Charles makes himself Poland. war undertaken without their consent, and the party who at first opposed his election, already began to form cabals. Cardinal Radjouski, archbishop of Gnesna, primate of the kingdom, all-powerful from his dignity, and equally dangerous from his artifices, secretly meditated a revolution. The generals and the great officers of the crown, though indebted to the king for their employments, were scarcely dependent upon him, because, though he had the right of appointment, he could not displace them. Augustus, having nobody upon whom he could depend but his Saxons, and pursued by a dreadful persevering conqueror, was reduced to the greatest extremity. The important details which I am obliged to suppress, should be read in the history of Charles XII. Charles having made himself master of Warsaw in 1702, declared that he would not consent master of to a peace till another king was chosen. Augustus was then at Cracow; and being resolved to come to action, was defeated at Clissaw by an army only half his number. Cracow was taken; a Saxon general was defeated the next year; and Dantzic, Thorn, and Elbing, free cities by their privileges, were obliged to pay a ransom for having made resistance. The primate, who had hitherto preserved the mask of fidelity, declared against the king at the assembly of Warsaw, and, in 1704, the throne Election was declared vacant. Upon the refusal of prince Stanislaus Alexander Sobieski, one of the sons of the faLeczinski. mous king of that name, Charles caused the of election to fall upon Stanislaus Leczinski, a palatine of Posnania, and treasurer of the crown, a young nobleman in whom he found several features of his own character. defeat and The czar did not abandon Augustus; but, The Swedes at a conference which they had at Grodno in the Russians Lithuania, they formed a new plan of opera- Saxons. tions. Sixty thousand Russians dispersed in Poland, only served to lay waste the country, and were every where defeated in small parties by the Swedes. Schullenburg, an able Saxon general, was defeated and put to flight at the battle of Franstadt in 1706, by general Renchild, with an army greatly inferior; when fear did more than the arms of the enemy, and every thing was decided almost in a moment. Charles very soon made himself master of Saxony, which he laid under heavy contributions, but maintained that rigorous discipline which was the principal source of his victories. privately. Augustus being driven to despair, secretly Angustus sued for peace; and the conditions prescribed negociates by Charles were, that he should renounce his crown, acknowledge Stanislaus, and deliver up Patkul. That Livonian was in the service of Russia, and had been sent by the czar to the king of Poland in quality of general and ambassador. During the negociation, prince Mentzikow, from whom Augustus carefully concealed every thing, almost obliged him to attack a Swedish general at Kalisk. The Russians made the attack, and gained the victory, which was the first time of their defeating the Swedes in a regular engagement; however, Augustus shamefully submitted to the terms prescribed by Charles, and signed a treaty without being able to procure better terms than the first. He was even obliged to write a complimentary letter to Death of Patkul. Embassy to Stanislaus; and Patkul, who was already confined upon an unjust suspicion, was given up to the king of Sweden, who, notwithstanding the complaints of the czar, caused the minister of that great prince to be broken upon the wheel. The sentence gave to Charles the title of Most Clement Prince. What clemency! exclaimed Patkul. Hearing himself condemned as a traitor to his country, Alas! added he, I have served it but too well. We here see to what degree of injustice despotism can hurry even great souls. This peace, which was concluded in the Charles XII. camp of Altrenstat, near Leipsic, completed the fame of Charles XII.; and, while there, he received a crowd of ambassadors. The war which was kindled against France and Spain set all Europe in commotion, and every power was solicitous of his alliance. It was suspected that he was inclined to join Louis XIV., though in 1700 he had promised a neutrality. The duke of Marlborough, who was as great a negociator as general, came to sound his intentions; and, having soon discovered his design of carrying the war into Russia, left him without having made any proposals. The haughty and fortunate emperor Joseph yielded in several points which were required of him by the king of Sweden before he quitted Germany; particularly in favour of the Protestants of Silesia. His In 1707 Saxony was delivered from the Augustus. Swedes, who set out from that country loaded with plunder. Their hero, who made sport of every kind of danger, took a fancy, in passing, to pay a visit to Augustus. He hurried on before his army with some general officers, and, visit to under a borrowed name, presented himself at the gate of Dresden. He entered, in his boots, the apartment of the king whom he had reduced to his electorate; and, having breakfasted with him, visited the fortifications, and then joined his army, who were uneasy at his absence. I trusted, said he, to my good fortune. CHAPTER V. CHARLES XII. DEFEATED AT PULTAWA, FLIES INTO TUR- Obstinacy THE czar was very near causing an election of Charles XII. a third king of Poland: it was thought of in a against diet held at Lublin; and some palatins were the czar. 1708. He enters proposed, which would have been a new source of destruction and horrors for this ruined republic. However, the minister of France in Saxony endeavoured to reconcile the Swedes and Russians. Charles bluntly declared that he would treat with the czar in Moscow; and his presumption gave room for that excellent expression of Peter the Great; My brother Charles wants to play the part of Alcxander, but he shall not find me a Darius. Here is the period in which a change of fortune befel that hero, who, from his faults and obstinacy, was more deserving of censure than of admiration for his heroism. At the head of forty-five thousand men he entered Lithuania, where the czar then was; and, having taken Grodno from him, advanced Ukraine. towards the Dnieper, or Borysthenes, when he the |