body of his guards. There, a sudden conclusion to the campaign was within an ace of being effected. No sooner had Charles heard of his rival's whereabouts and attendance than he impetuously ordered a dash upon the town. It was a fortified place; yet he gaily rushed upon it with fewer than a thousand men. His onset was wholly unexpected; and it narrowly missed a more signal success than it deserved. A German officer, who had command at the gate towards which Charles made, was so astonished that he lost all selfcontrol, and in his stupefied alarm rushed breathlessly agape into the town, proclaiming that the whole Swedish army was at hand. In taking his precipitate flight, he left an open way for the enemy, who, cutting down the handful of Russian soldiers they encountered, took possession of the place. Peter shared the consternation that seized the inhabitants. He slunk away behind the ramparts, and after dodging about for a while managed to slip past the guard posted at one of the gates, thus getting clear away. Meantime, Charles established himself at the largest and best house in the town. It happened to be a Jesuit college. The Fathers soon learned with what a handful of men the capture had been effected. Little as they liked Peter, their coolness towards him bore no comparison to the hate they cherished against Charles. They contrived, therefore, to hunt up the Czar, and to acquaint him how the case stood. Collecting some troops, he made a prompt and vigorous effort to turn the tables upon his adversary by re-taking the place. He overmastered the guards, obtained admission, and conducted a sally towards the quarters Charles occupied. But his progress was withstood in a manner that forced him to draw off, after a good deal of street-fighting. It was lucky for him the struggle did not last longer. His retreat was effected in the very nick of time, for shortly afterwards the advance-guard of the Swedish forces came up in reality, and his later escape would have been impossible. When the campaign fairly opened, the armies of the Czar had an immense superiority in respect of numbers. Lewenhauft's forces had joined those of Charles, but their total strength was under 80,000 men. Peter was in command of a host well-nigh twice as large. Nevertheless, at first the Swedes had the best of every encounter. They reaped victory after victory; but none of them was of much moment, and they did little to clear the way towards Moscow. The wily Czar took care not to hazard a general engagement, in which the chances were, he would not only be worsted but irretrievably crushed. His plan was to send forth bands of skirmishers who harassed and perplexed the Swedes, assailing them on all sides. This was a service which suited his Cossacks admirably. It was impossible to catch and suppress them. Whenever they succeeded in drawing the notice of the foe, they scampered off, leaving such desolation in their track that pursuit was out of the question. The Russian main army was posted in sheltered lines on the right bank of the Dnieper, having free communication with Smolensko, and an open line of retreat upon a country rich in supplies of all kinds. A force of over 20,000 men, of whom one half were Cossacks, was detached to scour and lay waste the country south of the Dnieper, through which it behoved Charles to advance. This was done so effectually, over such an extent of territory, that when he had made some way over the devastated region, he was compelled, through lack of provisions, to canton his army. This enforced delay so chafed his proud and eager spirit as to fit him for being tempted into a movement which proved his ruin. Instead of calmly proceeding with arrangements for placing his commissariat in a satisfactory condition, and then bearing down upon Moscow, he suddenly, when so close THE STORY OF MAZEPPA, 235 upon Smolensko that it was truly within his grasp, swerved aside from the design he had hitherto pursued, and bent his steps towards the far-stretching deserts of the Ukraine. A course so unintelligible, that it seemed downright madness, utterly confounded Peter. He breathed freely meanwhile; but what was to come next defied all conjecture. Not till news was brought him that the Hetman of the Cossacks inhabiting the invaded province had turned traitor, could he form any surmise as to the motive which had prompted so wild a proceeding. When at length he came to understand how the angry and impatient Charles had been misled, he must have thrilled with some such feeling as found vent in the Cromwellian ejaculation at Dunbar, " The Lord hath delivered them into our hand." The Cossack ruler was by lineage and nativity a gentleman of Podolia. Part of his romantic story has been made familiar to every schoolboy by means of Lord Byron, who employed his poetic genius in its recital and adornment. In youth Mazeppa, for such was the Hetman's name, had been a page at the court of John Casimir. He excited the jealousy of a Polish gentleman, who had him stripped naked and bound to a wild horse, which was then let go. He was carried from the centre of Poland to the territory of the Ukraine, where, when the horse had dropped, he was found by the astonished countrypeople half dead with hunger and fatigue. He was hospitably received, and continued to live with his benefactors, adopting their modes of life, and signalising himself in their contests with the Tartars. His reputation so grew among them that the Czar found it expedient to nominate him as their Hetman. The Russians say that the treachery he displayed towards the outraged husband who inflicted upon him that uncomfortable ride which formed the poet's theme, was also visible in his behaviour as an influential vassal. Another version of the tale represents Peter as to blame for his defection. According to it, he was on a visit to Moscow, and was dining with the Czar, when a proposal was mooted that he should endeavour to tame and discipline the community over whom he ruled; he refused, pleading difficulties which he pronounced insuperable; and thereupon the Czar broke into a rage, stigmatising him by opprobrious epithets, and threatening his impalement. Whatever the motive or provocation, he now threw himself into the arms of Charles, entered into secret negotiations with him, and promised him the support of his whole following. Taking counsel with no one, Charles at once jumped at the offer, appointed a place of meeting on the Dresna, a tributary of the Dnieper which falls into that stream on the western boundary of the province of Pultowa, and set off thither, leading his army after him. As it turned out, Mazeppa had promised more than he was able to perform. He had miscalculated the strength of his people's attachment to himself, and of their loyalty to their Russian protectors. When his design was unfolded to them, it was received with ominous murmurs of disapproval. On the time coming to march a great many fell away from his standard, returning to their homes. Remonstrance and appeal were tried in vain, while the delay gave opportunity for intervention on the part of the Czar. It was, as usual, decided and effective. Mazeppa was superseded in favour of a new Hetman; several of his accomplices were caught and broken upon the wheel; the strong places in which he might have taken refuge were levelled with the ground; and his adherents were so beset and harassed that when, long after the date appointed, he appeared at the place of rendezvous, instead of bringing with him a formidable force, the muster consisted of a few jaded, stricken, and miserably-appointed battalions, the merest fractions of the meditated revolt, who came as fugitives from destruction. The Swedish troops had fared no better. Lewenhauft had been left to bring up the rear-guard, who, setting out some time after Charles, heading the main body, had made his desperate plunge. The Russians, now aware of what had happened, hung in overwhelming numbers upon his skirts, hindered his march, and finally threatened to get between him and the King. Lewenhauft did all a man could in such untoward circumstances. He made what speed was possible by means of forced marches. Once and again, when the Russians came too near, he turned and struck at them with a force which drove them back, greatly to the rage of Peter, who placed a body of Calmucks in the second line of advance, with instructions to sabre every man, himself as well as any other, who fell back upon them. At last the sorely-pressed Swede was forced to decide upon a pitched battle as the only mode of relief from the swarms of foes who clustered thick about him. The engagement lasted two days. It was a terrible and sanguinary affair. Conscious of their perilous situation, the Swedes fought with even more than their wonted valour; but the odds arrayed against them were too tremendous to permit of success. It was computed that on the evening of the first day a third of their number were slain or wounded. The renewal of the contest was marked by an increase of fury. The Czar distinguished himself in a remarkable manner upon this occasion. He was conspicuous in front of the fight, and whenever his soldiers seemed to waver, thither he sped to revive their flagging energies, and to animate them by the example of his own fearlessness. Nightfall separated the combatants again. The Swedes fell back behind the shelter of their long line of baggage-waggons. Through the openings in that line, the gleam of their watch-fires was discernible by the Russians, the bulk of whom remained on the alert and under arms. At dawn, they advanced anew upon the position of their opponents, only to find it deserted. Leaving his wounded, his artillery, his military chest, and seven thousand waggons laden with stores of provisions, Lewenhauft had, in order to escape complete destruction, withdrawn under cover of the darkness. He had lost nearly eight thousand The shattered remnant of his force with which he joined the King numbered no more than four thousand. This was the first great success gained by the Russians in a conflict with regular troops, and, though their immense numerical advantage detracts from its renown, there can be no question as to its completeness, or to the importance which belongs to it as having nerved them for further efforts. Charles was now in a sorry plight. The enterprise upon which he had entered with so much confidence had gone all awry. He had too few men to retrieve the fortunes of the campaign, though too many for the provisions he possessed or could by any means procure. Winter set in early, and its rigours were marked by an unwonted severity. The privations which the Swedes had to bear were of the most dismal and trying cast. They lacked food and clothes and proper shelter. The manner in which they were constrained to ravage the country all about them alienated its inhabitants and filled them with In vain did the advisers of Charles represent to him the propriety of making a push backwards to Poland, where all that he had accomplished a year before was now being undone. With a wilful obstinacy that looked like infatuation, he persisted in staying where he was, vowing that he would yet conquer the Ukraine as a preliminary to THE PREPARATIONS FOR PULTOWA. 237 subduing Russia. As soon as winter relaxed the iron grip in which it had bound all nature, and movement became possible, he repeated on an aggravated scale the wild. goose exploit which had conducted him to the quarters where he had so long remained inactive, amid straits and embarrassments which had tried the endurance and fidelity of his most attached followers. He conducted his forces in a south-easterly direction till he reached the sandy deserts to the east of the territories belonging to the Cossacks of the Don. What his purpose or hope in going thither may have been, no one can declare with certainty; but when he came to the edge of the great wilderness, even he became convinced that he had gone wrong. There was nothing for it but to retrace the ground that had been traversed. The first journey had been a tedious and fatiguing performance; the return was vastly more difficult, wearisome, and fatal. At last, with no more than eighteen thousand worn and dispirited men, he came to Pultowa, a small fortified town on the banks of the Vorksla, commanding several mountain passes which open on the main road to Moscow. This place he resolved to reduce. The garrison was small, and not in a condition to stand a protracted siege. Peter was speedily communicated with, however, and he hastened with alacrity to their relief. He arrived on the 15th of June 1709, with a force of more than fifty thousand thoroughly-equipped troops. His first care was to reinforce the garrison of the town. This he managed by a dexterous manoeuvre which extorted the admiration of Charles. By means of a feint, he drew the besiegers from their trenches, and so obtained access for a strong corps, carrying with them all necessary supplies. Having thus secured the safety of the place, he leisurely set about his plans for dislodging and disabling its assailants. Sir Edward Creasy has justly included the conflict which ensued among what he has called the "Decisive Battles of the World." That the future of Russia was then suspended in the balance is undoubtedly true, even though the preponderance of weight lay so distinctly in her scale, that there was little likelihood it should kick the beam! Had Peter been killed, then all his mighty plans would have perished with him; and, as Voltaire has it," the most extensive empire in the world would have relapsed into the chaos from which it had been so lately taken." Had he been defeated, the way would have been open for the victorious occupation of Moscow; and, in the absence of any strong or wide-spread national feeling (for Russian opinion had not then been fused and welded to the temper of a patriotic love for religion, country, and government), the capture of the capital would have told on the fate of the nation no less effectually than in old days. No doubt the contest was less unequal than at first sight it appeared. The spirit of the Swedes had risen in presence of the danger which they confronted. It was one palpable and familiar, against which they had some chance. It was, therefore, one less to be dreaded by far than the slow, wearying, viewless, and irresistible hazards of pinching famine, and of exhaustive effort in a purposeless pursuit, which they had lately undergone The mass of them were veteran soldiers. Discomfiture was an experience that had never befallen their leader. Often had he wrested victory to his side in circumstances that seemed almost desperate. The very extremity of his need gave confidence now in his genius and fortune. On the other hand, the Czar did not allow the manifold advantages of which he was the possessor to seduce him into the mistake of under-rating his enemy, or of neglecting any available precaution. His plan of battle was framed with great skill, and all the preliminaries were executed with the nicest care-in some cases with suddenness and secrecy, in all with great circumspection and provident forethought. In one night he drew a long entrenchment opposite the Swedish lines. His troops were then disposed in double column, their array stretching across the peninsula formed by the Dnieper and the Vorksla, the anticipation being that the Swedes would be penned into the acute angle at their junction. His cavalry was held in reserve, being posted betwixt two woods. At the openings of his position, redoubts carrying artillery were erected. Thus nothing was left to fortune or chance. Whatever could be done by dint of sagacity, energy, and caution, to ensure safety and success, was accomplished with a scrupulous exactness. It had been Peter's purpose to make the attack; but the temerity of Charles, which should have been earlier displayed or completely repressed, induced him hastily to assume the offensive. A few days before, in one of the many skirmishes which took place under the walls of the city, he had been wounded in the foot. A painful operation was rendered necessary, which confined him for some days. Very probably this restraint made him more impatient than he would otherwise have been. As soon as he was released, he gave orders that the enemy should be assailed. Borne in a litter before his troops, they were led out of their entrenchments, and then hurled against the Russian redoubts. Their furious onset was met with resolute steadiness, though some accounts have it that at two points the defenders gave way. Whether this be true or not, there certainly was no impression made on the bulk of the Russian army, which was soon drawn into the engagement. When the Swedes recoiled from before the redoubts, then the Czar, allowing them no time to recover, swiftly led forth his first line into the open, making the battle general along the fronts of the opposing armies. The contest was long and obstinate. Never had the Swedish veterans fought with a more resolute valour, while their Cossack and Wallachian allies behaved in a style worthy of their companionship. Both sovereigns exposed themselves in the most intrepid fashion, and both made extraordinary escapes. The litter of Charles was knocked from under him by a cannon ball, which killed one of its bearers, and till another conveyance could be got, the king gave his directions from a temporary platform which was borne aloft on the pikes of four soldiers. Peter's hat and his saddle were pierced by shot at different times, while Prince Menschikoff, who commanded on the left, had three horses shot under him. For three hours, the issue hung in doubt, the fortune of battle recalling Shakespeare's fine description in Henry : "Now sways it this way like a mighty sea, Sometimes the flood prevails, and then the wind: Now one the better, then another best, Both tugging to be victors, breast to breast, Yet neither conqueror nor conquered. So is the equal poise of the fell war." At length the weight and pressure of the massive Russian columns-for long ere now their full force was engaged-began to tell upon the Swedes. Every foot they yielded |