Charles XII. being desirous, for the second time, of making the
conquest of Norway, laid siege to Frederikshall, an important place,
situated at the mouth of the river Tistendall, near the Channel of
Denmark. It was in the month of December, 1718. The winter was severe,
and the cold killed a number of soldiers. The works, nevertheless,
advanced quickly, and the city was soon pressed very closely.
“On the 11th of December,” says Voltaire, “the king went, at nine
o’clock in the evening, to visit the trenches, and not finding the
parallels advanced to his mind, he appeared much dissatisfied. M.
Mégrel, a French engineer, who conducted the siege, assured him that
the place would be taken in eight days. ‘We shall see,’ said the
king, and continued his examination of the works, in company with
the engineer. He stopped at a place where the _boyau_ made an angle
with the parallel. He knelt down upon the interior talus, and, resting
his elbows upon the parapet, he remained for some time watching the
labourers, who were continuing the trenches by star-light.”
Almost half the person of the king was exposed to a battery of cannon
pointed at the right angle, where he was, and which was firing
cartridges. At this moment his officers saw him fall upon the parapet,
breathing a heavy sigh. They rushed towards him, but Charles XII. was
no more. A ball, weighing half a pound, had struck him on the temple,
and had made a hole in which three fingers could be introduced. When
dying, he had had the strength to place, as by a natural movement, his
hand upon the guard of his sword. Mégrel, an indifferent and singular
man, was content with saying, as he surveyed the lifeless monarch:
“_We may retire, the piece is played out._” To keep the knowledge of
this misfortune from the troops, until the prince of Hesse, Charles’s
brother-in-law, should be informed of it, his body was enveloped in a
grey mantle, with a wig and hat upon his head. In this disguise, the
king was conveyed away, under the name of Captain Carlsberg.