Campaign of Pruth.
Sultan Achmet III. declared war against Peter I. not from any regard to
the king of Sweden, but, as may readily be supposed, merely from a view
to his own interest. The Khan of the Crim Tartars could not without
dread, behold a neighbour so powerful as Peter I. The Porte had, for
some time, taken umbrage at the number of ships which this prince had on
the Palus Mæotis, and in the Black Sea, at his fortifying the city of
Azoph, and at the flourishing state of the harbour of Taganroc, already
become famous; and, lastly, at his great series of successes, and at the
ambition which success never fails to augment.
It is neither true, nor even probable, that the Porte should have begun
the war against the czar, on the Palus Mæotis, for no other reason than
because a Swedish ship had taken a bark on the Baltic, on board of which
was found a letter from a minister, whose name has never been mentioned.
Norberg tells us, that this letter contained a plan for the conquest of
the Turkish empire; that it was carried to Charles XII. who was then in
Turkey, and was by him sent to the divan; and that immediately after the
receipt of this letter, war was declared. But this story carries the
mark of fiction with it. It was the remonstrances of the khan of
Tartary, who was more uneasy about the neighbourhood of Azoph, than the
Turkish divan, that induced this latter to give orders for taking the
field.[83]
It was in the month of August, and before the czar had completed the
reduction of Livonia, when Achmet III. resolved to declare war against
him. The Turks, at that time, could hardly have had the news of the
taking of Riga; and, therefore, the proposal of restoring to the king of
Sweden the value in money, of the effects he had lost at the battle of
Pultowa, would have been the most absurd thing imaginable, if not
exceeded by that of demolishing Petersburg. The behaviour of Charles
XII. at Bender, was sufficiently romantic; but the conduct of the
Turkish divan would have been much more so, if we suppose it to have
made any demands of this kind.
Nov. 1710.] The khan of Tartary, who was the principal instigator of
this war, paid Charles a visit in his retreat at Bender. They were
connected by the same interests, inasmuch as Europe makes part of the
frontiers of Little Tartary. Charles and the khan were the two greatest
sufferers by the successes of the czar; but the khan did not command the
forces of the grand seignior. He was like one of the feudatory princes
of Germany, who served in the armies of the empire with their own
troops, and were subject to the authority of the emperor's generals for
the time being.
Nov. 29, 1710.] The first step taken by the divan, was to arrest
Tolstoy, the czar's ambassador at the Porte, in the streets of
Constantinople, together with thirty of his domestics, who, with their
master, were all confined in the prison of the Seven Towers. This
barbarous custom, at which even savages would blush, is owing to the
Turks having always a number of foreign ministers residing amongst them
from other courts, whereas they never send any in return. They look upon
the ambassadors of Christian princes in no other light than as merchants
or consuls; and, having naturally as great a contempt for Christians as
they have for Jews, they seldom condescend to observe the laws of
nations, in respect to them, unless forced to it; at least, they have
hitherto persisted in this barbarous pride.
The famous vizier, Achmet Couprougli, the same who took the island of
Candia, under Mahomet IV., insulted the son of the French ambassador,
and even carried his brutality so far as to strike him, and afterwards
to confine him in prison, without Lewis XIV., proud and lofty as he was,
daring to resent it, otherwise than by sending another minister to the
Porte. The Christian princes, who are so remarkably delicate on the
point of honour amongst themselves, and have even made it a part of the
law of nations, seem to be utterly insensible on this head in regard to
the Turks.
Never did a crowned head suffer greater affronts in the persons of his
ministers, than czar Peter. In the space of a few years, his
ambassador at the court of London was thrown into jail for debt, his
plenipotentiary at the courts of Poland and Saxony was broke upon the
wheel, by order of the king of Sweden; and now his minister at the
Ottoman Porte was seized and thrown into a dungeon at Constantinople,
like a common felon.[84]
We have already observed, in the first part of this history, that he
received satisfaction from queen Anne, of England, for the insult
offered to his ambassador at London. The horrible affront he suffered,
in the person of Patkul, was washed away in the blood of the Swedes
slain at the battle of Pultowa; but fortune permitted the violation of
the law of nations by the Turks to pass unpunished.
Jan. 1711.] The czar now found himself obliged to quit the theatre of
war in the west, and march towards the frontiers of Turkey. He began by
causing ten regiments, which he had in Poland, to advance towards
Moldavia.[85] He then ordered marshal Sheremeto to set out from Livonia,
with his body of forces; and, leaving prince Menzikoff at the head of
affairs at Petersburg, he returned to Moscow, to give orders for opening
the ensuing campaign.
Jan. 18.] He now establishes a senate of regency: the regiment of guards
begin their march, he issues orders for all the young nobility to follow
him to the field, to learn the art of war, and places some of them in
the station of cadets, and others in that of subaltern officers. Admiral
Apraxin goes to Azoph to take the command by sea and land. These several
measures being taken, the czar publishes an ordonnance in Moscow for
acknowledging a new empress. This was the person who had been taken
prisoner in Marienburg, in the year 1702. Peter had, in 1696, repudiated
his wife Eudoxia Lopoukin (or Lapouchin) by whom he had two children.
The laws of his church allow of no divorces; but, had they not, Peter
would have enacted a new law to permit them.
The fair captive of Marienburg, who had taken the name of Catherine, had
a soul superior to her sex and her misfortunes. She rendered herself so
agreeable to the czar, that this prince would have her always near his
person. She accompanied him in all his excursions, and most fatiguing
campaigns: sharing in his toils, and softening his uneasiness by her
natural gaiety, and the great attention she shewed to oblige him on all
occasions, and the indifference she expressed for the luxury, dress, and
other indulgences, of which the generality of her sex are, in other
countries, wont to make real necessities. She frequently softened the
passionate temper of the czar, and, by making him more clement and
merciful, rendered him more truly great. In a word, she became so
necessary to him, that he married her privately, in 1707. He had already
two daughters by her, and the following year she bore him a third, who
was afterwards married to the duke of Holstein.[86]
March 17, 1711.] The czar made this private marriage known the very day
he set out with her to try the fortune of his arms against the Turks.
The several dispositions he had made seemed to promise a successful
issue. The hetman of the Cossacks was to keep the Tartars in awe, who
had already began to commit ravages in the Ukraine. The main body of
the Russian army was advancing towards Niester, and another body of
troops, under prince Galitzin, were in full march through Poland. Every
thing went on favourably at the beginning: for Galitzin having met with
a numerous body of Tartars near Kiow, who had been joined by some
Cossacks and some Poles of king Stanislaus' party, as also a few Swedes,
he defeated them entirely, and killed near five thousand men. These
Tartars had, in their march through the open country, made about ten
thousand prisoners. It has been the custom of the Tartars, time
immemorial, to carry with them a much greater number of cords than
scimitars, in order to bind the unhappy wretches they surprise. The
captives were all set free, and those who had made them prisoners were
put to the sword. The whole Russian army, if it had been assembled
together, would have amounted to sixty thousand men. It was to have been
farther augmented by the troops belonging to the king of Poland. This
prince, who owed every thing to the czar, came to pay him a visit at
Jaroslaw, on the river Sana, the 3d of June, 1714, and promised him
powerful succours. War was now declared against the Turks, in the name
of these two monarchs: but the Polish diet, not willing to break with
the Ottoman Porte, refused to ratify the engagement their king had
entered into. It was the fate of the czar to have, in the king of
Poland, an ally who could never be of any service to him. He entertained
the same hopes of assistance from the princes of Moldavia and Walachia,
and was, in the like manner, disappointed.
These two provinces ought to have taken this opportunity to shake off
the Turkish yoke. These countries were those of the ancient Daci, who,
together with the Gepidi, with whom they were intermixed, did, for a
long time, disturb the Roman empire. They were at length subdued by the
emperor Trajan, and Constantine the First made them embrace the
Christian religion. Dacia was one of the provinces of the eastern
empire; but shortly after these very people contributed to the ruin of
that of the west, by serving under the Odoacers and Theodorics.
They afterwards continued to be subject to the Greek empire; and when
the Turks made themselves masters of Constantinople, were governed and
oppressed by particular princes; at length they were totally subjected
by the Padisha, or Turkish emperor, who now granted them an investiture.
The Hospodar, or Waiwod, chosen by the Ottoman Porte to govern these
provinces, is always a Christian of the Greek church. The Turks, by this
choice, give a proof of their toleration, while our ignorant declaimers
are accusing them of persecution. The prince, nominated by the Porte, is
tributary to, or rather farms these countries of the grand seignior;
this dignity being always conferred on the best bidder, or him who makes
the greatest presents to the vizier, in like manner as the Greek
patriarch, at Constantinople. Sometimes this government is bestowed on a
dragoman, that is to say, the interpreter to the divan. These provinces
are seldom under the government of the same Waiwod, the Porte choosing
to divide them, in order to be more sure of retaining them in
subjection. Demetrius Cantemir was at this time Waiwod of Moldavia. This
prince was said to be descended from Tamerlane, because Tamerlane's true
name was Timur, and Timur was a Tartarian khan; and so, from the name
Tamurkan, say they, came the family of Cantemir.
Bassaraba Brancovan had been invested with the principality of
Walachia, but had not found any genealogist to deduce his pedigree from
the Tartarian conqueror. Cantemir thought the time now come to shake off
the Turkish yoke, and render himself independent by means of the czar's
protection. In this view he acted in the very same manner with Peter as
Mazeppa had done with Charles XII. He even engaged Bassaraba for the
present to join him in the conspiracy, of which he hoped to reap all the
benefit himself: his plan being to make himself master of both
provinces. The bishop of Jerusalem, who was at that time at Walachia,
was the soul of this conspiracy. Cantemir promised the czar to furnish
him with men and provisions, as Mazeppa did the king of Sweden, and kept
his word no better than he had done.
General Sheremeto advanced towards Jassi, the capital of Moldavia, to
inspect and occasionally assist the execution of these great projects.
Cantemir came thither to meet him, and was received with all the honours
due to a prince: but he acted as a prince in no one circumstance, but
that of publishing a manifesto against the Turkish empire. The hospodar
of Walachia, who soon discovered the ambitious views of his colleague,
quitted his party, and returned to his duty. The bishop of Jerusalem
dreading, with reason, the punishment due to his perfidy, fled and
concealed himself: the people of Walachia and Moldavia continued
faithful to the Ottoman Porte, and those, who were to have furnished
provisions for the Russian army, carried them to the Turks.
The vizier, Baltagi Mahomet had already crossed the Danube, at the head
of one hundred thousand men, and was advancing towards Jassi, along the
banks of the river Pruth (formerly the Hierasus), which falls into the
Danube, and which is nearly the boundary of Moldavia and Bessarabia. He
then dispatched count Poniatowsky,[87] a Polish gentleman, attached to
the fortunes of the king of Sweden, to desire that prince to make him a
visit, and see his army. Charles, whose pride always got the better of
his interest, would not consent to this proposal: he insisted that the
grand vizier should make him the first visit, in his asylum near Bender.
When Poniatowsky returned to the Ottoman camp, and endeavoured to excuse
this refusal of his master, the vizier, turning to the khan of the
Tartars, said, 'This is the very behaviour I expected from this proud
pagan.' This mutual pride, which never fails of alienating the minds of
those in power from each other, did no service to the king of Sweden's
affairs; and indeed that prince might have easily perceived, from the
beginning, that the Turks were not acting for his interest, but for
their own.
While the Turkish army was passing the Danube, the czar advanced by the
frontiers of Poland, and passed the Boristhenes, in order to relieve
marshal Sheremeto, who was then on the banks of the Pruth, to the
southward of Jassi, and in danger of being daily surrounded by an army
of ten thousand Turks, and an army of Tartars. Peter, before he passed
the Boristhenes, was in doubt whether he should expose his beloved
Catherine to these dangers, which seemed to increase every day; but
Catherine, on her side, looked upon this solicitude of the czar, for her
ease and safety, as an affront offered to her love and courage; and
pressed her consort so strongly on this head, that he found himself
under a necessity to consent that she should pass the river with him.
The army beheld her with eyes of joy and admiration, marching on
horseback at the head of the troops, for she rarely made use of a
carriage. After passing the Boristhenes, they had a tract of desert
country to pass through, and then to cross the Bog, and afterwards the
river Tiras, now called the Niester, and then another desert to
traverse, before they came to the banks of the Pruth. Catherine, during
this fatiguing march, animated the whole army by her cheerfulness and
affability. She sent refreshments to such of the officers who were sick,
and extended her care even to the meanest soldier.
July 4, 1711.] At length the czar brought his army in sight of Jassi.
Here he was to establish his magazine. Bassaraba, the hospodar of
Walachia, who had again embraced the interest of the Ottoman Porte, but
still, in appearance, continued a friend to the czar, proposed to that
prince to make peace with the Turks, although he had received no
commission from the grand vizier for that purpose. His deceit, however,
was soon discovered; and the czar contented himself with demanding only
provisions for his army, which Bassaraba neither could nor would
furnish. It was very difficult to procure any supplies from Poland; and
these, which prince Cantemir had promised, and which he vainly hoped to
procure from Walachia, could not be brought from thence. These
disappointments rendered the situation of the Russian army very
disagreeable; and, as an addition to their afflictions, they were
infested with an immense swarm of grasshoppers, that covered the face of
the whole country, and devoured, or spoiled, every thing where they
alighted. They were likewise frequently in want of water during their
march through sandy deserts, and beneath a scorching sun: what little
they could procure, they were obliged to have brought in vessels to the
camp, from a considerable distance.
During this dangerous and fatiguing march, the czar, by a singular
fatality, found himself in the neighbourhood of his rival and
competitor, Charles; Bender not being above twenty-five leagues from the
place where the Russian army was encamped, near Jassi. Some parties of
Cossacks made excursions even to the place of that unfortunate monarch's
retreat; but the Crim Tartars, who hovered round that part of the
country, sufficiently secured him from any attempt that might be made to
seize his person; and Charles waited in his camp with impatience, and
did not fear the issue of the war.
Peter, as soon as he had established some magazines, marched in haste
with his army to the right of the river Pruth. His essential object was
to prevent the Turks, who were posted to the left, and towards the head
of the river, from crossing it, and marching towards him. This effected,
he would then be master of Moldavia and Walachia: with this view, he
dispatched general Janus, with the vanguard of the army, to oppose the
passage of the Turks; but the general did not arrive till they had
already began to cross the river upon their bridges; upon which he was
obliged to retreat, and his infantry was closely pursued by the Turks,
till the czar came up in person to his assistance.
The grand vizier now marched directly along the river towards the czar.
The two armies were very unequal in point of numbers: that of the Turks,
which had been reinforced by the Tartarian troops, consisted of nearly
two hundred and fifty thousand men, while that of the Russians hardly
amounted to thirty-five thousand. There was indeed a considerable body
of troops, headed by general Renne, on their march from the other side
of the Moldavian mountains; but the Turks had cut off all communication
with those parts.
The czar's army now began to be in want of provisions, nor could,
without the greatest difficulty, procure water, though encamped at a
very small distance from the river; being exposed to a furious discharge
from the batteries, which the grand vizier had caused to be erected on
the left side of the river, under the care of a body of troops, that
kept up a constant fire against the Russians. By this relation, which is
strictly circumstantial and true, it appears that Baltagi Mahomet, the
Turkish vizier, far from being the pusillanimous, or weak commander,
which the Swedes have represented him, gave proofs, on this occasion,
that he perfectly well understood his business. The passing the Pruth in
the sight of the enemy, obliging him to retreat, and harassing him in
that retreat; the cutting off all communication between the czar's army,
and a body of cavalry that was marching to reinforce it; the hemming in
this army, without the least probability of a retreat; and the cutting
off all supplies of water and provisions, by keeping it constantly under
the check of the batteries on the opposite side of the river, were
manoeuvres that in no ways bespoke the unexperienced or indolent
general.
Peter now saw himself in a situation even worse than that to which he
had reduced his rival, Charles XII. at Pultowa; being, like him,
surrounded by a superior army, and in greater want of provisions; and,
like him, having confided in the promises of a prince, too powerful to
be bound by those promises, he resolved upon a retreat; and endeavoured
to return towards Jassi, in order to choose a more advantageous
situation for his camp.
July 20, 1711.] He accordingly decamped under favour of the night; but
his army had scarcely begun its march, when, at break of day, the Turks
fell upon his rear: but the Preobrazinski regiment turning about, and
standing firm, did, for a considerable time, check the fury of their
onset. The Russians then formed themselves, and made a line of
intrenchments with their waggons and baggage. The same day (July 21.)
the Turks returned again to the attack, with the whole body of their
army; and, as a proof that the Russians knew how to defend themselves,
let what will be alleged to the contrary, they also made head against
this very superior force for a considerable time, killed a great number
of their enemies, who in vain endeavoured to break in upon them.
There were in the Ottoman army two officers belonging to the king of
Sweden, namely, count Poniatowsky and the count of Sparre, who had the
command of a body of Cossacks in that prince's interest. My papers
inform me, that these two generals advised the grand vizier to avoid
coming to action with the Russians, and content himself with depriving
them of supplies of water and provisions, which would oblige them either
to surrender prisoners of war, or to perish with famine. Other memoirs
pretend, on the contrary, that these officers would have persuaded
Mahomet to fall upon this feeble and half-starved army, in a weak and
distressed condition, and put all to the sword. The first of these seems
to be the most prudent and circumspect; but the second is more agreeable
to the character of generals who had been trained up under Charles XII.
The real fact is, that the grand vizier fell upon the rear of the
Russian army, at the dawn of day, which was thrown into confusion, and
there remained only a line of four hundred men to confront the Turks.
This small body formed itself with amazing quickness, under the orders
of a German general, named Alard, who, to his immortal honour, made such
rapid and excellent dispositions on this occasion, that the Russians
withstood, for upwards of three hours, the repeated attack of the whole
Ottoman army, without losing a foot of ground.
The czar now found himself amply repaid for the immense pains he had
taken to inure his troops to strict discipline. At the battle of Narva,
sixty thousand men were defeated by only eight thousand, because the
former were undisciplined; and here we behold a rear-guard, consisting
of only eight thousand Russians, sustaining the efforts of one hundred
and fifty thousand Turks, killing seven thousand of them, and obliging
the rest to return back.
After this sharp engagement, both armies intrenched themselves for that
night: but the Russians still continued enclosed, and deprived of all
provisions, even water; for notwithstanding they were so near the river
Pruth, yet they did not dare approach its banks; for as soon as any
parties were sent out to find water, a body of Turks, posted on the
opposite shore, drove them back by a furious discharge from their
cannon, loaded with chain shot: and the body of the Turkish army, which
had attacked that of the czar the day before, continued to play upon
them from another quarter, with the whole force of their artillery.
The Russian army appeared now to be lost beyond resource, by its
position, by the inequality of numbers, and by the want of provisions.
The skirmishes on both sides were frequent and bloody: the Russian
cavalry being almost all dismounted, could no longer be of any service,
unless by fighting on foot: in a word, the situation of affairs was
desperate. It was out of their power to retreat, they had nothing left
but to gain a complete victory; to perish to the last man, or to be made
slaves by the infidels.
All the accounts and memoirs of those times unanimously agree, that the
czar, divided within himself, whether or not he should expose his wife,
his army, his empire, and the fruits of all his labours, to almost
inevitable destruction; retired to his tent, oppressed with grief, and
seized with violent convulsions, to which he was naturally subject, and
which the present desperate situation of his affairs brought upon him
with redoubled violence. In this condition he remained alone in his
tent, having given positive orders, that no one should be admitted to be
a witness to the distraction of his mind. But Catherine, hearing of his
disorders, forced her way in to him; and, on this occasion, Peter found
how happy it was for him that he had permitted his wife to accompany him
in this expedition.
A wife, who, like her, had faced death in its most horrible shapes, and
had exposed her person, like the meanest soldier, to the fire of the
Turkish artillery, had an undoubted right to speak to her husband, and
to be heard. The czar accordingly listened to what she had to say, and
in the end suffered himself to be persuaded to try and send to the
vizier with proposals of peace.
It has been a custom, from time immemorial, throughout the East, that
when any people apply for an audience of the sovereign, or his
representative, they must not presume to approach them without a
present. On this occasion, therefore, Catherine mustered the few jewels
that she had brought with her, on this military tour, in which no
magnificence or luxury were admitted; to these she added two black
foxes' skins, and what ready money she could collect; the latter was
designed for a present to the kiaia. She made choice herself of an
officer, on whose fidelity and understanding she thought she could
depend, who, accompanied with two servants, was to carry the presents to
the grand vizier, and afterwards to deliver the money intended for the
kiaia into his own hand. This officer was likewise charged with a letter
from marshal Sheremeto to the grand vizier. The memoirs of czar Peter
mentions this letter, but they take no notice of the other particulars
of Catherine's conduct in this business; however, they are sufficiently
confirmed by the declaration issued by Peter himself, in 1723, when he
caused Catherine to be crowned empress, wherein we find these
words:--'She has been of the greatest assistance to us in all our
dangers, and particularly in the battle of Pruth, when our army was
reduced to twenty-two thousand men.' If the czar had then indeed no more
men capable of bearing arms, the service which Catherine did him, on
that occasion, was fully equivalent to the honours and dignities
conferred upon her. The MS. journal of Peter the Great observes, that on
the day of the bloody battle (on the 20th July), he had thirty-one
thousand five hundred and fifty-four foot, and six thousand six hundred
and ninety-two horse, the latter almost all dismounted; he must then
have lost sixteen thousand two hundred and forty-six men in that
engagement. The same memoirs affirm, the loss sustained by the Turks
greatly exceeded that of the Russians; for as the former rushed upon the
czar's troops pell-mell, and without observing any order, hardly a
single fire of the latter missed its effect. If this is fact, the affair
of the 20th and 21st of July, was one of the most bloody that had been
known for many ages.
We must either suspect Peter the Great of having been mistaken, in his
declaration at the crowning of the empress, when he acknowledges 'his
obligations to her of having saved his army, which was reduced to
twenty-two thousand men,' or accuse him of a falsity in his journal,
wherein he says, that the day on which the above battle was fought, his
army, exclusive of the succours he expected from the other side the
Moldavian mountains, amounted to thirty-one thousand five hundred and
fifty-four foot, and six thousand six hundred and ninety-two horse.
According to this calculation, the battle of Pruth must have been by far
more terrible than the historians or memorials have represented on
either side. There must certainly be some mistake here, which is no
uncommon thing in the relation of campaigns, especially when the writer
enters into a minute detail of circumstances. The surest method,
therefore, on these occasions, is to confine ourselves to the principal
events, the victory and the defeat; as we can very seldom know, with any
degree of certainty, the exact loss on either side.
But however here the Russian army might be reduced in point of numbers,
there were still hopes that the grand vizier, deceived by their vigorous
and obstinate resistance, might be induced to grant them peace, upon
such terms as might be honourable to his master's arms, and at the same
time not absolutely disgraceful to those of the czar. It was the great
merit of Catherine to have perceived this possibility, at a time when
her consort and his generals expected nothing less than inevitable
destruction.
Norberg, in his History of Charles XII. quotes a letter, sent by the
czar to the grand vizier, in which he expresses himself thus:--'If,
contrary to my intentions, I have been so unhappy as to incur the
displeasure of his highness, I am ready to make reparation for any cause
of complaint he may have against me; I conjure you, most noble general,
to prevent the further effusion of blood; give orders, I beseech you, to
put a stop to the dreadful fire of your artillery, and accept the
hostage I herewith send you.'
This letter carries all the marks of falsity with it, as do indeed most
of the random pieces of Norberg: it is dated 11th July, N. S. whereas no
letter was sent to Baltagi Mahomet till the 21st, N. S. neither was it
the czar who wrote to the vizier, but his general Sheremeto: there were
no such expressions made use of as--'if the czar has had the misfortune
to incur the displeasure of his highness;' such terms being suitable
only to a subject, who implores the pardon of his sovereign, whom he has
offended. There was no mention made of any hostage, nor was any one
sent. The letter was carried by an officer, in the midst of a furious
cannonade on both sides. Sheremeto, in his letter, only reminded the
vizier of certain overtures of peace that the Porte had made at the
beginning of the campaign, through the mediation of the Dutch and
English ministers, and by which the divan demanded that the fort and
harbour of Taganroc should be given up, which were the real subjects of
the war.
21st July, 1711.] Some hours elapsed before the messenger received an
answer from the grand vizier, and it was apprehended that he had either
been killed by the enemy's cannon, or that they detained him prisoner. A
second courier was therefore dispatched, with duplicates of the former
letters, and a council of war was immediately held, at which Catherine
was present. At this council ten general officers signed the following
resolution:--
'Resolved, If the enemy will not accept the conditions proposed, and
should insist upon our laying down our arms, and surrendering at
discretion, that all the ministers and general officers are unanimously
of opinion, to cut their way through the enemy sword in hand.'
In consequence of this resolution, a line of intrenchments was thrown
round the baggage, and the Russians marched some few paces out of their
camp, towards the enemy, when the grand vizier caused a suspension of
arms to be proclaimed between the two armies.
All the writers of the Swedish party have treated the grand vizier as a
cowardly and infamous wretch, who had been bribed to sell the honour of
his master's arms. In the same manner have several authors accused count
Piper of receiving money from the duke of Marlborough, to persuade the
king of Sweden to continue the war against the czar; and have laid to
the charge of the French minister, that he purchased the peace of
Seville for a stipulated sum. Such accusations ought never to be
advanced but on very strong proofs. It is very seldom that a minister
will stoop to such meannesses, which are always discovered, sooner or
later, by those who have been entrusted with the payment of the money,
or by the public registers, which never lie. A minister of state stands
as a public object to the eyes of all Europe. His credit and influence
depend wholly upon his character, and he is always sufficiently rich to
be above the temptation of becoming a traitor.
The place of viceroy of the Turkish empire is so illustrious, and the
profits annexed to it, in time of war, so immense, there was such a
profusion of every thing necessary, and even luxurious, in the camp of
Baltagi Mahomet, and, on the other hand, so much poverty and distress in
that of the czar, that surely the grand vizier was rather in a condition
to give than to receive. The trifling present of a woman, who had
nothing to send but a few skins and some jewels, in compliance with the
established custom of all courts, or rather those in particular of the
East, can never be considered in the light of a bribe. The frank and
open conduct of Baltagi Mahomet seems at once to give the lie to the
black accusations with which so many writers have stained their
relations. Vice chancellor Shaffiroff paid the vizier a public visit in
his tent: every thing was transacted in the most open manner, on both
sides; and indeed it could not be otherwise. The very first article of
the negotiation was entered upon in the presence of a person wholly
devoted to the king of Sweden, a domestic of count Poniatowsky, who was
himself one of that monarch's generals. This man served as an
interpreter, and the several articles were publicly reduced to writing
by the vizier's chief secretary, Hummer Effendi. Moreover, count
Poniatowsky was there in person. The present sent to the kiaia was
offered probably in form, and every thing was transacted agreeable to
the oriental customs. Other presents were made by the Turks in return;
so that there was not the least appearance of treachery or contrivance.
The motives which determined the vizier to consent to the proposals
offered him, were, first that the body of troops under the command of
general Renne, on the borders of the river Sireth, in Moldavia, had
already crossed three rivers, and were actually in the neighbourhood of
the Danube, where Renne had already made himself master of the town and
castle of Brahila, defended by a numerous garrison, under the command of
a basha. Secondly, the czar had likewise another body of troops
advancing through the frontiers of Poland; and, lastly, it is more than
probable that the vizier was not fully acquainted with the extreme
scarcity that was felt in the Russian camp. One enemy seldom furnishes
another with an exact account of his provisions and ammunition; on the
contrary, either side are accustomed rather to make a parade of plenty,
even at a time when they are in the greatest necessity. There can be no
artifices practised to gain intelligence of the true state of an
adversary's affairs, by means of spies, between the Turks and the
Russians. The difference of their dress, of their religion, and of their
language, will not permit it. They are, moreover, strangers to that
desertion which prevails in most of our armies; and, consequently, the
grand vizier could not be supposed to know the desperate condition to
which the czar's army was reduced.
Baltagi, who was not fond of war, and who, nevertheless, had conducted
this very well, thought that his expedition would be sufficiently
successful, if he put his master in possession of the towns and harbours
which made the subject of the war, stopt the progress of the victorious
army under Renne, and obliged that general to quit the banks of the
Danube, and return back into Russia, and for ever shut the entrance of
the Palus Mæotis, the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and the Black Sea, against an
enterprising prince; and, lastly, if he avoided taking these certain
advantages, on the hazard of a new battle (in which, after all, despair
might have got the better of superiority of numbers). The preceding day
only he had beheld his janissaries repulsed with loss; and there wanted
not examples of many victories having been gained by the weaker over the
strong. Such then were Mahomet's reasons for accepting the proposals of
peace. His conduct, however, did not merit the approbation of Charles's
officers, who served in the Turkish army, nor of the khan of Tartary. It
was the interest of the latter, and his followers, to reject all terms
of accommodation which would deprive them of the opportunity of ravaging
the frontiers of Russia and Poland. Charles XII. desired to be revenged
on his rival, the czar: but the general, and the first minister of the
Ottoman empire, was neither influenced by the private thirst of revenge,
which animated the Christian monarch, nor by the desire of booty, which
actuated the Tartar chief.
As soon as the suspension of arms was agreed to, and signed, the
Russians purchased of the Turks the provisions, of which they stood in
need. The articles of the peace were not signed at that time, as is
related by La Motraye, and which Norberg has copied from him. The
vizier, among other conditions, demanded that the czar should promise
not to interfere any more in the Polish affairs. This was a point
particularly insisted upon by count Poniatowsky; but it was, in fact,
the interest of the Ottoman crown, that the kingdom of Poland should
continue in its then defenceless and divided state; accordingly this
demand was reduced to that of the Russian troops evacuating the
frontiers of Poland. The khan of Tartary, on his side, demanded a
tribute of forty thousand sequins. This point, after being long debated,
was at length given up.
The grand vizier insisted a long time, that prince Cantemir should be
delivered up to him, as Patkul had been to the king of Sweden. Cantemir
was exactly in the same situation as Mazeppa had been. The czar caused
that hetman to be arraigned and tried for his defection, and afterwards
to be executed in effigy. The Turks were not acquainted with the nature
of such proceeding; they knew nothing of trials for contumacy, nor of
public condemnations. The affixing a sentence on any person, and
executing him in effigy, were the more unusual amongst them, as their
law forbids the representation of any human likeness whatever. The
vizier in vain insisted on Cantemir's being delivered up; Peter
peremptorily refused to comply, and wrote the following letter with his
own hand, to his vice-chancellor Shaffiroff.
'I can resign to the Turks all the country, as far as Curtzka, because I
have hopes of being able to recover it again; but I will, by no means,
violate my faith, which, once forfeited, can never be retrieved. I have
nothing I can properly call my own, but my honour. If I give up that, I
cease to be longer a king.'
At length the treaty was concluded, and signed, at a village called
Falksen, on the river Pruth. Among other things, it was stipulated, that
Azoph, and the territories belonging thereto, should be restored,
together with all the ammunition and artillery that were in the place,
before the czar made himself master thereof, in 1696. That the harbour
of Taganroc, in the Zabach Sea, should be demolished, as also that of
Samara, on the river of the same name; and several other fortresses.
There was likewise another article added, respecting the king of Sweden,
which article alone, sufficiently shews the little regard the vizier had
for that prince; for it was therein stipulated, that the czar should not
molest Charles, in his return to his dominions, and that afterwards the
czar and he might make peace with the other, if they were so inclined.
It is pretty evident by the wording of this extraordinary article, that
Baltagi Mahomet had not forgot the haughty manner in which Charles XII.
had behaved to him a short time before, and it is not unlikely that this
very behaviour of the king of Sweden might have been one inducement with
Mahomet to comply so readily with his rival's proposals for peace.
Charles's glory depended wholly on the ruin of the czar: but we are
seldom inclinable to exalt those who express a contempt for us: however,
this prince, who refused the vizier a visit in his camp, on his
invitation, when it was certainly his interest to have been upon good
terms with him, now came thither in haste and unasked, when the work
which put an end to all his hopes was on the point of being concluded.
The vizier did not go to meet him in person, but contented himself with
sending two of his bashas, nor would he stir out of his tent, till
Charles was within a few paces of him.
This interview passed, as every one knows, in mutual reproaches. Several
historians have thought, that the answer which the vizier made to the
king of Sweden, when that prince reproached him with not making the czar
prisoner, when he might have done it so easily, was the reply of a weak
man. 'If I had taken him prisoner,' said Mahomet, 'who would there be
to govern his dominions?'
It is very easy, however, to comprehend, that this was the answer of a
man who was piqued with resentment, and these words which he
added--'For it is not proper that every crowned head should quit his
dominions'--sufficiently shewed that he intended to mortify the refugee
of Bender.
Charles gained nothing by his journey, but the pleasure of tearing the
vizier's robe with his spurs; while that officer, who was in a condition
to make him repent this splenetic insult, seemed not to notice it, in
which he was certainly greatly superior to Charles. If any thing could
have made that monarch sensible, in the midst of his life, how easily
fortune can put greatness to the blush, it would have been the
reflection, that at the battle of Pultowa, a pastry-cook's boy had
obliged his whole army to surrender at discretion; and in this of Pruth
a wood-cutter was the arbiter of his fate, and that of his rival the
czar: for the vizier, Baltagi Mahomet, had been a cutter of wood in the
grand seignior's seraglio, as his name implied; and, far from being
ashamed of that title, he gloried in it: so much do the manners of the
eastern people differ from ours.
When the news of this treaty reached Constantinople, the grand seignior
was so well pleased, that he ordered public rejoicings to be made for a
whole week, and Mahomet, the kiaia, or lieutenant-general, who brought
the tidings to the divan, was instantly raised to the dignity of boujouk
imraour, or master of the horse: a certain proof that the sultan did not
think himself ill served by his vizier.
Norberg seems to have known very little of the Turkish government, when
he says, that 'the grand seignior was obliged to keep fair with Baltagi
Mahomet, that vizier having rendered himself formidable.' The
janissaries indeed have often rendered themselves formidable to their
sultans; but there is not one example of a vizier, who has not been
easily sacrificed to the will or orders of his sovereign, and Mahomet
was in no condition to support himself by his own power. Besides,
Norberg manifestly contradicts himself, by affirming in the same page,
that the janissaries were irritated against Mahomet, and that the sultan
stood in dread of his power.
The king of Sweden was now reduced to the necessity of forming cabals in
the Ottoman court; and a monarch, who had so lately made kings by his
own power, was now seen waiting for audience, and offering memorials and
petitions which were refused.
Charles ran through all the ambages of intrigue, like a subject who
endeavours to make a minister suspected by his master. In this manner he
acted against Mahomet, and against those who succeeded him. At one time
he addressed himself to the sultana Valide by means of a Jewess, who had
admission into the seraglio; at another, he employed one of the eunuchs
for the same purpose. At length he had recourse to a man who was to
mingle among the grand seignior's guards, and, by counterfeiting a
person out of his senses, to attract the attention of the sultan, and by
that means deliver into his own hand a memorial from Charles. From all
these various schemes, the king of Sweden drew only the mortification of
seeing himself deprived of his thaim; that is to say, of the daily
pension which the Porte of its generosity had assigned him for his
subsistence, and which amounted to about one thousand five hundred
French livres.[88] The grand vizier, instead of remitting this
allowance to him as usual, sent him an order, in the form of a friendly
advice, to quit the grand seignior's dominions.
Charles, however, was absolutely determined not to depart, still
flattering himself with the vain hope, that he should once more re-enter
Poland and Russia with a powerful army of Turks. Every one knows what
was the issue of his inflexible boldness in the year 1714, and how he
engaged an army of janissaries, Spahis, and Tartars, with only himself,
his secretaries, his valet de chambre, cook, and stable men; that he was
taken prisoner in that country, where he had been treated with the
greatest hospitality; and that he at length got back to his own kingdom
in the disguise of a courier, after having lived five years in Turkey:
from all which it remains to be acknowledged, that if there was reason
in the conduct of this extraordinary prince, it was a reason of a very
different nature to that of other men.