_The king of Sweden leaves Saxony, marches into Lithuania, meets with an
instance of Russian brutality, drives the czar out of Grodno, and
pursues him to the Borysthenes. Horatio, with others, is taken prisoner
by the Russians, and carried to Petersburg, where they suffer the
extremest miseries_.
The word at length being given, the tents were struck, the trumpets
sounded, and the whole army was immediately in motion. Never was a more
gay and glorious fight; the splendor of their arms, and the richness of
their habits blazed against the sun; but what was yet more pleasing, and
spread greater terror among their enemies, was the chearfulness that sat
on every face, and shewed they followed with the utmost alacrity their
beloved and victorious monarch.
It was in the latter end of September, a season extremely cold in those
parts, that they began their march but hardships were natural to the
king of Sweden's troops; and as they perceived they were going into
Lithuania, a place where their valour had been so well proved against
the invading Muscovites, their cheeks glowed with a fresher red on the
remembrance of their former victories. They passed near Dresden, the
capital of the electorate of Saxony, and made Augustus tremble in his
palace, tho' the word of the king, which ever was inviolable, had been
given that he should enjoy those dominions in peace.
During the course of this, the czar had fallen upon the frontiers of
Poland above twenty times, not like a general, desiring to come to a
decisive battle, but like a robber, plundering, ravaging, and destroying
the defenceless country people, and immediately flying on the approach
of any troops either of Charles XII or king Stanislaus. The Swedes in
their march met several parties sent on these expeditions, but who
retired on sight of the army into woods, and were most of them either
killed or taken prisoners by detachments sent in pursuit of them by the
king of Sweden.
In their march towards Grodno they found the remains of an encampment,
several pieces of cannon and ammunition of all forts, but not one
creature to guard it, the troops to whom it belonged having all
dispersed and hid themselves. On examining the tents, they were
surprized with the sight of a very beautiful woman, who was lying on the
ground in one of them, with three others, who seemed endeavouring to
comfort her, and, by the respect they paid her, that they were her
dependents; but had all of them their garments torn and bloody, their
hair hanging in strange disorder about their ears, their flesh
discoloured with bruises and other marks of violence, and, as well as
their disconsolate superior, were spectacles of the utmost distress.
The king of Sweden himself, followed by general Hoorn, Poniatolky,
Horatio, and several others, who hardly ever lost sight of him, came
into this tent, and, being touched with so moving a scene, demanded the
Occasion; on which the prostrate lady being told who it was that spoke,
started suddenly up, and throwing herself at his feet:--Oh king! cried
she in the German language, as famous for justice as for being
invincible in war, revenge the cause of helpless innocence and
virtue!--Oh let the murderous brutal Russians find heaven's vindictive
arm in you its great vicegerent.--She was able to utter no more: the
inward agonies she sustained, on being about to relate the story of her
wrongs, became too violent for speech, and she sunk motionless on the
earth. Two of the women, assisted by some Swedes, carried her out of the
tent, as thinking the open air most proper to revive her; and she who
remained, satisfied the king's curiosity in these words:
May it please your majesty, said she, my mistress, that afflicted lady
who just now implored your royal pity, is of the noble family of the
Casselburgh, in Saxony, only daughter to the present count: her person,
before these heavy misfortunes fell upon her, was deservedly reputed one
of the most beautiful that graced the court of Dresden: her birth, her
youth, her charms, and the great fortune it was expected she would be
mistress of, attracted a great number of persons who addressed her for
marriage: her own inclinations, as well as the count her father's
commands, disposed of her to Emmermusky, a Polish nobleman; and she had
been scarce one month a bride, before they unhappily took this journey to
visit my lord's mother who lives at Travenstadt.--In our way we met a
party of straggling Muscovites, who, notwithstanding the strict league
between our elector and the czar, and the knowledge they had by our
passports that we were Saxons, stripped us of every thing, killed all
our men-servants and having given my lord several wounds, left him for
dead upon the place, then dragged us miserable women to the camp.--My
lady, in the midst of faintings, and when she was incapable even of
flying to death for refuse, was brutally ravished, and we her wretched
attendants suffered the same abuse.--Shame will not let me, continued
she, blushing and weeping, acquaint your majesty with the shocking and
repeated violations we were compelled to bear!--the wretches casting
lots who first should gratify his monstrous desires!--We were all bound
to trees, and without any means of opposition but our shrieks and cries
to unrelenting heaven!--My lord having a little recovered himself, had
crawled, as well as his wounds would give him leave, after us, and
arrived even while the horrid scene was acting: rage giving him new
strength and spirits; he snatched a sword that lay upon the earth, and
sent to perdition the villain who was about to add to the dishonour
which had been, alas! but too much completed by others. The death of
their companion incensing the accursed Muscovites, they turned upon him,
and in a moment laid him dead just at the feet of his ruined and almost
expiring wife! After having satiated their wicked will, they left us,
bound as we were, where we continued the remainder of the day and whole
night, and had doubtless perished thro' hunger and extreme cold, if a
second party had not passed that way, who having been out on a maroding,
were then returning to the camp.--Being actuated by somewhat more
compassion than the former, one of the officers made us be untied, and
having heard our story, blamed the cruelty with which we had been
treated, and brought us to his tent, the same we now are in, and ordered
something should be given for our refreshment; but my lady has continued
obstinate to dye, and to that end has refused all subsistence. This, oh
invincible monarch! is the sad history of our misfortunes:--misfortunes,
which, alas! can never be retrieved, nor admit any consolation but in
the hope of vengeance!
Here a torrent of tears closed the sad narration; and the king cried
out, turning as he spoke to us that followed him,--It is the cause of
heaven and earth, my friends, said he, to punish these barbarians, and
shew them that there is a God; for sure at present they are ignorant
of it!
The generous monarch after this gave orders that these afflicted and
abused woman should be escorted to a place of safety, and for that
purpose halted for the space of two days, then proceeded towards Grodno
with such expedition, that after-ages will look upon it as incredible
that so large an army, and also encumbered with a great quantity of
baggage, could have marched in the time they did.
But the king of Sweden was on fire to encounter in person the czar of
Muscovy, who, with about 2000 men, was then in that city: so great was
his impatience, that he galloped before his troops, not above 600 of
those best mounted being able to keep pace with him, till he came in
sight of the south gate, which gave him entrance without any opposition,
while the czar and his forces made their escape out at the north gate,
not doubting but the king of Sweden's whole army were come up with him.
He was afterward so much vexed and ashamed to think he had quitted the
town to no more than 600 of the enemy, that, to retrieve a mistake which
he feared might be looked upon as cowardice, being informed the body, of
the army was near five leagues off, he sent a party of 1500 horse in
order to surprize the king and his few guards. The Muscovites entered by
night; but the alarm being given, the fortune which still had waited on
the Swedish armies, immediately put them all to the rout; and the army
soon after arriving, the conqueror lost no time, but pursued those that
remained alive into the forest of Mensky, on the other side of which the
czar had then entrenched himself, and had made the general rendezvous of
the Russian army, which was continually divided into parties; and
sometimes falling on the Swedes in the rear, and sometimes in the flank,
very much annoyed them in their march: these brave men had also other
difficulties to encounter with; the forest was so extremely thick, that
the infantry were obliged to fell down trees every moment, during the
whole time of their passage, to make way for the baggage and troops.
Their industry and vigour surmounting all these obstacles, they once
more found themselves in an open country, but on the banks of a river,
on the opposite side of which were 20,000 Muscovites placed to oppose
their crossing. The king made no delay, but quitting his horse, threw
himself into the river, and was instantly followed by all the foot,
while the troops under the command of general Renchild and Hoorn,
galloped round thro' the morrass in which that river ended, and both
together charged the enemy, who, after some faint shew of resistance,
fled with the utmost precipitation. The whole army being now joined
marched on toward the Boristhenes, but with fatigues which are
impossible to be described: Horatio kept still close to the king, and
whether he fought or marched, was on foot or on horsback, was always in
his fight ready to bear his commands to the generals, or assist him in
the time of danger. More than once had the conqueror been indebted to
this young warrior, for turning the point of the destructive sword from
giving him the same death he was dealing about to others; yet in all the
dangers he had been in never had he received one wound, and this often
made the king say, who was a firm believer in predestination, that
heaven designed him for a soldier: his fortune, his valour, his
activity, added to his obliging and modest behaviour, indeed rendered
him so dear to his royal master, that there were very few, if any, to
whom he gave greater marks of his favour. And had Dorilaus, or even
Charlotta herself, all tender as she was, and trembling for the hazards
she knew he had been exposed to, seen him thus caressed and honoured by
the most glorious prince and greatest hero in the world, they could
scarce have wished him to quit the post he was in, much less persuaded
him to do it.
He hitherto indeed had experienced only the happiness of a martial life,
for the fatigues, hardships, and dangers of it he as little regarded as
the intrepid and indefatigable prince he served; but now arrived the
time which was to inflict on him the worst miseries of it, and make him
almost curse a vocation he had been in his soul so much attached to.
The king of Sweden, with his usual success having passed the
Boristhenes, encountered a party of 10,000 Muscovites and 6000 Calmuck
Tartars; but they gave way on the first onset and fled into a wood,
where the king, following the dictates of his great courage more than
prudence, pursuing them, fell into an ambuscade, which, throwing
themselves between him and three regiments of horse that were with him,
hem'd him in, and now began a very unequal fight.--Many of the gallant
Swedes were cut to pieces, and the Muscovites made quite up to his
majesty:--two aid-de-camps were killed within his presence, his own
horse was shot under him, and as an equerry was presenting him with
another, both horse and man was struck dead in the same moment.--Horatio
immediately alighted in order to mount the king, who now on foot behaved
with incredible valour, in that action was surrounded and taken
prisoner, as were several others that had fought near his person. He had
the satisfaction, however, while they were disarming and tying his
hands, to see colonel Dardoff with his regiment force thro' the
Calmucks, and arrive timely enough to disengage the king, after which
the army recovering its rank, and pouring in upon the enemy, he was not
without hopes of regaining his liberty; but he was sat upon a horse and
bound fast to the saddle, and compelled, with the others that were taken
with him, to accompany the Muscovites in their flight, so was ignorant
in what manner this re-encounter ended. Soon after repairing to the
czar's quarters, these unfortunate officers of the king of Sweden were,
with some others who had before become their prize, sent under a strong
guard to Petersburgh, and thrown altogether into a miserable dungeon.
It would be impossible to describe the horrors of this place:--light
there was, but it was only so much as just served to shew to each of
these unhappy sufferers the common calamity of them all.--The roof was
arched indeed, but so low, that the shortest among them could scarce
stand upright:--no kind of furniture, not even straw to cover the damp
earthen floor, which served them for a seat by day and bed at night.
Inured as they had been to hardships, the noisomeness of this dreadful
vault killed many of them, and among the rest a young Swedish officer
named Gullinstern, one with whom Horatio had contracted a very intimate
friendship, and who, for his many excellent qualities, had been so dear
to the king, that seeing him one day greatly wounded, and in danger of
being taker, prisoner, that generous prince obliged him to mount on his
own horse, and fought on foot himself till another could be brought.
The light of this gentleman expiring in his arms, filled Horatio with so
poignant an anguish, that he wanted but little of following him; and,
indeed, had it not been for the sanguine hopes that the king would in a
short time complete the ruin of the czar, and not only restore them
liberty, but also add vengeance to it for the ill treatment they had
found in his dominions, few, if any of them, had been able to support
the miseries inflicted on them by these inhuman wretches, who, not
content with burying them in a manner alive, for the dungeon they were
in was deep underground, and allowing them no other food than bread and
water once in four and twenty hours, made savage sport at their
condition, ridiculed the conquests of their king, and spoke in the most
opprobrious terms of his royal person, which, when some of them were
unable to restrain themselves from answering in a manner befitting their
duty and love of justice, they were silenced by the most cruel stripes.
Thus were the officers of the king of Sweden, the meanest of whom were
fit to be generals in any other army, subjected to the servile taunts,
and insolent behaviour of wretches undeserving to be ranked among the
human species.
A very little time had doubtless made them all find graves among these
barbarians; scarce a day passed over without their company decreasing by
two or three, who were no sooner dead than dragged out by the heels, and
thrown like dogs into a pit without the least funeral rites. But
providence at length thought fit to send them a relief by means they
least expected.
In one of the incursions made by the Muscovites into Poland, a very
beautiful lady, whose father had been killed in asserting the cause of
Stanislaus, was made prisoner: prince Menzikoff, who commanded these
batallions, saw her, and became enamoured of her charms: she was
destitute of all friends, and in the conqueror's power, so thought it
best to yield what otherwise she found him determined to seize: in fine,
she was his mistress; and her ready compliance with his desires,
together with the love she either had or feigned to have for him,
afterward gained her an absolute ascendant over him. Every one knows the
interest he had with the czar; and he so far exerted it, as to get this
fair favourite lodged in the palace, where she was served with the same
state and respect as if she had been his wife.
This lady, whose name was Edella, happened to be walking with some of
her attendants near where these unfortunate gentlemen were buried, at a
time when three of them were dragged to their wretched sepulchre, was
touched with compassion to see any thing that had a human shape thus
coarsely treated, tho' after death, and had the curiosity to order one
of her people to enquire who those persons were, and what they had done,
which hindered them from being allowed a christian burial.
She was no sooner informed that they were Swedish prisoners, than her
soul shuddered at the thoughts of the Russian barbarity; and not
doubting but their usage during life had been of a piece with that after
their death, she resolved, if possible, to procure some abatement of the
miseries of those who yet survived.
To this end she made it her business to examine what number of prisoners
had been brought, of what condition they were, and where lodged; and
being well acquainted with all she wanted to know, went to the governor
of Petersburg, and so well represented how dishonourable it was to the
czar, and how opposite to the law of nations, to treat prisoners of war
in a worse manner than they would do condemned felons, that he knowing
the power of prince Menzikoff, and fearing to disoblige one so dear to
him by a refusal, consented they should be removed into an upper part of
the prison where they would have more air, and also that they should
have an allowance of meat every day.
As the governor was a true Muscovite in his nature and had an implacable
hatred to the king of Sweden and all that belonged to him, this was
gaining a great deal; but it was not enough to satisfy the charitable
disposition of Edella; after their removal, she went in person to visit
those of them whom she heard were gentlemen, and finding them covered
only with rags, which some of the soldiers had put on them after having
stripped them of their own rich habits, she ordered others lined with
furs to be made for them, to defend them from the coldness of the
season; and not content to retrench a great part of her own table, sold
several fine jewels, and other trinkets the prince had bestowed on her,
to supply them with wine, and whatever necessaries she supposed them to
be accustomed to. That she might be certain those entrusted by her did
not abuse her good intentions, she went often to the prison herself to
see how they were served, and would sometimes enter into discourse with
them concerning the battles they had been in, the settlement of
Stanislaus, and many other things relating to the Polish affairs. The
gallant and courtly manner in which Horatio expressed himself on every
occasion, made her take a particular pleasure in hearing him speak: that
rough blunt behaviour to which she had been accustomed since her being
brought a captive into Muscovy, gave double charms to the politeness
with which she found herself entertained by our young warrior; his
blooming years, and the gracefulness of his person, contributed not a
little also towards rendering every thing he said more agreeable. Her
liking of him grew by degrees into a friendship, no less tender than
that one feels for very near relations, and who have never done any
thing to disoblige us, are more endeared by being under undeserved
calamity: but as the inclination she had for him was perfectly innocent,
and no ways prejudicial to the prince who was in possession of her
person, she made no secret of it either to himself or those she
conversed with, and was always talking of the wit, delicacy, and
handsomeness of one of those prisoners, whom it was well known were
pensioners to her bounty. But how dangerous is it to be too open before
persons who, void of all true generosity, or the lead principle of
honour themselves, never fail to put the worst construction on the
actions of others. Edella was very near being undone by her sincerity in
acknowledging the distinction she paid to merit, or the compassion she
felt for misfortunes, in a country where humanity to enemies is looked
upon as a crime, friendship to those of the same party altogether
unknown, and even common civility never practised but for the
gratification of self-interest, or some favourite passion.
This beautiful Polander however being treated by the Muscovites, on
account of the influence she had over the prince Menzikoff, with as much
complaisance as it was in their power to shew, imagined their
disposition less savage than it was in reality; and when she testified
the pity she had for those unhappy gentlemen, it was with design to
excite it in others, and engage them to join with her in petitioning the
czar, at his return, for their enlargement, there being no cartel or
exchange of prisoners subsisting between him and the king of Sweden.
Among the number she hoped to gain to her party was Mattakesa, the
relique of a general who had been in great favour with his prince. This
lady, who could speak French, having learned it of a recusant that took
shelter in Russia, consented to go with her one day to the prison, and
no sooner saw Horatio, than, unfortunately for him, Edella, and herself,
she became charmed with him: as she was of the number of those who think
nothing a crime that suits their own inclination, she took not the least
pains to subdue the growing passion, but rather indulged it, in order to
receive the highest degree of pleasure in the gratification. She doubted
not but Edella was her rival, and that it was for his sake alone she had
been so beneficent to his fellow-sufferers: to supplant her, therefore,
was the first step she had to take, and she resolved to omit nothing for
that purpose.