes flashed with joy.</p> - -<p>He flung away his smoking musket and seized the soldier by the arm; he -remembered the fellow’s name, for he was among his personal guard.</p> - -<p>“You are a true Swede, <i>Colonel</i> Posen!” he said.</p> - -<p>The man crimsoned, even in this moment, with delight at this promotion, -but Karl left him no time for thanks.</p> - -<p>The flames were now enveloping them, and there was no time to be lost in -forcing a way out of the burning house.</p> - -<p>Putting himself at the head of his men, Karl issued from the door least -damaged by the fire and emptied his pistol into the crowd of expectant -and waiting Turks.</p> - -<p>This example was followed by the officers and soldiers immediately -behind, and so terrible was this onslaught of the desperate Swedes that -the Turks recoiled, calling on “Allah! Allah!” to defend them from this -dreadful hero.</p> - -<p>But the little band had not gone far before they were overpowered; Karl, -forced forward ahead of the others, was separated from them and entirely -surrounded.</p> - -<p>He threw away his pistol, and passing his sword from his left hand to -his right, defended himself with that against the janissaries who -pressed upon him with shouts of triumph.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_292" id="page_292"></a>{292}</span></p> - -<p>For several moments he held his own against his enemies; several reeled -back dead before him. He was hatless, and his fair, flushed face, the -blue eyes vivid, showed above them all; then one caught him by the belt -and dragged him half down; but he resisted to the full of his great -strength and would have got free, but, in turning, his spur caught in -the robe of one of his assailants and threw him.</p> - -<p>They had him down, and twenty janissaries threw themselves on him to pin -him to the earth.</p> - -<p>Karl, with one last effort and a loud cry, flung his sword up into the -air.</p> - -<p>The bloody blade glittered a second in the pale spring sunshine, then -was caught by a dozen eager hands.</p> - -<p>The King, knowing now that all was useless, remained perfectly -motionless.</p> - -<p>The janissaries, whose cries of anger and triumph were mingled with -exclamations of respect, lifted their terrible captive from the ground, -and carrying him by the knees, the feet, and the shoulders, bore him to -Ismail Pasha’s tent. At the door of this they set him on his feet, and -conducted him into the presence of the Governor of Bender.</p> - -<p>Karl made no resistance; he looked at his captors with a little smile -and passed into the tent.</p> - -<p>It was the first time in his life that he had been without a sword.</p> - -<p>Ismail Pasha, cool and grave, richly dressed and splendid in his -luxurious tent, rose and courteously greeted his presence, asking him -with many compliments to be seated on the silk-covered divan.</p> - -<p>“I bless the All Highest,” he said, “that your Majesty is alive—it was -my despair that your Majesty compelled me to put in execution the orders -of the Sultan.”</p> - -<p>Karl remained standing, a soiled, bloodstained figure, his clothes -scorched and rent, his face blackened, his eyebrows and hair singed, but -erect and haughty.</p> - -<p>He disdained to notice the Turk’s civilities.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_293" id="page_293"></a>{293}</span></p> - -<p>“Had my 300 Swedes stood firm,” was all he would say, “I had fought you -for ten days, not ten hours.”</p> - -<p>“Alas!” said Ismail Pasha gravely, “here is misdirected courage!”</p> - -<p>He turned aside to speak to the Khan of the Tartars who was present, and -the interpreter, with much respect, informed Karl that he would be -reconducted to Bender.</p> - -<p>Karl smiled bitterly.</p> - -<p>He would sooner have died than have been in his present position, but he -gave no outward sign of discomposure; he wanted to known what had become -of his servants and friends, but was too proud to ask.</p> - -<p>It seemed that he had lost everything; his Swedes either killed or -captured, his house burnt, his furniture, papers—everything, even to -his wearing apparel, pillaged or destroyed.</p> - -<p>And he knew of no one to whom he could turn in this extremity to which -his obstinate pride had reduced him; he was now the prisoner of the -Turks, and for all he knew might end his life a captive in exile.</p> - -<p>He was mounted on a richly appointed horse, and conducted to Ismail -Pasha’s house in Bender. On the way he had the anguish of seeing his -Swedish officers, chained two and two together, following, half nude, -the Turks or Tartars who had captured them.</p> - -<p>Karl started, and for the first time since he was a child, his cold blue -eyes were wet with tears.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_294" id="page_294"></a>{294}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_IV-h" id="CHAPTER_IV-h"></a>CHAPTER IV</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">N</span>EXT morning M. Fabrice obtained permission to see the King.</p> - -<p>He found him closely guarded by the janissaries who had captured him, in -an apartment of Ismail Pasha’s palace at Bender.</p> - -<p>Karl was as the fight had left him; he had slept in his coat and -top-boots, to the great amazement of the Turks, and received M. Fabrice -seated on a divan covered with costly cushions, in his torn and burnt -uniform, his person all stained with blood and powder.</p> - -<p>He looked at M. Fabrice with his extraordinary straight and -expressionless gaze; his eyes were slightly bloodshot, his cheeks -unshaven, his fair hair disheveled, but his demeanor was calm and even -gentle; there was nothing of yesterday’s Viking fury.</p> - -<p>He raised M. Fabrice, who had gone on his knees beside him, and passed -over the envoy’s emotion by asking with a smile what the Turks thought -of the battle of Bender.</p> - -<p>“Sire,” replied M. Fabrice, “they say that your Majesty killed twenty -janissaries with your own hand.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, these tales are only half true,” remarked Karl.</p> - -<p>M. Fabrice now informed him that M. Grothusen, M. Görtz, and the -principal officers had been ransomed.</p> - -<p>“Who by?” asked Karl sharply.</p> - -<p>“Ismail Pasha, sire, who paid for M. Grothusen out of his own pocket, -the English minister, and that<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_295" id="page_295"></a>{295}</span> French nobleman, La Motraye, who came to -Bender to see your Majesty.”</p> - -<p>“And you yourself,” said the King keenly. “You have contributed your -best.”</p> - -<p>“Sire, it was my bare duty.”</p> - -<p>“You shall all be repaid,” answered Karl briefly; pecuniary obligations -weighed very lightly on him, for he made no account at all of money in -which he had no interest, and which he profusely scattered whenever it -was in his possession.</p> - -<p>Still the obligation to the generous Pasha slightly galled him.</p> - -<p>“Is Frederic ransomed?” he asked abruptly.</p> - -<p>“Alas, sire, he was slain by the Tartars who captured him, and who -quarreled over their victim.”</p> - -<p>“Ah!” exclaimed Karl, then he added, “I think first he must have slain a -dozen of these barbarians with his own hands!”</p> - -<p>M. Fabrice was silent a moment, and the King stared down at the floor.</p> - -<p>“I have other bad news for your Majesty,” said he sadly. “King -Stanislaus has been made a prisoner by the Turks and is being brought to -Bender.”</p> - -<p>Karl’s hard chest heaved and he raised his head as if to speak.</p> - -<p>His eyes shot a fiery glance, but he was silent.</p> - -<p>“A messenger came from Moldavia this morning,” continued M. Fabrice, “to -say that the King was stopped at Jassy. He was traveling as a Swede with -a message for your Majesty, but was recognized by the hospodar of -Moldavia——”</p> - -<p>“Why could he not stay in Pomerania?” demanded Karl sternly.</p> - -<p>“Sire, he certainly hoped that his presence might accomplish what his -letters have not been able to—and that he might persuade your Majesty -to permit him to resign the crown you gave him.”</p> - -<p>Karl rose impatiently, towering over the envoy, himself a tall man -wearing a high peruke.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_296" id="page_296"></a>{296}</span></p> - -<p>“No more of that, M. Fabrice,” he said. “I will not hear these -arguments.”</p> - -<p>But M. Fabrice insisted, thinking, not unnaturally, that his present -misfortunes might soften the inflexible spirit of Karl.</p> - -<p>“Sire, the King of Prussia offers a treaty whereby Poland and your -Majesty league to keep the Czar in check. This cannot be until -Stanislaus resigns his claim, and this he is willing to do—to benefit -your Majesty whom he loves,” added M. Fabrice simply.</p> - -<p>But Karl was not to be moved; not even this powerful alliance against -his arch-enemy, not even the prospect of gaining the dearest wish of his -life in humbling Peter could shake him for an instant from the course -that he considered the just and right, nor into forsaking his friend, -even at that friend’s request.</p> - -<p>He was no politician, and, now that Count Piper was not there to guide -him, solved these questions by the simple code of a soldier’s honor, a -proceeding strange indeed to the councilors of Europe.</p> - -<p>“I will never make peace with Augustus, who has broken the peace of -Altranstadt like the villain he is, nor with Denmark, who has broken the -treaty of Traventhal, nor with Prussia and Hanover, who have vilely -bought my lands from the false princes. Times will change—do you think -I shall always be like this—and then I will smite them as I smote -before. Mark you, M. Fabrice, it was only behind my back they dared to -raise their heads—and when I return——”</p> - -<p>He made an instinctive movement towards his sword, and finding only the -empty straps gave a start, while the color paled in his face.</p> - -<p>Instantly recovering himself, he turned to M. Fabrice with a proud -smile.</p> - -<p>“You know that I am not given to boasting,” he said. “And you know that -when I return the affairs of Europe will change.”</p> - -<p>As he spoke these words, the quiet confidence of which was not affected, -he was without any resource in the world, not even master of his own -person.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_297" id="page_297"></a>{297}</span></p> - -<p>His enemies had indeed reared their heads in his absence; Denmark had -fallen on his provinces and succeeded in achieving some success despite -the Swedish victory of Helsingborg; Augustus was again firmly -established on the throne he had vowed to renounce; the Elector of -Hanover, now King of England, and for that reason dangerous, had bought -some of the territory wrested from Karl in his absence, and was prepared -to defend what he held; and Frederic of Prussia would be Sweden’s foe if -Karl did not consent to the resignation of Stanislaus.</p> - -<p>Therefore Karl had practically the whole of Europe either secretly or -openly against him, and no friend or ally; both Louis XIV and the -Emperor were unfriendly to him, and it had been one of the excuses he -had made for not leaving Bender that he could not trust himself in the -territories of either of these nations.</p> - -<p>The condition of his own country, without her ruler, drained of her best -manhood, with commerce ruined, the command of the Baltic lost, and -surrounded by enemies, was deplorable.</p> - -<p>It seemed as if Count Piper’s worst forebodings were to come true, and -the exploits of Karl XII would lose all that Karl X had won by the Peace -of Brömsebro and the Peace of Roskilde, and Karl XI consolidated by the -Battle of Lund.</p> - -<p>M. Fabrice, steeped in the politics of Europe, and whose main interest -in life was the fortune of the realm over which his young master was one -day to ride, looked with amazement at the fortitude of Karl in face of -events so untoward and a future so uncertain.</p> - -<p>Yet in his own heart he felt a certain spark of hope inspired by the -sheer strength of this strange character.</p> - -<p>It was Karl who broke the thoughtful silence.</p> - -<p>“Go to King Stanislaus, my dear Fabrice,” he said quietly, “and tell him -never to abandon his claims, for I never shall, nor make any peace with -our mutual enemies. And that if I live, all will be different.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_298" id="page_298"></a>{298}</span></p> - -<p>“If only your Majesty would return to Stockholm!” exclaimed the envoy.</p> - -<p>Karl gave his ugly smile.</p> - -<p>“That I shall never do,” he replied, “until I can return victorious. But -perhaps it is time I went North.”</p> - -<p>By which M. Fabrice concluded that the King had now resigned all hopes -of that Turkish army for which he had waited and Poniatowski intrigued -for nearly four years.</p> - -<p>The envoy from Holstein-Gottorp wondered where Karl hoped to find the -means to carry out these defiances he still hurled at his enemies; the -task seemed to him fairly hopeless, and yet, as he stood in the presence -of this man, he could not feel disheartened.</p> - -<p>“You have no longer any faith in me, M. Fabrice,” said Karl, looking -with a smile at the envoy’s perturbed face.</p> - -<p>M. Fabrice did not answer, but with a swelling heart turned away.</p> - -<p>The King looked at his bloodstained hands with some disgust and was -about to call for water, when Ismail Pasha entered, conducting M. -Grothusen.</p> - -<p>The Swede gave an exclamation on seeing the state of his master.</p> - -<p>“It is a shameful thing to leave his Majesty without a sword!” he -exclaimed.</p> - -<p>“Allah preserve us,” answered Ismail Pasha, “he swore that he would cut -off our beards.”</p> - -<p>With that he retired, leaving the King and his two friends alone.</p> - -<p>As if he wished to prevent M. Grothusen from referring to his present -plight, Karl began to speak at once of the arrival of King Stanislaus at -Bender.</p> - -<p>“I must see him,” said the King. “I must tell him to return at once to -Pomerania and fight there to the utmost.”</p> - -<p>“Sire,” replied M. Grothusen sadly, “King Stanislaus comes under a -military escort, and I do not think that anyone will be allowed to -approach him.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_299" id="page_299"></a>{299}</span></p> - -<p>“But they bring him to Bender!” exclaimed Karl.</p> - -<p>M. Grothusen averted his face.</p> - -<p>“I do not think that your Majesty will stay at Bender.”</p> - -<p>At this reminder of his captive position the King, who had not allowed a -single impatient word to escape him since he had been made prisoner, -colored and made a haughty movement with his head.</p> - -<p>“Where do they propose to take me?” he asked haughtily.</p> - -<p>“I cannot discover, sire. I think to Adrianople.”</p> - -<p>Karl glanced at M. Fabrice whose face was still further overcast.</p> - -<p>“Well,” he remarked, “perhaps we shall yet get our 200,000 men from the -Porte. See if you can get a message to King Stanislaus to say that we -are still unshaken in our designs.”</p> - -<p>He was silent a moment, and then added in an impetuous manner, rare for -him:</p> - -<p>“If they take me to Adrianopole I will punish Mahomet Baltadgi—I will -disclose to the Sultan that my letters were intercepted and that Count -Fleming was corresponding with the Khan.”</p> - -<p>That evening the King was taken in a scarlet litter to Adrianople, and -King Stanislaus arrived at Bender, having received on the road, by the -mouth of M. Fabrice, the message of his inflexible friend.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_300" id="page_300"></a>{300}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_V-h" id="CHAPTER_V-h"></a>CHAPTER V</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">K</span>ARL was conducted to Demotica, a little town some leagues from -Adrianople; a few of his suite were allowed to be with him and the rest -of the Swedes were kept in prison.</p> - -<p>Through Poniatowski’s able negotiations the Sultan was apprised of the -King of Sweden’s side of the story, and the Grand Vizier Soliman was -dismissed, the Khan and Ismail Pasha banished.</p> - -<p>But, despite the efforts of the French ambassador and various secret -friends whom Karl had in Constantinople, the Porte showed him no favor, -and so far from obtaining the succor of which he had dreamed he was -treated as a prisoner, and not allowed even to communicate with Ahmed.</p> - -<p>Despite this, Karl, who had by no means so completely relinquished hope -of Turkish help as his friends had supposed, refused to return to -Sweden, preferring captivity to the humiliation of returning to his -realm a defeated and stripped fugitive.</p> - -<p>The new vizier having sent for him to be present at a conference with -the French ambassador with a view to an alliance against Muscovy, the -King, deeply wounded in his pride, sent Müllern, and himself feigned -sickness, keeping himself for months enclosed in his chamber, so fearful -was he that the Turks might in some way force him to compromise his -dignity. He lived now in the simplest style, waited upon by his friends -Grothusen, Görtz, and Müllern, for he was without servants, such of -these as had survived the Bender fight being in prison, and without any -luxuries or even comforts, all his possessions having been burnt at<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_301" id="page_301"></a>{301}</span> -Varnitza, and the Porte now having ceased the princely generosity that -had rendered easy the first years of exile. The news that he received in -his confinement was of disaster upon disaster.</p> - -<p>Sweden was attacked on all sides.</p> - -<p>General Stenbock worthily filled the place of the King in defending his -country, and revenged the burning of Stade by reducing Altona to ashes; -but he could not long hold the field with such diminished forces against -such a powerful combination of enemies, and all the provinces of the -Baltic were lost to Sweden as well as most of her possessions in -Germany, and Stenbock was losing ground in Breme and Pomerania.</p> - -<p>The Saxons, Danes, and Russians joined forces, advanced on -Holstein-Gottorp, the little duchy that had been the first cause of this -long quarrel; the Swedish army was destroyed, Stenbock made a prisoner, -the whole of Pomerania, with the exception of Stralsund, fell into the -hands of Russia, the Danes seized Breme, the Russians Finland, and Karl -remained at Demotica.</p> - -<p>It was believed in Europe that he was dead; the Swedish senate implored -his sister to accept the regency; she did so, and wrote to her brother -that the councilors wished to make peace with their enemies who on every -side overwhelmed them.</p> - -<p>Karl sent an imperious and haughty reply, saying he would send one of -his boots, if they wished for a master, and that they could take orders -from that.</p> - -<p>In this extremity the Princess sent Count Liewin to Demotica to argue -with Karl.</p> - -<p>This nobleman was conducted into the King’s presence by Count -Poniatowski, who had lately come from Constantinople, where he was -convinced he could do nothing more for the Swedish cause.</p> - -<p>“You will find his Majesty changed—but not his inflexibility.”</p> - -<p>To which Count Liewin made answer:</p> - -<p>“If he does not return to Sweden, there is not one of us will answer for -the crown.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_302" id="page_302"></a>{302}</span></p> - -<p>Karl was shut in his chamber, away from the watchful eyes of his Turkish -guards that he found so hateful.</p> - -<p>As he had now no domestics, Müllern and Grothusen waited on him, and -amused his dreary leisure by the reading of French poems and plays and -the tales from the sagas.</p> - -<p>This life of confinement and idleness, together with the heart-sickness -of disappointment and hope deferred, had at last told on Karl’s superb -constitution as no fatigue or hardship had been able to; the sickness he -had so long feigned had now become almost a reality; the glory of his -strength had gone.</p> - -<p>He had risen from his bed to receive Count Liewin and wore his old blue -uniform, black cravat, and top-boots; he was thin and pallid, the blue -eyes half-closed, his air languid and apathetic.</p> - -<p>His face was beginning to be lined and shadowed; his fair hair was close -cropped and receding from the forehead; he was newly shaven and fresh in -his person, for he had to the full the Northern fastidiousness as to -cleanliness, but his habit was more than ever careless, and there was -not as much as a ring on his finger to show his rank.</p> - -<p>Count Liewin, looking at him, thought he was different indeed to the -gallant youth who had left Stockholm fifteen years before, as indeed -Sweden was different to what she had been.</p> - -<p>He went on one knee and kissed Karl’s passive hand.</p> - -<p>“Sire,” he said, in a low voice, “all Europe thinks you are dead.”</p> - -<p>Karl looked at him without answering.</p> - -<p>“There is no one who can believe,” added Count Liewin, “that Sweden is -in such a pass and Karl XII still alive.”</p> - -<p>These words seemed to move Karl, he colored and dropped his gaze.</p> - -<p>“Tell me,” he said, “the news from Sweden.”</p> - -<p>Count Liewin rose and faced the King mournfully.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_303" id="page_303"></a>{303}</span></p> - -<p>“Madame Royale, your Majesty’s sister, will have told your Majesty of -the state of Swedish affairs,” he answered.</p> - -<p>“She wrote to me as a woman and I replied to her as a King,” said Karl. -“Tell me now, Count Liewin, as one man to another.”</p> - -<p>As he spoke he lifted his eyes and gazed at the envoy with his usual -coldness.</p> - -<p>“Affairs are so bad at home,” responded Sweden’s envoy, “that the -instant return of your Majesty is begged for—nay, demanded.”</p> - -<p>“Demanded!” cried the King. “Your senate gets out of hand, Count.”</p> - -<p>He spoke harshly; in his misery he was as jealous of his authority as -ever he had been in his grandeur; he refused the senate any right to -interfere in affairs save by obeying his orders (forgetting that he was -the first king to make a free Sweden enslaved), and he had never -forgiven the regency for signing, four years ago, the treaty of -neutrality at The Hague.</p> - -<p>Count Liewin, though respectful and even humble in demeanor, faced his -sovereign boldly.</p> - -<p>“Sire, someone must conduct affairs—we have nothing from your Majesty.”</p> - -<p>Karl ignored this.</p> - -<p>“And you would make peace, my sister tells me,” he said sternly.</p> - -<p>“Sire, we may be forced to take that course,” replied the Count.</p> - -<p>“If you do,” returned Karl, “I shall never ratify it.”</p> - -<p>“Sire, we are attacked on all sides——”</p> - -<p>“Cannot you defend yourselves?”</p> - -<p>“Sire, the country is empty of money, men, and all resources.”</p> - -<p>He wished to add—“drained by your ruinous, useless wars,” but checked -himself.</p> - -<p>Karl glanced towards the window-place where Müllern, Grothusen, and -Poniatowski were standing.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_304" id="page_304"></a>{304}</span></p> - -<p>“You hear,” he said, “how poor-spirited they become at home.”</p> - -<p>Count Liewin flushed.</p> - -<p>“Call us desperate, sire!” he exclaimed.</p> - -<p>Müllern and Grothusen were silent, out of pity and respect for the King, -but Poniatowski, out of his love, spoke.</p> - -<p>“Sire, it would be better that you should return, for there is nothing -to be hoped from the Porte.”</p> - -<p>At these words, coming from the man who had labored so long and -faithfully in his cause, who had intrigued for him with such tireless -energy, and always so eagerly supported the scheme of obtaining -assistance from the Porte, Karl started, and a look of reproach crossed -his face.</p> - -<p>“Alas!” cried Poniatowski, “in my great loyalty to your Majesty, I must -speak the truth—the Swedish cause is lost in Constantinople.”</p> - -<p>“And in Europe, it would seem,” said Karl, with much bitterness, as he -rose.</p> - -<p>“No,” put in Count Liewin quickly, “Sweden only languishes for her -King.”</p> - -<p>“I could not return,” said Karl dryly, “in this miserable estate. I have -no army.”</p> - -<p>“Once your Majesty is present to hearten the people an army can be -raised.”</p> - -<p>M. Müllern ventured now to speak.</p> - -<p>“And not only your Majesty’s army, but your Majesty’s councils need your -presence.”</p> - -<p>“So it would seem,” replied the King dryly, “since they talk of peace.”</p> - -<p>“And they will make peace, sire,” said Count Liewin boldly, “unless your -Majesty returns.” Karl, standing now, overtopping all of them, eyed the -speaker with a rising anger.</p> - -<p>But Count Liewin, who knew that the very existence of his country -depended on his firmness, stood his ground.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” he continued, “if your Majesty does not<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_305" id="page_305"></a>{305}</span> return to defend us, we -have no resource but to throw ourselves on the mercy of our enemies.”</p> - -<p>The King turned aside with a swelling heart; these enemies were those -who had attacked him fifteen years ago, those whom he had put under his -feet so splendidly and gloriously.</p> - -<p>He thought now of Count Piper, if, instead of acting according to his -code of chivalry and justice, and refusing any advantage to himself from -his victories, he had taken the political advantage of his success that -his minister had wished him to, if he had refrained from the mad -enterprise of endeavoring to dethrone the Czar, if he had never -undertaken the reckless expedition into the Ukraine, the results of -Narva would not have proved such Dead Sea fruits, nor he and his country -be in such peril now.</p> - -<p>“If Count Piper had been alive he would have smiled at me now,” remarked -the King to Grothusen.</p> - -<p>“Sire! He has been very loyal to your Majesty.”</p> - -<p>Karl smiled; he had never been deceived in those about him.</p> - -<p>“If Piper had had the power he would have thwarted me in all I did, -Grothusen.”</p> - -<p>He walked up and down the narrow chamber with a languid step, for he was -sick in mind and body.</p> - -<p>“See how many there are to persuade me against my honor!” he exclaimed.</p> - -<p>It galled him beyond words that he must return to his kingdom a fugitive -and a beggar when his had been the most renowned name in Europe.</p> - -<p>The miseries of Sweden were as nothing in his eyes compared to the -affront offered to his pride in this proposed return under present -conditions.</p> - -<p>“Look you, Count Liewin,” he said abruptly, pausing in his walk, “I am -without even the money for the journey—Grothusen will tell you how much -I am in debt.”</p> - -<p>“We could raise more money in Constantinople,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_306" id="page_306"></a>{306}</span> said Grothusen quickly. -“For my part I do perceive that this return of yours is imperative, -sire.”</p> - -<p>The King gave his friend a strange look.</p> - -<p>“Grothusen, do you recall a little dog I had, named Pompey, that died in -Saxony? I thought you loved me well, but now I perceive that no one -loved ever as did that beast—he never sought to turn me from my will!”</p> - -<p>“Sire!” cried Count Liewin desperately, “does your Majesty mean that you -will not return to Sweden?”</p> - -<p>“Aye,” replied Karl, “we will return, Count, we will return!”</p> - -<p>He seated himself wearily, rested his arm on his crossed legs, and -shaded his bent face with his hand.</p> - -<p>M. Müllern signed to Count Liewin that the audience was ended; he and -Poniatowski conducted the envoy from the chamber, leaving the King alone -with M. Grothusen.</p> - -<p>For a while Karl sat motionless, so uniformly cold and reserved was he, -even with his intimates (and those few now with him had become of a -necessity very intimate in this close, prison-like life), that this man -with him now, his nearest friend, expected no confidence from him, even -at this moment. But for once the inflexible pride of Karl gave way to -the despair in his heart.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Grothusen!” he cried, “how differently I dreamed it all!”</p> - -<p>“Sire!” answered Grothusen, profoundly moved, he could say no more; the -King was not to be deceived by trite comfort, and his friend knew of no -real consolation.</p> - -<p>“Peter Alexievitch has all I had—all I want!” continued Karl, in a -terrible, broken voice. “The cunning Muscovite! Had I been a well man at -Poltava I had broken him as he broke me!”</p> - -<p>He rose, clapping his hand down on his sword-hilt, a fury in his blue -eyes.</p> - -<p>“But as it is, he wins—he has my provinces, my<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_307" id="page_307"></a>{307}</span> seas, my commerce, my -people as his slaves, my generals as his prisoners—<i>he</i> wins, that -drunken savage, Grothusen.”</p> - -<p>“He too may meet his Poltava,” said Grothusen fiercely.</p> - -<p>The King gave a short laugh, with an effort controlling his rare -passion.</p> - -<p>“Could we decide it face to face, man to man, I should have no fear of -the issue, ruined as I am,” he said, looking down at his sword arm, “for -he is very sick, Grothusen, and worn out by many vices. He has a camp -follower for his wife, an idiot, rebellious son—after all, I would not -be the Czar of Russia.”</p> - -<p>Then with an effort to put so bitter a subject from his mind he turned -sharply to his friend.</p> - -<p>“How much money do we owe?” he asked.</p> - -<p>Grothusen named a sum that sounded large even to the King’s prodigality, -but he had always been utterly reckless of money, had refused even to -glance at accounts, and had encouraged his followers to be the same.</p> - -<p>These were all sums of money owing to the French ambassadors to the -Porte, Thomas Cook, and other English, and Jews of Constantinople, to M. -La Motraye, the French gentleman of Bender, besides to all the members -of his suite.</p> - -<p>Karl chafed at all this like a lion tickled with straws.</p> - -<p>“We must have more money,” he said impatiently. “Pay these usurers cent -for cent—get it, somehow. I must send an embassy to the Porte to say -farewell. You must go, Grothusen, and with some magnificence. -Poniatowski thinks the Sultan might lend money if he will not lend an -army.”</p> - -<p>“Your Majesty is resolved to return then?” asked the courtier, some hope -springing in his heart at the thought of this dreary exile at length -coming to an end.</p> - -<p>“What else can I do,” returned the King, “when they break my authority -in my absence?”</p> - -<p>He made no reference to the wretched condition of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_308" id="page_308"></a>{308}</span> his unhappy country -and Grothusen knew that he never would; if he cared in the least for -Sweden, or regarded her merely as the arsenal from which to take his -weapons of war, it was impossible to tell, but he always showed an -unconcern amounting to indifference to all that concerned the true -welfare of his subjects.</p> - -<p>“Grothusen,” he said suddenly, “the son of Aurora von Königsmarck was at -the battle of Stade, was he not?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sire,” replied Grothusen, wondering at this change of subject, “a -brilliant lad, they say.”</p> - -<p>“His mother defied me once,” remarked Karl, with his ugly smile. “She -was a surprising woman—what happened to her?”</p> - -<p>“I do not know, sire—she left the Elector years ago.”</p> - -<p>“If she is alive,” said Karl grimly, “she will be pleased to hear of my -present state.”</p> - -<p>Grothusen looked startled and bewildered, but the King said no more; he -was thinking, irrelevantly, of John Rheinhold Patkul.</p> - -<p>The execution of this man, his one barbarity, was the sole fruit of his -victories—the only thing that he had achieved and that no one could -take away from him; the might of the Czar and all his allies could not -put together the broken bones of Patkul.</p> - -<p>Karl moved abruptly, checking his line of thought.</p> - -<p>“Well,” he said, “let us make our preparations to return home.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_309" id="page_309"></a>{309}</span></p> - -<h4><a name="CHAPTER_VI-h" id="CHAPTER_VI-h"></a>CHAPTER VI</h4> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">A</span> FREEZING night in November, a cutting wind sweeping up from the -Baltic, a sky so black with heavy clouds that not a star gleamed -through, and the sentries on the walls of Stralsund shivered at their -posts.</p> - -<p>It was the only city in Pomerania still held for Karl; everything was -ready for defense in case of an attack, and the eyes and ears of the -sentinels were strained against the darkness of the night.</p> - -<p>They knew not when they might be surrounded by the armies of the Czar.</p> - -<p>A clatter of hoofs out of the obscurity of the night and the sentinels -at the gates stood at attention.</p> - -<p>It was one o’clock in the morning and the whole town slept.</p> - -<p>“Who goes there?” challenged the sentry, as the horsemen drew up at the -gate.</p> - -<p>There were but two of them, as shown by the lantern beams above the -arched entrance.</p> - -<p>The foremost answered.</p> - -<p>“We are couriers dispatched from Turkey by the King of Sweden,” he said.</p> - -<p>The soldier looked at him curiously and saw a tall, powerful-looking man -in a gray suit and dark blue mantle, wearing a black peruke and a -riding-hat laced with gold.</p> - -<p>“Sir, it is a long while since we have heard of the King of Sweden at -Stralsund,” remarked the sentry, not moving from his post.</p> - -<p>“Call out the guard,” said the stranger imperiously. “I must pass.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_310" id="page_310"></a>{310}</span></p> - -<p>His companion, a slight, fair young man, wrapped in a heavy furred -mantle, now spoke.</p> - -<p>“Fellow, do not keep us here parleying this bitter night—we have ridden -from Hungary to Mecklenburg, and it is sixteen days since we saw a bed.”</p> - -<p>The guard had now turned out into the narrow gate space, and the officer -asked the strangers their business.</p> - -<p>“Sir,” said the first speaker, “we bring dispatches from the King of -Sweden.”</p> - -<p>“The Governor is in bed,” said the officer, “you must wait till -daybreak.”</p> - -<p>“Sir,” cried the traveler, with a flash of terrible blue eyes from the -shadow of his laced hat, “if you do not go at once and wake General -Dücker you will all be punished to-morrow.”</p> - -<p>The officer admitted them into the town at this, but was still inclined -to refuse to wake the Governor.</p> - -<p>“My God!” murmured the fair young man. “Is this journey to have no end?”</p> - -<p>His companion turned sternly to the soldiers.</p> - -<p>“Dismount my friend,” he said. “He is exceedingly fatigued.”</p> - -<p>Two of the men ran forward to the horse’s head. As they grasped the -bridle the rider sank fainting from the saddle.</p> - -<p>“Poor During!” exclaimed his companion. “He is not used to these -hardships.”</p> - -<p>He looked with some tenderness at the slack figure of the young man as -the soldiers carried him to the guardroom, and bade them treat him with -all care and respect.</p> - -<p>In the meanwhile a sergeant had been sent to awaken the Governor, who, -thinking it must be some person of importance or some imperative -message, bade the stranger to his presence.</p> - -<p>General Dücker’s house was near the gates, and it was only a short time -after his appearance at the city walls that the messenger from Demotica -was admitted to the bed-chamber of the Governor.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_311" id="page_311"></a>{311}</span></p> - -<p>That gentleman, startled by this sudden rousing from his sleep, stood in -a dressing-gown by the side of his bed; a valet was lighting the candles -that stood on mantleshelf and bureau.</p> - -<p>The stranger entered, making the room look small. He brought with him -the cold outer air; wet, dirty snow was on his boots that were flecked -with mud to the knees; he flung back his heavy blue mantle and showed -his gray coat, laced with gold which was like that of a German officer.</p> - -<p>“You are from Turkey, sire?” asked the General, speaking with some -sternness as he observed the visitor did not remove his braided hat.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” replied the other, “we have traveled all through Germany, from -Moravia to Westphalia—good riding in sixteen days.”</p> - -<p>He took off his hat as he spoke, and flung himself into the first chair -he came to with a careless ease very displeasing to the Governor of -Stralsund.</p> - -<p>“You came a long way round,” he remarked.</p> - -<p>“The journey, sir, could have been made shorter by half.”</p> - -<p>The stranger looked full at the speaker; his face looked pale between -the full curls of the black peruke; his blue eyes, that were of an -unusual size and brilliancy, held a curious expression.</p> - -<p>“Is it possible,” he said, “that my most loyal subjects have forgotten -me?”</p> - -<p>“By Heaven,” cried General Dücker, in a loud voice, “it is the King!”</p> - -<p>He threw himself on his knees and kissed Karl’s hand.</p> - -<p>“It is the King come back!”</p> - -<p>“And not too soon, General Dücker,” smiled Karl. “Come, I will sleep a -little.”</p> - -<p>But the old soldier was sobbing with joy, the valet had run from the -room with the great news, and the house was lit from cellar to garret in -an instant, and full of the officers of the garrison.</p> - -<p>“But like this! Your Majesty returns alone?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_312" id="page_312"></a>{312}</span></p> - -<p>“There was neither money nor men to be had from the Porte,” said Karl -dryly. “My escort I left at Pitesti on the Turkish frontier. I had no -wish to go through Germany like a traveling show, satisfying the -curiosity of the vulgar. I took Colonel During with me, and we made a -detour, traveling with post-horses. We were not known anywhere. I have -not taken my clothes off since we started,” he added. “We rode day and -night I fear I have nearly killed During.”</p> - -<p>He smiled and rose.</p> - -<p>“So I am on Swedish soil again—and this is the sole town I hold in -Pomerania. There is much for me to do, General Dücker.”</p> - -<p>The town was now full of people and illuminated from end to end; candles -and lamps appeared in all the windows, barrels of wine were rolled into -the streets, and the King’s health drunk amid fierce excitement.</p> - -<p>The soldiers pressed round the house of the Governor hoping for a -glimpse of the King who had returned to restore Sweden’s fortunes.</p> - -<p>A chamber was hastily prepared for the King; he had no clothes save -those he wore, and his boots that he had worn for sixteen days had to be -cut from his legs, so swollen were they with excessive riding.</p> - -<p>He tossed off the dark peruke that had served as a disguise, looking -different with his clipped fair hair and more like the King these men -remembered fifteen years ago.</p> - -<p>“To-morrow I will inspect the fortifications, General Dücker,” he said, -as he stretched his great length on the bed.</p> - -<p>He bid them open the shutters that the light of the illuminations might -fall across the room, and the sound of his people’s acclamations come to -his ears.</p> - -<p>He was soon in a deep slumber of absolute exhaustion; his hand, even in -his sleep, stretched towards his sword that lay by his side.</p> - -<p>In this wild way did the wild King come home.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_313" id="page_313"></a>{313}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="PART_IV" id="PART_IV"></a>PART IV<br /><br /> -FREDRIKSSTEN</h2> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">“Voilà la pièce finie, allons souper.”—<i>Mégret at Fredrikssten.</i></p></div> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span>HE King of Sweden was in his camp before Fredrikssten, the fortress -that protected Frederikshald, the town that was considered the Key of -Norway.</p> - -<p>This was the second expedition against Norway that the King had -undertaken since his return from Turkey, both in the dead of winter, to -the astonishment of Europe; it seemed that it would have been more -reasonable for him to remain and defend his bankrupt kingdom menaced on -all sides, in a state of siege and reduced to using leather money; but -Karl never did the reasonable thing nor what other men expected of him.</p> - -<p>None of his ancient success had attended him in his fresh campaigns -against his enemies; Stralsund, after a long siege and desperate battles -in which the King fought hand-to-hand with his foes, had been taken by -assault, and Karl had escaped across the half-frozen Baltic to -Karlskrona, leaving among the dead in the burning town Grothusen, -During, and Dahldorf, three faithful friends of his exile.</p> - -<p>His enemies now included the King of Prussia, who had bought Stettin and -a part of Pomerania from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_314" id="page_314"></a>{314}</span> King of Denmark, and the Czar and the King -of England who had purchased the rest of Sweden’s spoils, Breme and -Verden, from the astute Frederic, who was not slow to turn his conquests -into ready cash.</p> - -<p>Peter retained his own booty; this consisted of Riga, Livonia, Ingria, -Carelia, Vasa, Finland, the Isles in the Baltic, some of which were not -twelve leagues from Stockholm.</p> - -<p>By his victory of Aland he had demolished the Swedish fleet, and led -captive to his new fort of Kronstadt the flagship of Ehrensköld, the -Swedish Admiral.</p> - -<p>But more bitter to the peculiar temperament of Karl than these successes -of his great rival, was the ruin of Holstein-Gottorp, which he had taken -under his protection since the beginning of the war, and the -reinstatement of Augustus in Poland, with the consent of all the -guarantees of the treaty of Altranstadt.</p> - -<p>He forbade Stanislaus to conclude the advantageous treaty the -good-natured Elector offered, and give the Pole, who had thus to forfeit -his ancient estates and position, for the empty title of King, the Duchy -of Deux-Ponts which was in his gift. To replace Stanislaus on the Polish -throne, and to rescue the estates of his nephew whom he also intended to -make his heir, was now the chief end of the King’s policy.</p> - -<p>Of the state of his people he cared little; he had put on enormous -taxes, debased the coinage, called up all the fit men, strained every -resource to continue his ruinous wars; during two winter campaigns he -had watched his soldiers die of cold among the snows of Norway, with the -same insensibility as he had seen them die amid the ice of the Ukraine.</p> - -<p>Baron Görtz, the only one of his ancient friends left to him, was now -his Prime Minister, and pursued a fantastic foreign policy, but too -attractive to the strange spirit of the King.</p> - -<p>The Swede by means of deep and complicated intrigues, and with the help -of Cardinal Albuoni, Primate<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_315" id="page_315"></a>{315}</span> of Spain, sought to put the Stuart -Pretender on the throne of England, in place of that Elector of Hanover -who had outraged Karl by his bargain with Denmark.</p> - -<p>These dangerous intrigues had been discovered in England and the Swedish -ambassador arrested, but Baron Görtz still persisted in his scheme, and -Karl continued to support him; his design was now to draw Peter into a -secret alliance with Karl, that should place Europe at the feet of -Russia and Sweden.</p> - -<p>The Czar, ever eager for material advantage, and indifferent to mere -glory, was disposed to listen to a plan that would silence his most -obstinate foe, and Karl, no politician, and interested in nothing but -war, was ready to forego, at least for the moment, his design to -dethrone Peter, if he could secure vengeance against those foes whom he -despised and hated more than he did Peter—the Kings of Poland, Denmark, -and England.</p> - -<p>To besiege Norway in winter, and wrest this prize from the Danes, was -more pleasing to his character than to attack in Germany, or to remain -on the defensive at home; and Baron Görtz had assured him that Peter -would not attack in his absence.</p> - -<p>The Czar indeed was glutted with conquest, and was always wise enough to -not undertake more than he could with safety perform.</p> - -<p>Karl had with him the Prince of Hesse-Cassel, who had lately married his -sister; this professional soldier had lately been serving the -States-General, and was regarded by the King as a good general, but he -gave him little confidence and no affection.</p> - -<p>This Prince was with the King when the Swedish camp was being laid down -before the heights of Fredrikssten, and Karl, in high spirits at the -thought of the approaching struggle, spoke with him in a more friendly -spirit than was his wont.</p> - -<p>“Ah, Prince,” he said, “when we have taken Frederikshald, Norway will be -ours.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_316" id="page_316"></a>{316}</span></p> - -<p>“How long does your Majesty think to take in subduing Norway?” asked the -German courteously.</p> - -<p>“I should have taken it last year,” replied the King, “but for the -provisions.”</p> - -<p>He had made the same mistake he had made in the Ukraine—that of moving -his army too far from his base, and had had to return to Sweden with -starving troops.</p> - -<p>“Six months,” he added; “then, at last, I shall see Stockholm again—a -pity Count Piper is not here to hear me say that,” he smiled.</p> - -<p>It was eighteen years since he had seen his capital, to which he did not -intend to return till he was triumphant.</p> - -<p>“Let us go and look at the trenches—these engineers are very slow,” -continued Karl; he called an officer and bade him fetch M. Mégret, the -French engineer who was conducting the siege.</p> - -<p>It was a bitter night but cloudless; there was no moon; the stars -glimmered hard and clear as if cut from crystal in the dark sky.</p> - -<p>Everyone but the King was muffled in mantles and furs; Karl wore his -plain uniform with black cravat and top-boots.</p> - -<p>He had now completely recovered from his sickness—the sickness -engendered by a soft life—and was at the height of his great strength -and perfect hardihood; he had filled out to the proportions of a Viking, -could live on bread and water, go without food for days, sleep on the -ground in midwinter with no covering but his cloak, and no pillow save -one of straw.</p> - -<p>It was this strength of body, this fortitude of soul, this stern, -austere life, that made him so respected and feared, that neither in -court nor camp did anyone dare to murmur at the misfortunes he had -brought on Sweden.</p> - -<p>M. Hesse-Cassel took his leave to return to his own quarters, and Karl -awaited the coming of M. Mégret.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_317" id="page_317"></a>{317}</span></p> - -<p>He was impatient to take Fredrikssten and to proceed into Norway, and he -thought that the works were not as advanced as they should be.</p> - -<p>He walked up and down the little tent, his step ringing on the frozen -ground, his breath clear before him in the frosty air.</p> - -<p>As M. Mégret entered he raised his head; the Frenchman looked at him and -thought, “If the Czar could see you now he would not be too secure,” so -redoubtable did Karl appear with his magnificent make, his noble -inflexible face, his cold air of power.</p> - -<p>“M. Mégret,” he said, “I should like to see your works.”</p> - -<p>The engineer bowed and followed the King out of the tent.</p> - -<p>The soldiers were desperately laboring in the starlight.</p> - -<p>“They work slowly, sire, because the ground is so frozen and rocky,” -remarked M. Mégret, “but the place will be taken in eight days.”</p> - -<p>“We shall see,” replied Karl.</p> - -<p>He entered the trenches accompanied by his aide-de-camp Siquier and the -engineer; they had no lights, but now and then there was a dull glow -from a bomb cast by the enemy; mingled in the sound of the cannon was -the rattle of pick and spade on the hard ground.</p> - -<p>The King continually complained as he advanced from trench to trench of -the backwardness of the work.</p> - -<p>“You would make me take as long to gain Fredrikssten,” he said, “as I -mean to use for the whole of Norway.”</p> - -<p>So splendid was his quiet presence that these words did not sound -boastful from the lips of a king of broken fortunes; looking at him the -officers forgot the lost provinces, the brass money, the starving -populace, and remembered only Narva and Klissow.</p> - -<p>The King continued to move rapidly from one portion<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_318" id="page_318"></a>{318}</span> of the works to -another; he was now joined by the captains of the trenches.</p> - -<p>An intermittent firing came from the fortress, the red light of the -cannon showing now and then in the cold night.</p> - -<p>Occasionally there was the whistle of a musket-ball as the Norwegian -sentries fired at the Swedes working in the dark.</p> - -<p>The King reached an angle of a <i>boyau</i> in the finished portion of the -entrenchment; he paused, wishing to observe how far the parallel was -advanced, and mounting the fire-step rested his elbows on the parapet -and watched his soldiers moving, crouching, running, digging among the -dislodged fragments of rock and the heaps of frozen earth; here and -there the starlight showed dully a patch of snow; the noise of the -hurried labor was continuous; despite the random cannonade from -Fredrikssten the Swedes were carrying their works up to the very -<i>glacis</i> of the fort, and they occupied the entire <i>terre-plein</i>. Above -the northern sky showed clear as water agleam with cold stars that -palpitated in the pale colorless night; a bitter wind swept these frozen -heights, and nature’s stillness reigned above the horrid sounds of war.</p> - -<p>Karl looked across the bent figures of his soldiers to the great fort on -the summit of the rocks. M. Siquier who was close behind him called out -to him not to expose himself, for his head and shoulders showed above -the earthworks which were directly opposite to one of the cannon on the -advanced fortification of Fredrikssten; the Norwegians could be observed -moving round this battery. Karl looked over his shoulder and smiled; -without speaking he returned to his observation; his silence conveyed -extraordinary arrogance, vitality, and power.</p> - -<p>Suddenly he put his hand to his sword and gave a great sigh.</p> - -<p>“Sire!” cried M. Siquier.</p> - -<p>Karl remained motionless, standing like a sentinel with<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_319" id="page_319"></a>{319}</span> his sword half -drawn from the scabbard, facing the dark heights.</p> - -<p>As the aide-de-camp mounted beside him he fell forward on the frozen -earth, his haughty head suddenly bowed face downwards on the parapet. A -stray musket-ball had entered his left temple; when M. Siquier touched -him he was already dead.</p> - -<p class="c">THE END.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_320" id="page_320"></a>{320}</span></p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_321" id="page_321"></a>{321}</span></p> - -<div class="bbox2"> -<p class="c"> -Recent<br /> -Historical<br /> -Fiction<br /> -by<br /> -Well-known<br /> -Authors<br /> -</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_322" id="page_322"></a>{322}</span> </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_323" id="page_323"></a>{323}</span> </p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="bbox1"> - -<p class="cun"><i>Marjorie Bowen’s Historical Novels</i></p> - -<p class="cb"><big><big>The William of Orange Trilogy:</big></big></p> - -<p class="cb"><span class="smcap">Dealing with the Life of William of Orange, afterwards William III of -England</span></p> - -<p class="cb"><big>I Will Maintain<br /> - -Defender of the Faith<br /> - -God and the King</big></p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>She has written an historical romance that is absolutely -thrilling.—<i>Punch.</i></p> - -<p>Miss Bowen is one of the handful who count.</p> - -<p class="r"> -—<i>Illustrated London News.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p>Vivid coloring and picturesque treatment are always features of -Miss Bowen’s work.</p> - -<p class="r"> -—<i>Pall Mall Gazette.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p>Miss Bowen has put an ardor of historical research into her -work.... Of decided historical and dramatic interest.—<i>Continent.</i></p> - -<p>None of the usual charges against historical novels can be made -against Marjorie Bowen’s.</p> - -<p class="r"> -—<i>New York Evening Post.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p>In the front rank of present-day historical romance -writers.—<i>London Daily Mail.</i></p></div> - -<p class="c">Cloth, $1.75 per volume</p> - -<hr /> -<p class="cb">E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY</p> - -<p class="cb"> -<span class="smcap">681 Fifth Avenue New York City</span><br /> -</p> - -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_324" id="page_324"></a>{324}</span></p> - -<hr /> -<div class="bbox1"> -<p class="cun"><i>Marjorie Bowen’s New Historical Trilogy</i></p> - -<p class="cb"><big><big>Prince and Heretic</big></big></p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>This fascinating story begins with William the Silent’s marriage to -Anne of Saxony and ends with his riding into exile after his first -armed clash with Philip of Spain. The author develops her novel -with an art that is a potent blend of the historian’s careful -attention to detail and the novelist’s skill in vivid character -delineation.</p> - -<p>This book is doubly interesting at this time in that it brings home -to the reader the fact that Belgium has been the battle ground of -Europe on more than one occasion.</p></div> - -<p class="cb"><big><big>William, by the Grace of God</big></big></p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>The William of this stirring historical romance is William, Prince -of Orange, better known to history as “William the Silent,” who led -the successful revolt of the Netherlands against the bloody tyranny -of Alva and Philip of Spain. Miss Bowen, who has no living equal in -the art of creating historical atmosphere, has drawn her hero with -dignity and charm and made live again the heroes and statesmen who -created, after years of suffering and struggle, the Dutch Republic.</p></div> - -<p class="c"><i>Third Novel of this Series to follow</i></p> - -<p class="c">Cloth, $1.75 net per volume</p> - -<hr /> -<p class="cb">E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY</p> - -<p class="cb"> -<span class="smcap">681 Fifth Avenue New York City</span><br /> -</p> - -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_325" id="page_325"></a>{325}</span></p> - -<hr /> -<div class="bbox1"> - -<p class="cun"><i>Marjorie Bowen’s Historical Novels</i></p> - -<p class="cb"><big>The Quest of Glory</big></p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>The scene is laid in France in the reign of Louis XV. The story, -which opens with the retreat from Prague, deals with the adventures -of the Marquis de Vauvenargues, the young officer of the “regiment -du roi” who became one of the loftiest of French philosophers and a -notable writer of a famous literary decade. The story shows how the -young aristocrat, after the tumults of a brief, sad life, found -glory and peace in a Parisian garret. Among the characters are -Louis XV, Voltaire and the Duc de Richelieu.</p></div> - -<p class="cb"><big>The Governor of England</big></p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>A romance in which is played the whole tragedy of Cromwell’s -dealings with Parliament and King. It is written with dignity and -conviction, and with the author’s characteristic power of grasping -the essential details needed to supply life and color and -atmosphere for the reader of the standard histories.</p></div> - -<p class="cb"><big>The Carnival of Florence</big></p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>A tale of Italy in the XV century, in which the central figure is -Savonarola. The story is full of the overflowing life and color of -the period of the Medicis, and by reason of the author’s vivid -descriptions reminds one of a piece of tapestry, crowded with -figures in picturesque costumes, with the towers and palaces of the -fair city lying in the distance.</p></div> - -<p class="cb"><big>The Third Estate</big></p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>A spirited and vivid romance of the French Revolution, in which the -hero is the wicked and fascinating Marquis de Sarcey. The story -depicts the struggle between the nobility and the Third Estate, and -the reader is carried through the stirring scenes of this -interesting period, feeling, after he has finished the book, that -he has actually lived in them.</p></div> - -<p class="c">Cloth, $1.75 net per volume</p> - -<hr /> -<p class="cb">E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY</p> - -<p class="cb"> -<span class="smcap">681 Fifth Avenue New York City</span><br /> -</p> - -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_326" id="page_326"></a>{326}</span></p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="bbox1"> - -<p class="cun"><i>Marjorie Bowen’s Remarkable Short Stories and Sketches of Historical -Characters</i></p> - -<p class="cb"><big><big>Shadows of Yesterday</big></big></p> - -<p class="c"><i>Stories from an Old Catalogue</i></p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>An old museum in Naples has suggested to Marjorie Bowen a group of -short stories. Crucifix, scimitar, porridge bowl, a pitcher, a -ring, a bodice—these varied objects typify the wealth of romantic -incident in these tales of different countries and eras. Scottish -Jacobite or Spanish Morisco, weak, wicked or loyal, the figures -seem to step out in turn from “the shadows” into the light of real -life. It might be possible to choose a favorite story among the -group of twelve, but not to say which is the best, for the same -indescribable glamour is in them all.</p></div> - -<p class="cb"><big><big>God’s Playthings</big></big></p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>This series of wonderfully vivid flashes of the romance and -characters of past days is a storehouse of stimulating imagination -to any reader who has the slightest historical instinct. The author -displays the bewildering contrast between the heights of human -power and luxury and the depths of squalor and degradation into -which Fortune’s favorites have often so suddenly fallen, and the -brilliancy of her descriptions render her book a very remarkable -piece of work.</p></div> - -<p class="c">Cloth, $1.75 per volume</p> - -<hr /> -<p class="cb">E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY</p> - -<p class="cb"> -<span class="smcap">681 Fifth Avenue New York City</span><br /> -</p> - -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_327" id="page_327"></a>{327}</span></p> - -<hr /> -<div class="bbox1"> -<p class="cb"><big><big><big>El Supremo</big></big></big></p> - -<p class="c"><i>A Romance of the Great Dictator of Paraguay</i></p> - -<p class="c">By</p> - -<p class="c">EDWARD LUCAS WHITE</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>This romance of South America, scened in a picturesque and -strenuous place and time, plunges the reader with its first lines -into a fascinating life full of gorgeous coloring, quaint incident, -plotting and love-making, and brings him into intimate acquaintance -with one of the most puzzling, interesting and forceful of all -historical figures.</p></div> - -<p class="c">PRESS COMMENTS:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“<span class="lftspc">‘</span>El Supremo’ is fiction upon the heroic scale and in something -very like the grand manner.”—<i>Nation.</i></p> - -<p>“This book may fairly be described as extraordinary.”</p> - -<p> -—<i>New Evening Post.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p>“The novel is one to read all day and all night until it is -finished.”—<i>The Independent.</i></p> - -<p>“‘El Supremo’ is unquestionably a novel of great importance.”—<i>The -Boston Transcript.</i></p> - -<p>“‘El Supremo’ is well worth the attention of even those people too -busy to do much reading.”—<i>The Catholic World.</i></p> - -<p>“You meet in this book more gay and delightful people and -incidentally more conspirators than you may ever have met in a book -before.”—<i>Chicago Evening Post.</i></p> - -<p>“The picture of the life of ease and gracious hospitality among the -old Spaniards is delightful.”—<i>New York Sun.</i></p></div> - -<p class="c">Cloth, $1.90 net</p> - -<hr /> -<p class="cb">E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY</p> - -<p class="cb"> -<span class="smcap">681 Fifth Avenue New York City</span><br /> -</p> - -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_328" id="page_328"></a>{328}</span></p> - -<hr /> -<div class="bbox1"> -<p class="cb"><big>The</big><br /> - -<big><big>Royal Outlaw</big></big><br /> - -BY<br /> - -CHARLES B. HUDSON</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>We are so accustomed to relegate the Bible to the Sunday-school -students and the clergy, that we often fail to realize how much of -romance and adventure there is within its pages.</p> - -<p>Around the story of David when persecuted by King Saul, Captain -Hudson has written one of the most stirring and romantic tales of -military adventure and heroic escapade that has appeared in many -years.</p> - -<p>Told through the mouth of one of David’s veteran men-at-arms, it is -permeated with a jollity and a freakish humor that makes the people -of those ancient and strenuous times our fellow-beings and friends.</p></div> - -<p class="c">Cloth, $1.50 net</p> - -<hr /> -<p class="cb">E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY</p> - -<p class="cb"> -<span class="smcap">681 Fifth Avenue New York City</span><br /> -</p> - -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_329" id="page_329"></a>{329}</span></p> - -<hr /> -<div class="bbox1"> -<p class="cb"><big><big>The<br /> -Highwayman</big></big></p> - -<p class="cb">BY</p> - -<p class="cb">H. C. BAILEY</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>A tale of the days of Good Queen Anne. Across the pages flit the -Queen, the great Duke of Marlborough, and, almost the last of his -ill-fated race, James Stuart the Old Pretender—all these serve but -for a background against which is shown as gallant a romance of -villainy, misunderstanding, and high-hearted love as ever made -crowns and kingdoms seem of little worth.</p></div> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“The author distributes dialogue and narrative in readable -proportion, he understands the effective use of detail and has an -uncommon facility in description, and he writes in an easy, assured -style with a dash of wit that stamps his work at once as out of the -ordinary.”</p> - -<p class="r"> -—<i>The Living Age.</i><br /> -</p></div> - -<p class="c">Cloth, $1.60 net</p> - -<hr /> -<p class="cb">E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY</p> - -<p class="cb"> -<span class="smcap">681 Fifth Avenue New York City</span><br /> -</p> - -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_330" id="page_330"></a>{330}</span></p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="bbox1"> -<p class="cb"><big><big>SHALLOWS</big></big></p> - -<p class="cb">BY</p> - -<p class="cb">FREDERICK WATSON</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>Mr. Watson has unearthed an interesting and unhackneyed episode of -the later years of Prince Charles Stuart—the “Bonnie Prince -Charlie” of song and story. It is woven into a romance unusually -full of atmosphere. It has a sombre background due to the growing -disillusionment of the Pretender’s followers. There is a nakedly -truthful picture of the characters of the hunted plotters. But the -shadow only throws into brighter contrast its story of love and -courage. There may be some who will pick up the book out of -curiosity to compare it with “Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush,” by Ian -Maclaren, the author’s father, but they will finish it for its own -sake for the interest of the story.</p></div> - -<p class="c">Cloth, $1.60 net</p> - -<hr /> -<p class="c">E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY</p> - -<p class="c"> -<span class="smcap">681 Fifth Avenue New York City</span><br /> -</p> -</div> - -<hr class="full" /> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Kings-At-Arms, by Marjorie Bowen - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KINGS-AT-ARMS *** - -***** This file should be named 55272-h.htm or 55272-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/5/2/7/55272/ - -Produced by Chuck Greif, MFR and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was -produced from images made available by the HathiTrust -Digital Library.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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