KINGS-AT-ARMS
_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_
I WILL MAINTAIN
DEFENDER OF THE FAITH
GOD AND THE KING
THE QUEST OF GLORY
THE GOVERNOR OF ENGLAND
PRINCE AND HERETIC
THE CARNIVAL OF FLORENCE
“WILLIAM, BY THE GRACE OF GOD”--
THE THIRD ESTATE
GOD’S PLAYTHINGS
SHADOWS OF YESTERDAY
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
KINGS-AT-ARMS
BY
MARJORIE BOWEN
[Illustration: colophon]
NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
681 FIFTH AVENUE
_Published 1919_
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
_All Rights Reserved_
_Printed in the United States of America_
CONTENTS
PART I
THE CONQUEROR
BOOK I KARL XII
CHAPTER PAGE
I 1
II 11
III 20
IV 30
BOOK II PETER ALEXIEVITCH
I 38
II 47
III 56
IV 65
BOOK III JOHN RHEINHOLD PATKUL
I 75
II 85
III 94
IV 103
BOOK IV AURORA VON KÖNIGSMARCK
I 112
II 122
III 132
IV 141
BOOK V THE ELECTOR AUGUSTUS
I 150
II 160
III 170
IV 180
BOOK VI THE BETRAYAL
I 190
II 200
III 210
IV 219
PART II
POLTAVA
I 228
II 238
III 248
IV 256
PART III
EXILE
I 265
II 275
III 285
IV 294
V 300
VI 309
PART IV
FREDRIKSSTEN
KINGS-AT-ARMS
PART I
THE CONQUEROR
“Presque toutes ses actions, jusqu’à celles de sa vie privée et
amie, out été bien loin au delà du vraisemble. C’est peut-être le
seul de tous les hommes, et jusqu’ici le seul de tous les rois, qui
ait réçu sans faiblesse; il a port toutes les vertus à au ecès où
elles sont aussi dangereuses que les vices opposés.”--VOLTAIRE.
BOOK I
KARL XII
“A name at which the world grew pale.”--S. JOHNSON.
CHAPTER I
A lady, haughty and fierce in her natural character, but schooled to at
least the outward show of a cold patience by long years of training in
submission to the wills of men, sat in a little private dining-room of
her palace at Stockholm and frowned with an air of discontent and pride
at her companion, a gentleman, elderly but much younger than herself,
who stood by the fireplace and looked on the ground; he also had an air
by no means well satisfied, but though he was only a minister and she
was a Queen he had never been as much in the background as she, nor so
forced to subdue an imperious spirit, for she was a woman, and women
had never counted for much in Sweden.
They did not like each other, Count Piper, the late King’s minister, and
Eleanora Edwiga, the late King’s mother; she knew that she owed to him
her forced retirement from the brief-prized power that she had held as
Regent, and he thought her very presence in the palace was vexatious and
that her place was in retirement with her prayer-book and her
embroidery, but for the moment they were in the same position and might
be useful to each other, therefore, tacitly ignoring mutual dislike,
they became allies.
“I do not know,” said the Queen, “why we talk about these things, for,
of course, the King will do as he wishes.”
She spoke with a certain chill triumph, and Count Piper knew that her
words meant, “If I cannot rule my grandson, neither can you”; he also
knew that she spoke from pure malice, and that she found every use in
discussing the affairs that composed her life.
“Naturally, Madame,” he answered quietly, “the King will do as he likes.
It is for us to find out what he does like.”
The old woman gave him a long and rather bitter look.
“Do you not know?” she asked.
“No, Madame,” smiled Count Piper.
“Well, I do,” replied the Queen sharply. “He likes just what any boy of
eighteen likes,” she glanced at the table with covers for three, elegant
but not splendid. “And he is late for dinner,” she added, and the love
of old age for trifles showed in her acid tone.
Count Piper seemed faintly amused.
“It would be strange if His Majesty should be ordinary--considering his
lineage,” he replied. “And he was very carefully trained.”
The Queen was hit through her pride in her husband and her son.
“Karl’s breed will show later,” she said stiffly, “for the moment he
is--as I said--eighteen.”
“A good age,” remarked Count Piper, a little sadly. “I wish I
was--eighteen----”
“Or King of Sweden at any age,” snapped the Queen. “You always were
ambitious, Count.”
“Only to serve,” he answered meekly.
The Queen glanced from the table to the door; expectancy and vexation
showed in her face; she was tall and still upright, spare and haggard, a
Dane, and of a pure Northern type; she had been handsome in a cold, hard
fashion, and was now rather terrible in her gaunt colorlessness, her
sunk blue eyes, her pinched nose, her lipless mouth; all the long
structure of her face showed and the flesh seemed polished on the
temples, the cheek bones, and chin.
No look of wisdom nor compassion nor resignation softened this
countenance; her glance was still that of a fighter who has grown bitter
in the struggle.
Her dress, of gold and purple brocade, was rich and in tolerable
imitation of the fashion of Versailles; a lace headdress crowned her
white curls and she wore some costly rubies on her knotted fingers.
The room of this Northern Princess, which was situate in that portion of
the Royal Palace of Stockholm that had been saved from the great fire of
two years ago, and that was filled with the distant sound of the workmen
rebuilding the edifice in a style in keeping with the increased grandeur
of Sweden, was simple, yet in a way splendid; the dark paneled walls and
ceiling gave the apartment a somber air, as did the inlaid and heavy
furniture; it was a cold day in early spring and the sky was gray; from
where the Queen sat she could see this grayness reflected in the water
from which the palace rose, and the bridges, houses, and waterways
beyond all colorless in the cold light of the sad midday.
Count Piper kept his glance on the dark rug at his feet; he was tingling
with thoughts of great issues and large events; it was the eve of big
affairs for his prosperous and successful country which was menaced by
many and powerful enemies eager to seize the chance to despoil a
youthful King; Count Piper felt himself equal to dealing with these
concerns--but he was only a councilor of state, and must wait the
pleasure of that same youthful King who even now was keeping him waiting
for his dinner.
A slight impatience with fate darkened his thin clever face; it seemed
so cruel a blow for Sweden that the late King, stern, wise, just, should
die in his prime leaving his heritage in the hands of a boy and an old
woman.
The Queen suddenly broke the prolonged pause.
“I seldom or never hear the truth, of course,” she said abruptly. “But
you, Count, must have means of knowing many things. Tell me,” and her
tone betrayed an anxiety she would never have owned to, “what do the
people say of Karl?”
Count Piper knew perfectly well what was the general opinion of the
young King--that he was considered idle, haughty, obstinate, and
autocratic--the public was not likely to take any other view of one
wholly devoted to amusements, and who gave no sign of being of the breed
of his heroic father and grandfather beyond the imperious pride with
which, on several occasions, he had asserted his position.
But Count Piper attached little importance to this verdict of the world
and did not choose to repeat it to the ears of the Queen Dowager.
“His Majesty,” he replied, “has already given tokens of a spirit such as
the Swedes love, and they await his manhood with many hopes.”
“He has spirit enough for ordinary impudence,” remarked the old woman
drily; she was thinking how, as a boy of fifteen, he had removed her
from the regency and assumed the government himself, and how, at his
coronation, he had snatched the crown from the archbishop’s hands and
placed it on his brow himself. “Has he spirit enough to go to war, and
wit enough to be successful if he does?”
The statesman looked grave.
“I count upon his ancestors,” he replied.
The Queen would have returned a sharp answer, but the door opened
noisily and the subject of their talk entered the room with an unsteady
step and dropped into the chair with arms at the head of the table.
He wore a very rich hunting suit of violet velvet laced with silver;
this was torn and muddy, his lawn shirt and his wrist ruffles were
bloody, as were his hands and the sheaths of the long knives he wore
thrust into his belt.
“Am I late?” he asked. “I had a mind not to come back at all. It was
pleasant in the woods.”
The Queen rose with a glance of disgust for his attire and his
condition; he had never yet appeared before her so soiled from the
chase. And he was obviously intoxicated. She hesitated for a second,
then rang the silver bell by her side and took her seat opposite to her
grandson, at the end of the table.
Count Piper came quietly to his place between the King and Queen.
“There is much business for you to-day, sir,” he said.
“Business?” said Karl; he laughed, dragged at his napkin and sent over a
glass.
The lackeys entered with the dinner and there was silence in the somber
little room; both the Queen and Count Piper were looking covertly at the
young King.
His appearance, even in his present dishevelment and intoxication, was
most remarkable; he did not need his kingship to make him
conspicuous--in any company, on any occasion, he would have been
noticed.
He was then in his eighteenth year, fully and perfectly developed, tall
and vigorous above the common even in a nation of tall and vigorous men,
graceful with the grace of health and strength, and easy with the ease
of one born to occupy always the place of command and power.
His countenance expressed nothing but pride, which was, however,
tempered by a certain calm tolerance; his brow was low and broad, the
nose short, blunt, and clearly cut, the mouth large, curved, and mobile,
the chin rounded, the face wide, the eyes very handsome, of a pure blue
free from any admixture of gray and well-set under heavy arching brows;
these eyes were full of a serenity that was almost a blankness, a look
curious and not altogether either amiable or attractive; there was
something about the young man’s whole appearance that was strange,
something difficult, perhaps impossible, to describe.
Count Piper, who had observed him long and closely, had once said to
himself, “Karl is like an animal--or a god,” which he felt to be a
foolish comparison, yet knew that it expressed that peculiar impression
made by the King--an impression that whatever he was he was not ordinary
humanity--scarcely humanity at all, but something beyond, or, at least
outside, manhood.
Yet now he was ordinary enough in his clothes torn by the violence of
the chase and stained by the blood of the animals whom he had slain, his
strength and his wits alike beyond his control through the wine he had
drunk.
His hair, which was light brown and very thick, hung in a quantity of
loosely entwined curls, through those on his shoulders was tied a long
black ribbon; the front locks hung down either side his cheeks and
across his forehead into his strange eyes.
His grandmother looked at him with less curiosity and less friendliness
than did Count Piper.
“It is as well that I did not bid your sisters dine with us to-day,” she
said, as she saw the King fill his glass with a strong shaking hand.
He drank his wine and then stared at her; in silence he set the beaker
down, and then laughed in a way that curled his mouth unpleasantly.
It was remarkable how his personality even now, when he was not master
of himself, seemed to fill the room, making the other two people and the
whole surrounding but a background to his fierce young figure.
Dish after dish was removed; only the Queen ate, as if she disdained to
be disturbed.
“Your Majesty enjoyed the chase?” asked Count Piper suddenly; he wiped
his mouth with his napkin, using a precise movement.
“I killed three bears,” said Karl; he laughed again, showing his strong,
perfect teeth.
“You spend your time well,” said the old Queen bitterly. “And now you
will sleep all the afternoon, and drink all the evening. And to-morrow
the chase again.”
“And three more bears,” smiled the King.
His grandmother looked at him with a coldness that approached aversion.
“Your father’s death was a great misfortune,” she said--“for Sweden.”
“Sweden does very well,” returned Karl indifferently.
“That,” put in Count Piper gently, “is a question that your Majesty must
better acquaint yourself with.”
Karl lifted his head which had sunk forward on his broad chest; his face
was flushed and his eyes bloodshot; he spoke thickly.
“No councils of state--no councils of state, and dull speeches and silly
disputes,” he said.
“And no interviews with your wretched sister and her ruined husband, who
are here to crave your succor,” added the Queen sarcastically.
“Does my sister complain of me?” muttered Karl haughtily.
“The Duchess of Holstein is in terrible straits,” remarked Count Piper
gravely.
“Well,” asked Karl, “are not you, Count, capable of helping my
brother-in-law to keep his little duchy?”
The minister was quick to seize his moment. “It is only your Majesty can
do that,” he said, and leant towards the King.
“Only I,” repeated Karl stupidly. “And why is that?”
“Who else in Europe,” said Count Piper, “can face at once the King of
Denmark, the King of Poland, and the Czar of Muscovy?--who but the son
of Karl XI, the grandson of Karl X?”
At this open appeal to pride and vanity the Queen pushed back her chair
with a movement of contempt; the young man’s eyes gleamed for a second;
he put his hand to his forehead in a confused manner, pushing back the
tangled light curls.
“Are you frightened by three such names, like the children with talk of
ogres?” sneered the Queen. “Indeed, you look capable, sire, of facing
the greatest man in the world!”
“And who is that?” asked Karl, still amazed and stupid.
“Why, that is the Czar of Muscovy,” replied the old woman, composed and
vicious and heedless of Count Piper’s look of warning, “the man we shall
all be begging for pity soon--that will be a pleasant day for me--a
woman who has had such a husband and such a son.”
Karl stared at her.
“I am not afraid of the Czar of Muscovy,” he replied.
The Queen laughed, the thin and heartless laugh of old age.
“I am sure your Majesty is afraid of nothing,” said Count Piper quickly,
“but you must be a little fearful for Sweden.”
Karl gave a sullen glance at the speaker; he was still drinking and
could hardly hold himself upright in his chair; a shadow passed over the
face of the minister; he would not look at the Queen for he knew her
expression would be one of sour triumph; his tired eyes narrowed and he
kept them fixed on the King.
Karl leant forward with a lurching movement and stared into his glass in
which still hung, as he tipped it, a drop of brilliant wine.
“The Czar,” he muttered, “the Czar----”
Then he suddenly broke into fury, dashed down the glass, and staggered
to his feet.
“God help you, Madame,” he shouted at the Queen, “but do you think that
I am no match for the Czar of Muscovy?”
He stood as if he threatened her, flushed and with eyes gleaming as only
bright blue eyes can.
The Queen turned a wax-yellow color as her cold blood receded from her
face.
“I think you are no company for a lady’s table,” she said bitterly.
Karl turned round passionately.
“Piper,” he cried, “Piper--did I not say I would have no more of old
women?”
He tried to leave the table, but being unsteady on his feet and fastened
in his place by a heavy chair could not at once do so; Count Piper--for
some minutes on his feet--sprang forward to free him, but the King, with
fierce impatience, pushed back the chair and stumbled towards the door.
One of his spurs had entangled in the lace border of the cloth, his
impetuous movement violently dragged at this, and in an instant all that
was on the table, plate, fruit, wine, glasses, and china, was pulled to
the ground and scattered over the floor; the King, still with the lace
clinging to his spur, staggered back against the wall beside the door
and the Queen rose, rigid with anger and disgust.
Karl laughed, lifting his lip from his teeth; Count Piper stooped, tore
off the lace from the King’s spur, seized him by the arm and led him
from the room, closing the door on the wrecked table and the grim figure
of the old Queen ringing furiously her silver bell.
Dexterously the councilor guided the King’s stupid steps down the short
corridor; at the end of this they came face to face with two women, who
were turning down the passage that led at right angles to the stairs.
One was the King’s elder sister, the Duchess of Holstein, who had come
with her husband to Stockholm to implore her brother’s assistance; she
was tall, fair, and finely made, like Karl, pure Scandinavian in type
and of a demeanor rather cold.
She gave one glance under her lids at the two men and hurried on; but
her companion lingered and gazed at the King with wide eyes; she was
fairer than the Duchess, so fair that her hair was more like silver than
gold, and her complexion more like a lily than a rose, if she should
have been praised in poetry, but her eyes were a deep brown and, dilated
as they were now, appeared black.
The King pushed back his draggled curls to stare at her, which he did
with insolence. Count Piper tried to draw him away; the lady colored
till it seemed as if a fire had dyed her in a bright reflection, and
hurried away with the haste of shame.
“Viktoria,” said Karl, “she is a pretty creature for a King’s
fancy--that woman.” And he spoke so that the object of his speech must
have heard.
Count Piper, with greater determination than he had yet shown, dragged
at his master’s arm, guided him to his own cabinet, and helped him into
a chair there.
Then he closed the door and stood with his back to it; the King stared
absently at his clothes stained with blood, and dirt and wine.
CHAPTER II
Count Piper stood looking thoughtfully at the King; he was wondering if
the young man was sober enough to make it worth while speaking to him;
he doubted this, and yet time was short--a question of hours might
decide the fate of Sweden.
Karl sat immovable; across his slightly upturned face fell a pale ray of
sun that had faintly penetrated the clouds and entered the small room,
and in this light that was so dim as to be almost colorless, the King’s
countenance, framed in the loose flowing, light hair, had such a strange
effect that it almost startled Count Piper, even though he had known the
King from babyhood and daily watched his lineaments. Very obvious now
was that inhuman look, a serenity, a reserve that was neither disdain
nor secrecy but mere indifferency, a look of something large and noble
and cold in the wide, handsome face that did not belong to ordinary
mankind.
This was not attractive, this expression, it inspired a certain fear
even in one as familiar with it as Count Piper--yet the King was only a
haughty boy, soiled from his rough sport and drunk--a boy who had been
insolent to his kinswoman and who had insulted his sister’s friend
almost in her presence.
“Your Majesty,” said Count Piper, looking away from those calm, blank
blue eyes, “will you forgo the chase to-morrow to attend the Council of
State?”
The King sighed.
“Yes, I will come,” he said, with a gentleness that Count Piper was not
expecting.
“And give your mind to the business in hand?” added the councilor, for
he could recollect council meetings when Karl had sat in an aloof
silence commonly attributed to a haughty stupidity, with his feet on the
table and his hands in his pockets.
Karl slowly turned his fine head and looked at his friend.
“You are very kind to me,” he remarked gravely.
“Your Majesty is not just to yourself,” replied the Count.
An expression of bewilderment crossed the King’s face; he put his
strong, blood-stained hand to his forehead.
“I am drunk,” he said.
Count Piper could not repress a movement of impatience.
“Yes, your Majesty is drunk,” he replied, “and at this moment three
Kingdoms are in league against you--to deprive you of all you have.”
There was no response in the attitude or expression of the King.
Count Piper tried the name that had roused him to such passionate
violence before.
“Is the son of Karl XI going to permit the Czar of Muscovy to add so
easily to his laurels?”
Karl remained calm.
“Why are these three princes at war with me?” he asked slowly.
“Because they think that you are a foolish boy,” replied Count Piper
instantly. “Because they believe that in such hands as yours Sweden can
do nothing against them. Denmark is your hereditary enemy--Saxony is an
adventurer, keeping on foot an army at all costs--and the Czar--is the
most ambitious man in Europe.”
“What does he want?” asked Karl.
“All the land between the Gulf of Finland, the Baltic Sea, Poland, and
Muscovy,” replied the councilor laconically.
Karl laughed; it had a meaningless sound.
“My land,” he said.
“Precisely, sire.”
The King, still holding his head and still confused, spoke again, slowly
and insistently, like a child asking artless, but to himself important
questions.
“What are the Czar’s objects--tell me, Count?” he asked.
The more stupidly calm his master showed the more the diplomat dared
show his annoyance--after all, this boy was eighteen, of a race of
heroes, carefully trained and had shown already some signs of greatness
as in the matter of his coronation and his refusal to be ruled by a
woman, and it was intolerable that he should sit here fuddled with wine,
staring with eyes blank as those of any fool.
“The Czar needs an outlet--a fort--on the Baltic,” he replied, in a tone
of fierce sarcasm; “the Czar is a man of vast schemes, of a wide
ambition--of a fair measure of greatness, too--he has taught his people
much--he would teach them the art of war. At your expense, sire.”
“And Saxony and Poland help him--yes, you told me so--we discussed this
the other day.”
“We have spoken of it many times,” replied the councilor bitterly.
Karl did not heed him.
“And there is my poor brother Gottorp-Holstein ruined--and my sister
weeping here for help,” he said slowly; “that is a pretty creature she
has with her, Count----”
“Will your Majesty add that to your other amusements--so soon?”
interrupted Count Piper.
His glance went wistfully over the splendid young man who stared at him
so stupidly. “I must learn to make my court to a Marquise de Maintenon
or an Aurora von Königsmarck!” he added.
“Who is she--Aurora von Königsmarck?” asked the King.
“A thing like this piece your Majesty admires--one of those creatures
who get their feet on the necks of kings!”
“Not great kings!” said Karl, with a sudden short laugh, showing his
teeth in a disagreeable manner.
“Mostly great kings,” replied the Count drily. “From Thäis to our poor
Aurora--you may search history and you will never find your conqueror,
your hero without them--and it is human nature--you can no more avoid
them than you can flowers at a feast, or flags at a victory--and is this
to be your Majesty’s choice? I know nothing of the girl.”
The King had been listening with some intentness; he unaccountably
flushed.
“I like neither flowers nor flags,” he said. “I will rule without women,
Piper.” His eyes narrowed with a look of intelligence. “Is there any
king in the world now, Piper, who is free of women?”
The councilor shook his head.
“There is the King of England, sire, who is a grave and great
Monarch--but he largely owed his fortunes to his wife and has been a
different man since her death----”
“I will have no wife,” said Karl instantly. “I will be greater than the
King of England--Count, were there women in the sagas? Did the Vikings
care for maids or wives?”
The older man smiled.
“I will forgive you your women, sire, and your chase, and your wine--if
you will but keep Sweden great--and make her greater.”
But the glow of energy had passed from the King’s strange face, the
broad lids dropped over the wide blue eyes.
“Talk to me later,” he muttered, and turned his head away on the dark
cushions of the chair.
Count Piper hesitated a moment, then, seeing that the young man was
falling into a heavy sleep, he, with a little bitter shrug, left the
cabinet, gently closing the door behind him, frowning as he did so with
an annoyance that he could, for all his training, scarcely control.
He went straight to the apartments of the Duchess of Gottorp, the King’s
sister, whose husband had been the first victim of the league against
Sweden.
She was in her hood and cloak, ready for some poor diversion of a ride
or walk, a sad, anxious lady beneath her air of princely reserve.
The dreary air of the old palace, which was both dull and unhomelike,
pervaded these apartments of the fugitive princess; she looked and felt
like an exile as she drew off her gauntlet and gave her bare hand to
Count Piper.
She knew that he was her ally and could be of more use to her husband
than any man in Sweden, but she was surprised at seeing him now as she
had just been with the Queen Dowager and had heard in what condition the
King had left the table; therefore she had hoped for nothing to-day,
which she had already put aside as another space of wasted time.
“Madame,” said Count Piper, “you have a lady in your service named
Viktoria?”
The Duchess frowned, instantly cold.
“I do not like her, Count.”
“I do not think that I do,” replied the Count reflectively, “but I want
to speak to her, Highness.”
The Duchess looked at him sharply.
“What do you know about her?” she asked quickly.
“Nothing at all,” smiled Count Piper. “It is you, Madame, who should
know what there is to know about this lady.”
The Duchess seemed vexed.
“Her father is a great man in Gottorp--I found she had a right to come
to court”
“And to come with you here, Highness, to Stockholm?” asked the Count,
with a shade of regret in his voice.
“How could I help it?” demanded the Duchess on the defensive. “They were
ruined--like ourselves--had lost everything. I could do nothing but
offer this shelter to one who had been sacrificed in our cause.”
Count Piper fingered the brown curls of the wig that hung on to the
heart of his somber coat and looked reflectively at the floor; the
Duchess eyed him, and her fair face was hard in the shadow of her hood
and her blue eyes had darkened with emotion.
“It is not pleasant to return to one’s country as I have returned--an
exile and a fugitive,” she said, in a heavy voice, “to wait here day by
day, like a poor petitioner, to gain my brother’s ear--but it is an
added bitterness to think that I have brought with me one who will be a
mischief in Sweden.”
“So your Highness thinks of this lady as a mischief?” asked the Count
thoughtfully.
“You know, sir,” she replied, disdainful of pretense, “that is what you
came to tell me.”
“No,” he said, looking at her straightly. “I think she might be useful.”
“To whom?” cried the Duchess.
“To Sweden.”
As the King’s sister understood the King’s minister, she colored swiftly
and drew a step away from him.
“This is not Versailles,” she said. Then in a tone of real disgust,
“Heavens! would you seek to rule the King through women?”
“If it was the only way.”
“A boy!”
Count Piper lifted his shoulders.
“She is the type--the temperament--they have noticed each other. He
speaks of her.”
“Not when he is sober,” flashed the Duchess.
“Believe me, Madame,” he answered gravely, “he is ensnared. And his
first love. It will be serious.”
The Duchess tapped her foot impatiently.
“And I came to Stockholm for this!” she exclaimed, full of contempt and
revolt.
“So much depends on the lady--why should she not be our friend,
Highness? The friend of Sweden? That wench might save the country if she
chose to persuade the King that way--let us use her, instead of
flouting her, Madame.”
The Duchess was silent a second, struggling with a pride that bade her
speak scornful words; she knew that Count Piper but followed the usual
procedure of courts, but his worldly wisdom disgusted her, and,
desperate as she was, and cause as she had to be angry with her brother,
she did not care to think of him as sunk in foolish weakness; the men of
her house had never been feeble.
Yet she knew, by a deep instinct and a jealous observation, that
Viktoria had greatly attracted the King, and she thought that, bold,
fair, and worldly as this woman was, she would not forgo any advantage
for any scruple.
“I leave it in your hands,” she said at last. “I cannot speak to her
myself. I will send her to you while I go for my walk.”
She went from the room as if not too well pleased with Count Piper, and
he, left alone in the dreary atmosphere of the narrow apartment, began
to slightly doubt the wisdom of the course he had set himself.
But he was aroused; he was afraid as only a brave man can be afraid,
mistrustful as only a wise man can be mistrustful, roused in his pride
as a statesman and as a Swede; he believed the Czar Peter to be
terrible--more terrible than anyone yet guessed; ambitious, fierce, one
eager to rule who yet did not disdain to learn--a dangerous combination;
he believed the King of Denmark malicious and active; and the third of
the King’s enemies, Augustus of Saxony, King of Poland, he believed to
be equally formidable--a fribble, a rake, but an important pawn, a sharp
tool in the hands of others--a valuable asset to such a man as the Czar.
Sweden had possessions all of these envied--they did not hesitate to
stretch out their hands and take them from one whom they knew to be a
boy and believed to be defenseless.
The two former Kings had made Sweden great--this King might lose all
that greatness so easily.
Count Piper’s shrewd face hardened as he thought of the tipsy youth
slumbering in his cabinet; his delicate mission seemed easier as he
reflected on that foolish degradation.
And it was not likely that the woman was of finer clay than the man whom
she sought to enslave; Count Piper was hardened towards her with whom he
had to deal before he had spoken to her; her quiet entry found him cold
and prepared.
Her curtsey was slow; she had her eyes fixed on him the while.
It was the first time that he had seen her close and face to face; his
practised glance noted, first that she was not a girl, secondly that she
was as clever as she was fair; it was an intelligence equal to his own
that looked at him out of those clear brown eyes.
And she was certainly very fair; there was no fault in her exact
features, in her pure complexion, none in her exquisite form, unless it
might be that she was too tall and too slender.
Her dress was over-rich and over-gay for her surroundings; a court ruled
by an old woman had not seen before a creature so splendid.
Her pale blond hair was worn in cunningly disposed ringlets through
which was passed a little braid of pearls, and fastened by a fair
tortoiseshell comb adorned with squares of dark amber.
Her dress was of rose-colored velvet, cut low in front, with a fall of
silver lace on the bosom, and showing a silver petticoat in front.
She had a great scarf of black silk wrapped like a shawl over all her
attire, and no jewels at all but one square sapphire on the first finger
of her right hand.
“You are very gracious, Madame, to grant me this interview,” said Count
Piper; he looked a dull, a wizened figure beside her radiant grace.
“Was it not a command?” asked Madame von Falkenberg.
She stood facing him, with one hand on her hip, almost in the attitude
of a man who feels for his sword hilt.
“I am not powerful enough to issue commands to you, Baroness,” he
replied suavely.
She flashed into a sudden animation that accorded ill with her frail
pallor and look of languid grace.
“I think you are not powerful enough to do anything, Count,” she said,
“not powerful enough, certainly, to save Sweden.”
He did not understand her mood or her attitude, but he answered boldly.
“Therefore I am going to ask your help, Madame.”
Viktoria von Falkenberg moved impatiently towards the window, like a
creature confined against her will.
“Are you not ashamed,” she asked, “that you cannot manage one wilful
boy?”
This was so unexpected that Count Piper could think of no reply
whatever.
“This King of yours,” continued the lady, “was drunk to-day, and
unwashed from the chase, sat down to his food with spotted linen and
muddy boots, was rude to women--I should not be proud to be his tutor.”
She had completely turned the tables on him; he had meant to tactfully
reproach her with the effect of her influence on the King--to point out
how Karl was drifting to disaster--and she had snatched his weapons from
his hands and left him defenseless.
She threw up her head impetuously and struck her open palm on the
window-pane.
“Oh, for something beautiful!” she cried, “were it but the waving of a
spray of leaves against a gray sky! Your palace stifles, Count, and
while we wait your King’s graciousness we lose our life!”
“It is of that I would speak to you,” said the Count, endeavoring to
keep to his first point of view, “of your desires--and the King.”
CHAPTER III
“You think that I have any influence with your King?” asked Madame von
Falkenberg.
Her directness did not displease Count Piper; he saw that she was more
experienced than he had thought and wise enough to be simple.
“I know you have,” he replied, then added: “His Majesty has never looked
twice at any other woman.”
“His Majesty is only eighteen,” said Viktoria; her large dilated eyes
looked searchingly at the shrewd, withered face of the minister. “What
do you know of me?” she asked.
He had his answer ready.
“I know that you are of one of the noblest families in Gottorp--that you
are a very attractive woman, and, I think, ambitious.”
“You know nothing about my husband?”
The question seemed to Count Piper quite irrelevant.
“I know that Baron von Falkenberg was killed in a duel a few months
after his marriage, and that that is five years ago.”
She gave him a narrowed glance.
“And so you think that I have influence with your little King?” she
demanded abruptly.
Count Piper was surprised into irritation.
“Madame, it is a Viking!” he exclaimed with pride.
Madame von Falkenberg lifted her slender shoulders.
“He seems like a child to me,” she answered, “and if,” she added, “you
think so well of him, why do you come to bargain about him with a woman
whom you think is a greedy adventuress?”
Count Piper looked at the lady with dislike; her attitude was one with
which it was impossible to deal; for all her directness she was
hindering him in the object of his conversation; vexation rose in his
heart against boys and women and this kind of bed-chamber intrigue; he
longed for such a master again as the late King had been.
“Sweden is threatened,” he replied, with some sternness, “and to save
her I must use any weapons I can.”
“Even soiled ones,” said the Baroness.
“I have not said so--but I am dealing with a youth, one who has no
interest beyond his games and his sports--one who is self-confident,
arrogant----”
The lady interrupted.
“And you can do nothing with him?”
“No.”
“And the Queen?”
“He smiles at the Queen.”
“What do you want him to do?”
“What his father would have done,” replied Count Piper--“lead an army
against Denmark, Poland, and Russia.”
“I see--you want an antique hero--a Viking, as you say, in this modern
age of ours!” She seemed scornful, and her lips shook as she spoke. “And
you think that a woman’s smiles can rouse a demi-god from a tipsy boy!
You think that he might go to war if he could find me among the spoils
of victory!”
Count Piper was silent; he could not understand her mood.
She seemed in considerable agitation and leant against the window-frame,
pressing a little handkerchief to her mouth; the sharp eyes of the
minister noted the stains of red on the cambric as she rubbed off the
moistened rouge.
“You think to find in me an Aurora von Königsmarck--a gilded puppet
whose strings you can pull!” she cried.
Count Piper felt bound to defend himself.
“Madame, you have not seemed displeased at the King’s notice.”
“No,” flashed Viktoria, “and the Duchess has told you that she does not
like me and that I am a light creature, and so you think you can affront
me with impunity.”
“Madame, it can be no affront to suggest that you might be the King’s
friend and influence him for good.”
She sighed a little at these conventional words and put her thin hands,
with a gesture of weariness, to her fair brow.
“Will you let me see the King, alone?” she asked quietly. “Perhaps I
might be able to turn him to what is the wish of all of us.”
The Count did not affect to understand this change of front, but he was
eager to grasp at her suggestion.
“His Majesty is now in my cabinet,” he replied.
“I wish to see him when he is sober.”
“When he wakes he will be sober.”
“Take me to him.”
Count Piper glanced at her somewhat doubtfully; if she did become his
puppet he did not think that she would be a particularly easy one to
manage; so far, at least, she had shown no good-humor and a certain
enmity towards himself; he agreed with the King’s sister in not liking
her; what charm she had, he decided, lay solely in her rather colorless
beauty.
He conducted her to his cabinet without any very great hopes as to the
success of his experiment, but, at least, he consoled himself, he had
forced an issue that might have hung long and vexatiously, and this
interview would decide how much or how little Viktoria von Falkenberg
was going to count for in the life of the King of Sweden.
When the cabinet door opened Karl looked round.
He was still in the chair where Count Piper had left him and seemed to
have but lately awakened.
The Baroness entered and closed the door. The King at once rose, and
stood, with one hand on the back of his chair, looking at her in rather
an amazed fashion.
His eyes were clear and his hands steady; he had already thrown off the
effects of the wine--an easy matter for his superb and vigorous
constitution.
But his hair was still disordered, his dress disheveled and stained with
blood, and dirt, and wine.
The lady, in her fair exquisiteness, rose color and silver, her finished
beauty and artificial grace, was a curious contrast to the young man in
his vigor and careless attire.
“Ah, Madame von Falkenberg,” said the King, “who do you wish to
see--Count Piper?”
“No, sir.”
“This is Count Piper’s cabinet,” replied Karl, with a look of confusion.
“He has been lecturing your Majesty?”
The blood rushed up under the King’s fair skin.
“He spoke to me of the Czar of Muscovy, but I do not rightly recall all
he said.”
The Baroness advanced a little; all that there was of light in the dull,
small apartment seemed to be gathered in her brilliant figure.
“I also have come to speak of the Czar of Muscovy, your Majesty.”
Karl looked at her doubtfully.
“Oh, yes, Count Piper sent me,” she added, “but I do not come on his
errand, but on my own.”
The red still showed in the King’s strange face; he glanced at his
clothes.
“You take me at a disadvantage,” he said, with dignity.
Viktoria smiled faintly.
“Ah no, sire--you have all the advantages!”
Karl suddenly smiled also; it changed his face, not agreeably.
“You think I have all I want?” he asked.
“I think that you could have.”
“That rests with you, Baroness,” he replied; now that he was sober it
was noticeable that his demeanor was cold and his manners of a freezing
haughtiness; only towards this woman his behavior was softened; he was
being as gracious as he knew how; his large serene eyes gleamed as they
rested on her loveliness; he approved her openly and with a lack of all
subterfuge that had something large-natured in it; indeed, it was
impossible to associate him with anything small of any kind.
They stood facing each other, and for all that she was tall she was
hardly to his shoulder; he stared at her, and behind all his arrogance
was a certain shyness.
“Sir,” she said, “it is a pity that you should depend on a woman for
anything.”
That seemed to strike a responsive chord in his nature; he drew up his
magnificent figure and a look of intense pride darkened his face.
He put his hand to the hilt of the short sword he wore and turned away
rather abruptly.
“What could I give you?” asked Viktoria softly.
He looked at her over his shoulder.
“I think you know,” he said rather sullenly.
“But tell me,” she insisted.
The King gave his ugly smile.
“You are such a pretty creature,” he answered, “you give me more
pleasure than any fair sight I have ever seen.”
She did not receive his compliment in the usual fashion of blush and
confusion.
“I am sorry that your Majesty has seen so few pleasant sights,” she said
quietly, “but you are very young.”
“You think of me as very young?” demanded the King, with narrowed eyes.
“What are you, sire, but a boy?” replied the lady calmly. “Ah, when will
you be a man?”
“With God’s help, when I choose,” he said shortly.
Viktoria von Falkenberg smiled sadly.
“Sire,” she said, “I do not come to lecture you as Count Piper or the
Queen do. I think I have no right to speak at all, save this little
right that you have noticed me.”
“I have noticed you,” he interrupted heavily.
“And that others think that I might influence you,” she continued.
“Ah, they think that, do they? Count Piper thinks a woman could
influence me!” cried the King. “Forgive me,” he added quickly, “I am not
courteous.”
“Indeed,” replied the Baroness, still with that little fixed smile,
“your Majesty is more fitted to the camp than the court.”
Again the King flushed, and his eyes were narrowed and gleaming.
“Ah, I am boorish--I know,” he said, then, suddenly, “but I could be
gentle to a woman, a woman like you.”
“I want you to be gentle to me now, sire,” she replied quickly, “for
what I have to say may try your patience.”
“Nay, that could never be.”
He did not speak in a tone of gallantry or artificial compliment, nor
even with any of the confusion or shyness likely in one so young and so
unused to dealing in affairs of love, but with a certain hardness and
hauteur, the mark of absolute sincerity and complete self-command.
It was impossible to believe that he would ever waste himself in mere
pleasantness; he did not trouble even to smile, but looked at the lady
gravely with his strange blue eyes that were of so rare a color and so
curious an expression.
“You think that I please your fancy,” she said, with a flutter of color
in her face.
“I know that you do,” he replied seriously. “You are very wonderful. But
Count Piper was wrong,” he added grimly, “when he thought that you could
influence me.”
“Yet I am going to try and do so,” said Viktoria.
“Yes?” he seemed faintly amused.
“I want you to forget me, to forget the chase, to leave the wine, and
become the man your father was.”
These words were so unexpected that for a moment his composure was
disturbed.
“Forget you?” he asked.
“Sire, whether my words have any effect with you or no, after to-day I
shall never speak to you alone. I am not the woman your councilor takes
me to be. He thinks that I would be your plaything, and that through me
he would work his way with you.”
“And so you will have none of me?” asked the King quietly; “I could have
loved you.”
“Sire, I have done with love. And I was never ambitious.”
“But I,” smiled Karl, “I have not even begun with love. And I was always
ambitious.”
She flashed at him with sudden animation and force.
“Then if you are ambitious leave love alone. Turn your back on women
until you take your Queen--be the one King in Europe who is not ruled by
a petticoat. Be a man like the hero of antiquity, feared, obeyed,
revered by _men_, not cajoled, flattered, led by women!”
He gave her a dazzling look.
“And if I wished I could be such a one,” he said strongly.
“And do you hesitate? There is a man’s work--a King’s work ready to your
hand--a nation that your forefathers left great looking to you for help
against three terrible enemies, the world before you in which to win
glory.”
“And if I wished I could win it,” said Karl, in the same tone.
“Sire, first you must conquer yourself--to-day you were intoxicated.”
The King flushed hotly.
“You came to the Queen’s table blood-stained from the chase. You
dragged the cover to the floor with your spur in the cloth. You insulted
me in the corridor.”
Karl looked at his disordered clothes.
“Before God,” he said in broken voice, “I am sorry.”
“And because of these things Count Piper resorts to a woman to influence
you.”
“I am ashamed,” said the King. “I am ashamed. Yes, I was drunk. I went
into my grandmother’s presence like any stable boor--I remember now. And
Count Piper led me here--and I fell asleep when he talked politics.”
He hid his face in his strong hands, resting them on the back of the
chair, his tangled curls falling over the dark tapestry.
Viktoria Falkenberg had not known him long, but she was quick to
perceive that he was moved to emotion rare in such a nature.
She came quickly up to him, and laid her thin hand on his bowed
shoulder.
“Sire, what does it matter? You are young and splendid. Think what may
be before you--think what you have in your hands. What is the chase
compared to war? What is wine-drinking compared to the joy of victory?
What the pursuit of women compared to the pursuit of nations?”
He raised his strange face that was now quite pale.
“You are right,” he said. “You are very right. I have always thought
like that. Yet there seemed nothing to do. And I amused myself with
games,” he added simply.
“There is now plenty to do,” said the lady, with a faint smile. “You
must give your brother-in-law back his duchy--humble Denmark--subdue
Poland--hold the Czar in check.”
“You think that I could do that?” he asked quickly.
“Sire, you come of a race that has done such things.”
He looked at her with an intensity almost painful.
“You are interested in me, but yet you do not care about me.”
“I do not love you, sire,” she replied quietly. “I loved once. It was
enough. I loved my husband and he did not love me. For the sake of
another woman he was killed soon after our marriage.”
She drew from behind the silver lace on her bosom a golden locket which
she opened, and showed no portrait, but a fragment of blood-stained rag.
“That I cut from above his heart the day they brought him home,” she
said. “It is all I care for in the world. I--I have suffered so much
that it is as if I had died. That is why, sire, I can speak to you so
coldly now.”
The King looked at her calmly; by contrast with her own words she
herself appeared insignificant, his fancy for her, which she might have
formed into the strongest passion his cold nature was capable of, had
died on the instant before the images her words had evoked.
No one had ever spoken to him directly with strength and sincerity; the
sneers of his grandmother he had always despised and everyone else had
been his inferior, not daring to tell him plainly that which men thought
of him and his actions.
Never before either had he been so degraded as to-day when he had
returned to the palace intoxicated and shown himself so before women,
and in the revulsion of shame and disgust that he felt the words that
this lady had dared to speak to him made the deeper impression.
He looked at her with respect and a slight amazement; she seemed thin
and pale and artificial in her gorgeous stiff gown, very different from
the heroines of his beloved sagas--yet she had shown qualities that were
admirable in his eyes.
“Enough,” he said suddenly. “I think I have done with childish things. I
have had my dreams--maybe some of them I can realize. I thank you,
Madame, for your timely speech.”
He offered her no compliment nor courtesy and his expression, as he
gazed at her, was hard, but she believed that she had accomplished her
purpose and she did not care how soon he forgot her; she had very truly
done with the emotions of love and vanity.
“I thank you for your attention,” she replied gently. “I have, sire, no
more to say.”
With a little curtsey she left him; he did not give a sigh to her going,
but turned with brusque eagerness to study the map of North Europe that
hung above Count Piper’s desk; with intent blue eyes and a steady finger
he traced the positions of those provinces his three enemies wished to
wrest from Sweden.
CHAPTER IV
He was eighteen years of age, of a superb constitution, perfect health,
and noble descent, absolute monarch of a prosperous and well-governed
country, troubled by neither plots among his nobility nor factions among
his people.
He felt as if the world had been put into his hands, as a small globe to
crush or fondle; his deep but hitherto sleeping pride, his vast and
arrogant ambition were now finally roused by the humiliation into which
his idle habits had led him, and the direct words of the woman who had
attracted his cold fancy by her pretty, sad grace.
As a personality she was now dismissed from his thoughts, but he dwelt
on her speech with a deep, mighty resolve forming in his powerful mind.
In every way he was equipped to play a great part in history; his
father, a stern, just, and haughty prince, had educated him with great
care and wisdom; his natural gifts for languages and mathematics had
been developed by training and diligence; he was proficient in history
and geography, well-versed in the lives of the heroes of ancient Greece
and Rome whose example suited his temperament, and familiar with the
sagas of Scandinavia, the only form of any art that had ever moved him;
his understanding was beyond the common, and he had not as yet displayed
any vice or weakness likely to obscure his fine qualities, beyond this
indolent absorption in rude sports that he had shown since he came to
the throne; he was neither cruel and given to abuse of power nor was he
liable to the weakness of being led by flatterers. His notice of
Viktoria Falkenberg was the first attention that he had ever accorded a
woman.
He seemed to be without affection and without passion; to his father he
had shown the only obedience he had ever displayed to a human being; his
mother he had despised, for he had early observed how slight a value his
father had set upon her gentleness and how harshly he had treated her;
his feelings towards his sisters were the same, the old Queen he could
only tolerate by ignoring. Count Piper, the one man to whom he had shown
special favor, he liked but was not fond of, nor had he any warm
feelings towards his country which he admired only inasmuch as it was
his own.
He was conscious only of the desire to dominate, to be without a rival
as he was without a master; and, now that the words of Viktoria
Falkenberg had taken root in his mind, to be great, to master kings, and
nations, and peoples, and stride over them to fresh conquests; the
reinstatement of his brother-in-law, Sweden’s ancient ally, the Duke of
Holstein-Gottorp, in his dominions, was a good excuse for him to enter
the arena of European politics where his fellow-monarchs considered him
too young to play any part.
The true greatness of his strange character showed in his haughty
resolve to conquer himself before ever he attempted to overcome his
enemies.
He decided to be the one King without weakness or vices, and as easily
as he took off his soiled garments of the chase he cast from him the
vulgar amusements and rude diversions that had hitherto occupied his
leisure.
The evening of the day that Viktoria Falkenberg had spoken to him he
joined the Queen at her supper table.
His two sisters were present and the husband of the eldest, the Duke of
Holstein-Gottorp.
Karl took his place at the head of the table; he was now absolutely
sober and extremely cold in his demeanor; his disordered clothes of the
morning had been changed for garments of black velvet and a muslin
cravat fastened by a white pearl; his bright and waving hair was
confined by a broad black ribbon save the foremost locks which fell over
his shoulders; in this grave style of dressing, with his great height
and noble person, he appeared much older than his years.
The Queen, who had, as usual, a bitter speech ready for him, snapped her
lips together after she had glanced at his face; when he was master of
himself she was afraid of him; he gave her a by no means friendly glance
and his beautiful eyes traveled to the harassed countenance of his
brother-in-law and the quiet faces of his sisters; the Queen, who was
watching him shrewdly and with no predisposition in his favor, noticed
that now more than ever before he dominated his company; the women,
Count Piper, the young Duke all seemed pale and incomplete, like people
cut out of paper, compared to his calm and overwhelming personality.
He did not sit down, but, pouring out a glass of wine, raised it almost
to the level of his lips.
“Madame,” he said, addressing the Queen, “I must ask your pardon for my
great discourtesy and boorishness to-day. I do ask it. I ask these
gentlewomen to forgive me some insolences. I was not sober. That will
never happen again.”
He paused for a second; there was no flush in his face, his eyes looked
as hard as sapphires; he never glanced to where Viktoria Falkenberg sat
beside the Duchess of Gottorp.
“I drink your health, Madame,” he continued, bowing towards the old
Queen, “and I drink it in the last wine I shall ever taste.”
He emptied his glass and set it down quietly. “And now forgive me my
absence,” he said. “I have much to attend to. Count, will you wait upon
me later?”
Without pausing for a reply he left the room.
The Queen wiped her lips in a certain grim satisfaction.
“Well,” she remarked, “he is capable of keeping his word.”
Count Piper glanced at the downcast and weary face of Viktoria
Falkenberg; she sat next to him and spoke, under the little murmur of
talk that had arisen since the King’s departure.
“He will do, your master,” she said, “he is quite heartless, quite just,
and inhumanly strong.”
“You spoke to him?”
She raised her eyes.
“Our interview was not what you think. We have really no interest in
each other.”
Count Piper could not pretend to understand her; nor did he really care
to explore the intricacies of feminine sentiment and feminine intrigue;
if Viktoria Falkenberg was not going to influence King Karl she ceased
to in the least concern Count Piper.
“His Majesty will help Gottorp, you think?” asked the Duchess.
“I think so,” said Count Piper.
He hastened his dinner that he might rejoin the King, who was already,
he knew, in his cabinet.
And there he found him, standing by the window through which the long
Northern twilight fell into the narrow apartment; his arms were locked
over the back of a high chair and he leant forward, in the attitude of
one dreaming.
Though he was so splendid in his magnificent youth there was something
in his demeanor more terrifying than lovable, and his proud noble face
was marred by the ugly smile that curved his full lips.
As soon as the Count entered he spoke, without raising his head.
“I shall go to war,” he said, and his voice that was always
expressionless had a hard ring in its clear quality. “I shall return
Gottorp to his duchy and I shall engage Denmark. Saxony must be brought
from the throne of Poland, and from these I menace this Emperor of
Muscovy--this Czar of the Russias.”
“I believe,” replied Count Piper, with perfect sincerity, “that your
Majesty can do these things.”
“I believe that I can,” said Karl. “The most dangerous of my foes is
Russia. He affects to be a mighty man, does he not?”
It was plain that this greatness of the Czar rankled with him; it was
almost as if he had a personal hatred of this political enemy of his
country whom he had never seen; this was the only person towards whom he
had ever evinced the faintest anger or jealousy.
“The Czar is great,” replied the Count, “but your Majesty might be
greater.”
“I would like to break him!” exclaimed the young man looking up. With
that startling flash in the darkening blue of his eyes, he looked more
human, more moved than Count Piper had ever known him. “’Tis a savage, a
Tartar ... and he defies me ... wants my provinces ... _mine_, by God
... you have seen me drunk to-day, you will not see that again ... we
will see if the Czar drunk can match me sober ... and Poland with his
Aurora.... I will have no women, Count.”
He seemed greatly moved by a deep and restrained emotion.
“You owe something to one woman,” thought Count Piper, “if she has
wrought this change of mind in you.”
And he wondered what Viktoria Falkenberg had said.
“Russia does not think that anyone is likely to oppose him,” continued
Karl. “Is it not so? He believes that there is no man in Europe would
face him and his savages.”
“He certainly thinks,” replied the minister, “that your Majesty will be
easily despoiled. ’Tis a man with many noble qualities who seeks to
bring his country forward in an honorable manner in Europe--yet
unscrupulous and fierce--a barbarian teaching civilization to
others--but,” he added, “before your Majesty thinks of Russia, there is
Denmark.”
“I attend the council to-morrow,” said Karl, “and in a week’s time I
hope to leave Sweden. The Dutch and English will help us--at least
indirectly. I think it is not to King William’s interest that I should
be overwhelmed. I mean to make a feint on Copenhagen and compel Denmark
to a peace.”
“The Danish fleet protects Spaelland, sire,” said Count Piper quickly.
“But I have looked at the map,” replied the King, “and I see that one
might pass through the Eastern Sound.”
“Which is not held to be navigable, sire.”
Karl did not seem to pay much attention to this remark.
“King Frederick is older than I, by ten years,” he said, reflectively.
“Do you think that he is a great man, Count?”
“He is popular in Denmark, sire.”
“I am vexed,” added Karl, “that I let him take Gottorp--but,” he paused,
then seemed to resolve to say no more on that subject. “England and the
Netherlands will stand by us?” he asked.
“They certainly will not wish to see Denmark in possession of the
commerce of the North, nor the Czar of Russia overspread his dominions.
I believe we could count on the junction with the Anglo-Dutch fleet.”
“And Poland marches on Livonia,” said the King. “I hear his Saxon
soldiers are very fine troops.”
“One thing has just come to my ears, sire--Patkul is with Poland.”
The King’s face hardened instantly at mention of this man who had led
the Livonian revolts that had disturbed his father’s reign and whose
intrigues had broken out again on his own accession; Patkul had been the
only jarring note in the last years in Sweden; and rebellion was a
hideous sin in the King’s rigid code of honor.
“When I make peace with Poland,” he said, “I shall bid him send back to
me the traitor Patkul.”
Count Piper looked at him curiously; the certainty of his speech, the
confidence of his bearing were amazing things, for they were entirely
free from braggart vanity or youthful swagger.
The King saw his minister’s glance and slightly flushed.
“Perhaps,” he said quickly, “I seem vainglorious in my speech, but I was
not thinking of myself, but of Sweden--Sweden could do great things, do
you not think so, Count?”
It was like an attempt to conciliate, and the minister could not forbear
a smile.
“Under such a King as you will be, sire,” he replied sincerely.
“Well,” said Karl, with his strange simplicity, “I do not see that it
should be very difficult to defeat these three Kings.”
The next day he made his appearance at the council board in a mood
different from any in which he had appeared there before.
The councilors had been used to seeing him with his feet on the table
and his hands in his pockets, lolling and yawning; now he came erect and
composed among them, and in a few words announced his intention of
making war on Denmark, Poland, and Russia.
This swift facing of their enemies was not what the council had been
expecting; they had already begun to consider the advisability of
negotiations with the three sovereigns who were taking advantage of the
youth of their King.
But Karl’s words left no doubt as to his intention and his spirit.
“Sirs,” he said, “I have resolved to never make an unjust war, but never
to finish a just one save by the conquest of my enemies. My decision is
taken--I shall attack him who first--who has declared himself against
me, and when I have vanquished him I shall hope to inspire some fear in
the others.”
That same evening he heard that the Saxon troops of the King of Poland,
the regiments of Brandenbourg, Wolfenbüttel, and Hesse-Cassel were
marching to the assistance of the King of Denmark, who after having
taken Gottorp was besieging the town of Tönning in Holstein.
Against these were sent 8000 Swedes, some troops from Hanover and Zell,
and three Dutch regiments, Holland, as well as England, having taken up
arms against Denmark on the excuse of her having broken the Treaty of
Altona.
In the early days of April, King Karl took private leave of his family
(a cold farewell of his sisters and the Queen), and, accompanied by
Count Piper, the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, and General Rehnsköld, left
his capital for the port of Karlskrona, where he embarked on his
flagship “The King Karl,” which was mounted with 120 pieces of cannon,
and at the head of forty-three ships set sail for Copenhagen, on his
first campaign.
As the shores of Sweden were receding behind them Count Piper told the
King that he had heard that Viktoria Falkenberg was very ill; he had
wondered that Karl had not remarked her absence from attendance on his
sister.
“Ah, Viktoria Falkenberg,” said the King thoughtfully. He offered no
comment, and that was the last time he ever spoke her name.
BOOK II
PETER ALEXIEVITCH
“C’etait par des actions plus étonnantes que des victoires qu’il
cherchait le nom de Grand.”--VOLTAIRE.
CHAPTER I
The short Russian summer was in the commencement of its glory; a clear
sunshine penetrated the groves of beeches and firs, the thickets of
lilac and senna plant, and shone on the brilliant flowers that carpeted
the woods which spread about the wide estuary at the mouth of the Neva.
Here and there, through the radiant blossoms, could be seen a glimpse of
cold blue sea; the sky was of the pale green tint peculiar to the last
hours of the day; no sound disturbed the peace of the little house on
the lake in the woods, the residence that it pleased the Czar of Russia
to call “Marli,” in imitation of the French King, and which was one of
his favorite places of retreat, being, indeed, more suited to his tastes
than the gorgeous palaces he had built in Russia and the antique
magnificence of the Kremlin.
It had also the advantage of being near to Cronstadt, the port he was
building and in which he took such a personal interest, where he kept
the nucleus of the Navy he was creating and of which he was so intensely
proud, and where he had personally worked at some of the twenty-six
trades that he had learnt in his journey through Europe.
Save during the brief loveliness of the summer there was little beauty
in these marshy woods; neither birds nor animals seemed to inhabit them
and the stillness and the vastness added to the melancholy of the
solitude.
Marli was a two-storied house with a tiled roof, a door with plain steps
and a window above with a balcony.
It had no defined garden but stood solitary in the woods; it was not far
from the swamps where the Czar had resolved to build his new capital,
nor from the spot where his favorite Mentchikoff was raising a superb
palace, but it had, despite the bright flowers and the sunshine, an air
of solitude that was dreary.
There was no sign of cultivation round the lake, and the wild flowers
grew up to the very door, bending over the shallow steps; the yellow
plaster front of the house was stained with damp and the windows were
without curtains, the shutters being all fastened back. The door stood
open and there was no sign of servants or of any domestic work being in
progress.
At the edge of the lake and looking up at the house was a man whose
appearance and attire were in entire contrast to his surroundings.
He was tall and stoutly built, with dark hair and eyes and an expression
of some fierceness, his locks were cut short into his neck, and he was
attired in native Russian costume untouched by European fashion.
His long coat of fine gold-colored silk brocade, shot with blue and red
flowers, was open on a vest of fine muslin, fastened with sapphire
buttons, and belted above the full skirt with scarlet leather.
His full breeches of pale blue velvet were gathered into high vermilion
leather boots, much polished and soft.
He carried a short sword of Oriental design, the hilt studded with
tourmaline and rose quartz, and wore a close cap of scarlet silk round
which was twisted a fine gold chain which held in place a buckle of
diamonds that clasped a long white osprey. After looking at the little
house thoughtfully this personage went slowly round the lake and in at
the open door.
The two front rooms were closed; the newcomer went to the back and
looked into the kitchen; it was here very hot, for the cooking stove
was lit and several dishes stood on it from which exhaled an odor of
onions, cabbages, and rancid grease.
On a side table stood pots and pans and dishes containing fish under
vinegar and salted gherkins, also some jams and jellies and a few fine
spoons of silver gilt; flies and mosquitoes buzzed over everything; all
was dirty; the floor and the stove filthy with dropped grease and
spillings of food.
A Tartar servant with a flat yellow face was watching the cooking; he
wore a soiled blue blouse and trousers; his throat and chest were bare
and the perspiration rolled from under his oily hair.
He regarded the newcomer with a look of complete stupidity and turned
his gaze again to his cooking.
He appeared to be no more impressed by the gentleman’s brilliancy than
the gentleman was by his dirt and disorder. Only, as that person was
leaving the kitchen, the taciturn servant vouchsafed a warning.
“If you come with unpleasant news, Danilovitch Mentchikoff, you had
better keep them for a while.”
“He is in a bad humor?” asked the Prince quickly.
“He was drinking all night,” replied the Tartar. “And now he seems to be
in a melancholy. What am I to do about the dinner, Danilovitch
Mentchikoff? He will not bear me in the room--and as for you, he will
beat you like a dog.”
“Well, when he has beaten me, we will have dinner,” replied the Prince,
and he turned away and went upstairs.
He entered the front bedroom which was that with the balcony over the
door; a good-sized chamber very plainly furnished with a low bed, a
table, a few chairs, and one or two half-open boxes filled with clothes.
The pale melancholy light streamed in uninterrupted through the
curtainless window and lit every crevice of the apartment.
Above the bed was an ikon of the Saviour, very dark and indistinct and
adorned with plates of silver; two candles in sticks of violet jasper
stood on a shelf beneath this; on the stove was the unfinished model of
a ship in wood; these were the only remarkable objects that the room
contained.
The one occupant was a young man who sat in a low chair by the stove,
and who was intent on carving with a small knife a large fir cone.
Peter Alexievitch, Emperor of Muscovy and Czar of all the Russias, was
at this time twenty-eight years of age, and it was not long since he had
been recalled by rebellion at home from that extraordinary journey in
disguise round Europe whereby he had sought to learn the various means
by which nations secure prosperity and greatness, that he might instruct
his subjects; he had since gained some glory by a victory over the
Turks, but his present league with Poland and Denmark against Sweden was
his first real entry into war and politics, the first attempt to put
into practise the schemes by which he sought to render his vast Empire
secure and mighty.
He did not look up as Prince Mentchikoff entered, but continued, with
ostentatious disregard of a presence he was certainly aware of, to chip
at the pine cone.
His friend, standing inside the door, eyed him with some apprehension.
The Czar’s appearance was as remarkable as his character and his
history.
Unlike the Prince, he wore European clothes, a shirt of very fine linen,
much ruffled, faded green cloth breeches, white cotton stockings and
leathern shoes, and over all a full dressing-gown of brown wool which
was tied round his waist by a cord.
Even as he sat so, doubled up on a low chair, it was noticeable that he
was of gigantic height, and slender and graceful in his proportions; the
hands that were busy with his minute work were slim and elegant, his
head was of a noble shape and covered with smooth short curls of a dusky
brown color; his face, of an Asiatic type, was singularly beautiful,
though already marred by passion and vice.
The short blunt features were finely formed, the dark eyes, large,
lustrous, and full of sweetness, eagerness, and ardor, the complexion of
a warm brown, darkened by exposure to sun and wind; a close mustache
outlined the full lips; for the rest he was well shaven, and there was
something both robust and boyish in the smooth contours of his face.
He was extremely attractive and gave the impression of being simple and
lovable to an almost childish degree; his complexion, naturally so
smooth and clear, was now rather pale, the eyes heavy and stained
beneath; the hand that held the knife very slightly shook.
Mentchikoff noticed a dirty glass full of flies on the floor beside him
and a number of bottles, mostly empty, scattered about, a strong smell
of brandy being in the air.
“I come, as you bade me, to dine with your Majesty,” said the favorite.
Peter did not even look round; he took a pinch of clay from a board on
top of the stove and began to model it on to the fir cone.
The Prince was vexed by this reception; he had begun to think he could
do what he liked with the Czar, who had raised him from the position of
a pastry cook’s lad to that of greatest noble in all the Russias.
“Well, Peter Alexievitch,” he said drily, “there is some news that you
must hear. But I would keep it till after dinner.”
Peter turned now; one side of his face twitched in a slight convulsion.
“Why did not this news come to me?” he asked sullenly.
Mentchikoff saw that whatever his potations had been he was now sober,
and went warily accordingly; the Czar sober was not so easy as the Czar
drunk.
“Who dares to come to your Majesty when you are withdrawn into your
solitude? Therefore the dispatches from Moscow were brought to me.”
“Is it bad news?” asked the Czar gloomily; he turned again to his work,
and began coloring the clay with his finger dipped in rough pigment
which he had arranged on the same board as the clay.
“Well,” said Mentchikoff, “I certainly think that your Majesty should be
at Moscow.”
And irritated at his reception he seated himself near the window with an
air of impatience.
“I will not go to Moscow,” said the Czar, in a tone of suppressed
violence. “I wish to be here--this is where I will build my city and my
fort. Why cannot I be alone here? I care nothing for your news.”
“Well, then,” replied Mentchikoff exasperated, “it will not destroy your
appetite, Peter Alexievitch. The King of Sweden has defeated Denmark,
taken back Holstein-Gottorp, and signed a victorious peace.”
Peter stared.
“The King of Sweden!” he ejaculated.
“Yes, that boy who was to be so easily despoiled. Europe remembers
nothing like it. In fifteen days he has ended the campaign.”
The Czar’s face was a ghastly color.
“This is greatness,” he said.
With the mechanical movement of one who has received a shock he
continued his work, staring at the clay he continued to mold and color.
“Eighteen years old,” added Mentchikoff, “and his first campaign.”
“Tell me about it,” said Peter, in an agitated and humbled manner.
“Do you really want to hear?” asked the Prince in some surprise; he had
known the Czar to have messengers of ill-tidings knouted.
“I want to hear,” replied Peter, without looking up.
“Well, the Swedes made a descent on Copenhagen and joined the
Anglo-Dutch fleet by Spaelland--they sailed through the Eastern Channel
of the Sound, a thing not before thought possible--and then they landed
and attacked Copenhagen by land.”
“The King led them?”
“The King led them--he was the first to land, and waded with the water
to his waist and his sword in his hand--under the musket fire of the
Danes, you perceive. There was a short engagement in which the Swedes
were completely victorious, and Copenhagen lay at their mercy.”
“Where was King Frederick?” asked Peter.
“I do not know--still besieging Tönning, I suppose--at least he sent to
negotiate.”
“To negotiate!” cried the Czar, looking round.
“Sire--the Baltic Sea was covered with the Swedish ships, King Karl
master of Seeland, Copenhagen beseeching mercy--but our young hero must
do the magnanimous--he fought not for conquest, he said, but justice. In
brief, there was a congress called at Tarrenthal and there is a peace to
be signed this month.”
“And what are the terms?”
Mentchikoff shrugged his shoulders.
“Sweden wants nothing for himself--Gottorp is to get his indemnity and
his Duchy, and Denmark is never to meddle again against Sweden.”
Peter was silent a moment he was still very pale and one side of his
face twitched convulsively.
“What news from Poland?” he asked at length.
“There were those dispatches yesterday, but you would not listen to
them.”
“Tell them to me now.”
“Augustus has raised the siege of Riga.”
“Why?” demanded the Czar, trembling all over.
“The excuse is that the town is full of Dutch merchandise and Poland
would not offend Holland. The truth is that Augustus could not take the
town.”
“Curse Augustus and curse Frederick,” said the Czar heavily.
He put down the little toy he was making and clasped his head in his
hands.
“So of all the enemies of this young man there remains but yourself,
Peter Alexievitch.”
The Czar was silent; he could have imagined no greater blow than this
appearance of a rival to his glory in Northern Europe, a man ten years
younger than himself who had already achieved what he never had.
How often had not Peter dreamed of dictating terms to a conquered city
and setting conditions of peace to vanquished Kings, of seeing a great
many obey his commands and thousands of fine soldiers march behind him
to conquest; all things that this youth had experienced in a few days,
while he, Peter, had been indulging himself in a sullen retirement
broken only by those drunken debauches with which he sought to cure the
terrible melancholy that periodically assailed him.
A bitter scorn of himself, a bitter envy of the King of Sweden, a wild
yearning to be other than he was, settled on him like the mantle of
despair.
“Tell me what this young man is like,” he asked, in a muffled voice; his
curiosity as to what was admirable and good and great was insatiable;
even now it dominated his emotion.
Prince Mentchikoff did not know much; this young hero, whose name was
now in everyone’s mouth, was a new figure in Europe.
“He is very austere and prides himself on his justice, they say, and his
army is so disciplined that they are at prayers twice a day, and they
pay for all they take and do not despoil the dead. But this young man
must be ambitious--he will lose his head.”
“You know nothing about it, Danilovitch,” replied Peter, “they are brave
and cold, the Swedes. And this boy was well-trained and taught,” he
added enviously.
“Well,” said the Prince, “he is something to be reckoned with--and I
hear from Stockholm that he is angry with the four envoys you have sent.
He thinks that when you are at war you should drop the pretense of
peace--he is of a rigid honor.”
“Oh!” said Peter.
He glanced up at the toy he had made; it represented an old woman in cap
and shawl, the cone being her skirt and the upper part being cunningly
fashioned of clay.
“That is what I can do,” he added fiercely.
The Prince swung on his heel with some impatience. “You should be in
Moscow,” he declared. “Will you wait till the Swede is over the
frontier?”
The Czar did not reply.
“The Saxons have left Livonia,” continued Mentchikoff goadingly. “Patkul
has proved a poor statesman and the treaty of Préobrapenskoè a
failure--you can go on building Cronstadt and St. Petersburg, for this
war is over.”
The Czar gave his friend an ugly look; his hands trembled on his knees.
“Do you think that this boy has vanquished me?” he cried.
“I think that he may, Peter Alexievitch.”
The Czar sprang to his feet.
“Faithless, insolent, and foolish!” he shrieked, in an instant at the
height of passion. “Where did you find the courage to presume on my
kindness! Have you forgotten that I am Peter!”
The Prince stood passive, only holding up his hands to protect his face;
the Czar grappled with him and flung him down; Mentchikoff prostrated
himself at his master’s feet, face downwards on the dirty floor.
Peter was not mollified by this submission; he took off his belt and
beat the shoulders of the favorite until the gay brocade was torn to
ribbons.
He ceased as suddenly as he had begun, and staggered out into the head
of the stairs, dragging his shirt open at the throat.
The Tartar servant was coming up with dishes on a tray; Peter gave one
glance at the food then tipped it all out of the man’s hands so that
cabbage, soup, and fish rolled down the stairs; then he gave a great cry
that seemed like a shout for air and fell backwards; a little foam
flecked his lips and his eyes turned in his head.
The Prince and the Tartar with the air of men doing a usual thing,
dragged and pushed him somehow to his bed.
CHAPTER II
The Czar Peter lay at full length on his camp bedstead, his hand at his
forehead, sheltering his eyes, his mind full of bitter and angry
thoughts.
Seated on a low chair near him was Danilovitch Mentchikoff, who regarded
him with an expression like that of a favorite dog who has been beaten,
and who waits patiently until his master chooses to forgive him.
For two reasons Mentchikoff would take anything, blows, kicks, and
violent abuse, from Peter; first because of the traditional implicit
obedience of a Russian towards the Czar, a sentiment that had caused men
dying under torture to bless the monarch who had condemned them, and
secondly because he loved and revered Peter with a deep, passionate
fidelity.
Insolent towards all the world, easy and familiar even with his master,
with whom he frequently presumed too far, he yet never resented any
caprice that humbled him by word, look, or whip; he did not fawn from
policy but from an intense devotion to the man whom he considered the
greatest in the world.
There were some elements of greatness also in Danilovitch Mentchikoff;
he shared not only the Czar’s views, but some of his capacity for
carrying them out; he had been his companion in the labors of the
dockyards of Amsterdam and Wapping, as well as in the barbaric splendors
of Russia; he also had seen and judged that Western civilization that
the Czar burned to emulate; he also dreamed the same dreams of the
future greatness and glory of his country, and to this cause was eager
to devote his strength and his intellect.
Some personal ambition colored his attitude; Peter had raised him from
cook-boy to page, from page to noble, friend, minister; he was already
wealthy, honored, feared, but though he might be an insolent tyrant to
all the world, to the man who had raised him he was absolutely
submissive, even abject in his love and admiration.
Peter, whose nature was warm and affectionate, loved this creature of
his own making, to whom he allowed liberties never permitted to the most
powerful of his boyars, but he had more often than once made Mentchikoff
the victim of his insane furies in a manner that had nearly cost him his
life; but the servant had never uttered a sound of complaint, and, when
the outburst was over, had never failed to drag himself, bruised and
bleeding and faint, to lick the boots and kiss the hand of the man who
had chastised him.
He now was watching the Czar with some anxiety; he had been vexed for
the last few weeks because Peter had made no steps in the campaign
against Sweden, but, seized with one of his attacks of melancholy, had
retired to Marli to brood over the plans of Cronstadt and St. Petersburg
and drink himself into fits of false gayety that were followed by black
and dangerous depression.
And now the blow had fallen; a new captain had arisen who in a few days
had forced Denmark into peace; Poland was retiring from Riga; a young,
vigorous King who had shown himself possessed of resolution and martial
genius, with a perfectly equipped, trained, and victorious army behind
him, was free to turn his attention to the third enemy who had so
wantonly provoked him.
Mentchikoff’s long dark and rather haggard face was shadowed with
anxiety.
Not only did he wish his master’s political and military schemes to
fructify, he wished the Czar to be personally great and without rival in
this greatness.
He was concerned that Russia should have Livonia and a port on the
Baltic, he had concurred in the plans laid down by Patkul, but he was
still more concerned that Peter Alexievitch should shine resplendent,
without a rival, in the Northern firmament.
Already he hated Karl of Sweden, who had the advantage in education,
tradition, and breed; who was controlled, humane, just, and
honorable--with none of these things could even the blind devotion of
Mentchikoff credit Peter--and who had the added interest of his extreme
youth and the justice of his quarrels; a young warrior, stern, outraged,
fighting only those who had attacked him, conquering easily, and, with a
haughty generosity, claiming no benefits from his victory, but only the
restoration of his friend to what was rightfully his--this was a figure
on heroic lines and one sure to appeal to the imaginations of men.
And how would the world account Peter by contrast?
A half-savage monarch of an almost wholly Eastern realm, never yet taken
seriously into the reckoning in the affairs of Europe, one who had taken
eccentric means to learn the means of civilizing his people and who yet
was notoriously incapable of controlling his own meanest passions, one
who had been guilty of fierce cruelty and bitter revenge and excesses
beyond ordinary debauchery--how did such a one show beside the cold,
fast, calm, and mighty figure of the young King of Sweden?
Mentchikoff was jealous for his hero, who to him was the greatest man on
earth; Peter’s faults were not faults to him; he came of a people long
used to cruelty in their rulers, it was in his blood and in his training
to submit to tyranny, but he had been the Czar’s companion in his
journey through Europe and he had seen, with his strong native
shrewdness and perception, the qualities admired and respected by
civilized peoples, and he knew exactly where Peter failed to reach the
standard of the West--it was one to which he could not attain himself,
but that did not prevent him from keenly observing his master’s
failure. He still passionately dreamed of seeing the Czar a King after
the fashion of the Kings of France and England, and had been one with
him in every effort to attain this end; so complete was the devotion and
abnegation of Danilovitch Mentchikoff that his life was one with his
master’s life, his glory and ambition one with the glory and ambition of
Peter Alexievitch. And the Czar’s moods, melancholies, and passions,
that went so far to hinder his glorious schemes and tarnish his
brilliant qualities, caused the keenest pangs to the fiercely loyal
heart of his servant.
And now there was this new hero to reckon with; a man such as Peter was
not and never could be.
The long figure at which the Prince gazed with his small brilliant eyes
stirred on the rude bed; Peter dropped the arm that shielded his eyes
and stared before him.
He also had his thoughts of Karl of Sweden; they were as intense and
bitter as those of Danilovitch Mentchikoff.
He was conscious of his own greatness, conscious of his own failings,
and overwhelmed by the task which destiny and his own will had laid on
his shoulders.
He was the master of a continent, the undisputed lord of millions of
human beings, enveloped in a grandeur almost mythical, possessed of a
power almost godlike; better for him if he had been content with this,
satisfied as his ancestors had been satisfied by an enclosed splendor,
instead of being tortured by dreams of making Russia what she had never
been, what she perhaps never could be.
All the sciences, the arts, the trades and commerces that had been the
result of such slow and painful growth in Europe, he hoped in one
generation to implant in the sterile soil of a nation almost wholly
savage from the point of view of the West.
A great capital must be built, a great port made, a trained army raised,
a navy built, trade established, people educated in commerce and
handicrafts--marshes drained, forests cleared, swamps turned into
profitable ground--his people must learn the utmost resources of their
country and how to turn them to account.
The beautiful arts of other countries must be introduced and made to
flourish; all that was wonderful, fair, or great must find a home in
Russia.
Such were the dreams of Peter; his breed, his tradition, his character
were against these dreams.
Half an Asiatic, his type was largely Eastern, his outlook wholly so; he
was nearer Timour Beg than Louis XIV, despite his admiration of this
latter ideal of kingship.
He had admired Europe and copied Europe and envied Europe--he had little
in common with Europe.
His story was one of a violence and terror difficult to find in the
annals of any country but this, full of dark splendor, of flights,
revolts, dangers, imprisonments; the brother who had shared his throne
had disappeared to a mysterious death, the sister who had been his
regent was languishing in a close prison; he was separated from his
wife, his one son was sickly, almost witless.
In his blood lurked horrible diseases; his brother had been an idiot,
tortured by convulsions, his sister was afflicted by dropsy and ulcers,
he himself had been given to epilepsy since childhood; unbridled
passions, unlimited power, unchecked lusts had tainted his whole race
with a mental unbalance akin to insanity; melancholy, nightmare horrors
of glooms and broodings, wild extravagance of thought and action were in
his heritage.
Heavier burdens even than the scepter of all the Russias had come from
his forefathers to Peter Alexievitch; clouding and torturing his brain
and body were the dread shadows of mortal maladies, the black form of
madness. No one knew his sufferings; he himself was ignorant of their
cause and terrified at their power; only alcohol could allay them, and
then the payment exacted was horrible as death in agonies.
The dark horrors of delirium, the monstrous fancies of fever, the
tortuous labyrinths of the underground ways by which the borderland of
delusions, dreams, hallucinations, and unbidden imaginings leads to the
utter starless abyss of insanity were often more real to Peter than the
strenuous world in which he lived; shadows from realms that he tried to
deny the existence of, ghastly gleams from hells at which his soul dared
not glance, clouded and colored his thoughts and his actions.
A continent was at his feet and he had undertaken a task as tremendous
as any man had yet put his hand to--but even this was not sufficient to
distract him from the terrors of the unseen and the unheard who haunted
those foul, secret places where his soul was doomed to wander.
He was weak now after his fit and there was a dullness on his spirit
almost akin to peace; he was frowning, and his beautiful eyes were well
stained with blood, but his glance sought with a certain gratitude the
cool peace of the green beyond the square window, and he was glad of the
quiet, watchful presence of his friend.
“Danilovitch,” he said, in a low voice, “I must get back to Moscow,”
then “If Cronstadt were built and I had a navy, I would batter this boy
by sea.”
He sat up slowly, a languid, graceful figure in the soiled
dressing-gown; he had bitten his tongue when he fell and his mouth was
still marked with blood; a few tiny spots of red were on the front of
the fine cambric shirt; his forehead was damp with perspiration and the
soft glossy curls hung in wild disorder; yet his face, so round in the
contours still, with a certain bloom and freshness, attractive, gentle
in expression, was the face of a youth, sensitive and dreamy.
Prince Mentchikoff did not answer; he was not yet sure of his master’s
mood and feared to say something that might irritate him.
“And if I had an army I could batter him by land,” added Peter, with a
hard smile.
“Your Majesty has an army,” ventured Mentchikoff.
“Has it ever been tried in battle?” demanded the Czar grimly. “Is there
anyone in the whole of Russia who knows anything of the art of war?”
“It is for you to teach them,” ventured the Prince.
“There is much I have to teach Russia,” remarked the Czar.
He stood up, to the full of his great height, and pushed back his hair
impatiently with both damp hands.
“Is this how I get my Baltic port?” he cried scornfully. “Is this how I
wrest a province from Sweden? I should have been in Moscow months ago.”
“God knows you should, Peter Alexievitch,” said Mentchikoff mournfully.
“But I had to labor with my hands, Danilovitch, there is no other cure
for these infernal torments. I must make things, and be near the sea.”
The Prince knew that Peter alluded to the black melancholy fits to which
he was subject and made no reply.
“This boy now,” continued the Czar, in a quieter tone, “he would be
sober? Not chased by phantoms or mocked by the infernal ones, eh,
Danilovitch?”
“A cold Norseman,” replied Mentchikoff. “They say that for this campaign
at least, his life has been austere.”
“That is it,” replied Peter, with an eagerness that was almost wistful,
“an austere life--to train the body, to eat bread and drink water, to
sleep on the ground, to live as the meanest foot soldier--and I could do
it--if he, why not I?”
Then, in a sudden fit of gloom, he added:
“I have no troops worth naming beyond the Strelitz and the
Germans--savages, peasants, this King will laugh at me--and Riga is lost
and Tönning? Curse both the Saxon and the Dane.”
He spoke wearily, without passion; Mentchikoff rose and touched him
gently, with an infinite tenderness, on the arm.
“Come, Peter Alexievitch,” he said softly, “come out and look at the
sea.”
He had never known when a glimpse even of the ocean had failed to soothe
the Czar.
Peter did not reply, and Mentchikoff deftly drew off the dressing-gown
and put on an old green coat of European cut that hung over a chair; the
Czar silently permitted the change.
The Prince fetched a bowl of water and helped him bathe his face, a comb
and smoothed out the tangled hair, performing these menial tasks with an
unconscious joy in the doing of them and a tender love for the person
whom he served that was touching to behold in one so stern featured and
haughty as Danilovitch Mentchikoff.
Peter did not speak; he seemed in an apathy that chilled his faculties
like the languor of a mortal illness; he suffered his friend to lead him
from the house and showed neither dissent or assent.
It was now fading to the cool of the evening; the sky was translucent
and almost colorless against the motionless forms of the trees that had
not yet lost the freshness of early summer; the lake was placid beneath
the borders of bright grasses and trails of wild flowers that flung
themselves in lightly woven wreaths over the tiny wavelets that spent
themselves against the banks.
In the distance a nightingale made the silence of the wood tremble with
the intermittent rehearsal of his sharp, sweet song.
The two fine figures, the servant so splendid, the master so humble in
attire, the King leaning on his minister with a sad and fatigued air,
passed the little clearing round the house and through the first trees
of the wood until they came to a spot where, through a break in the
forest, was a view of low swamps and the distant sea which had the pale
splendor of a tourmaline in the light of the sunset.
Peter sighed, with a long shiver of relief; his very muscles seemed to
relax; his was the panting satisfaction of one who is fevered, and,
after much delay in heat and pain, finds a cup of cool fragrant water at
his lips.
The air was of a keen freshness and ocean salt; it seemed to be wafted,
pure and strong, from the distant shores of some dreamland beyond the
verge of the pale confining sea; the perfect silence seemed charged with
a sense of vitality, of the joy of life, of nature; the song of the
hidden bird, that now and then sharply broke the stillness, was like a
chant of calm triumph in the eternal majesty of nature’s solitudes and
untouched places; there was now no melancholy in this loneliness; a
tender magic filled the marvelous hour of the twilight and something
more than mortal was abroad in the gathering dusk.
The young Czar felt his lassitude fall from him; new energy shot through
him like a flame touching his heart; once again all seemed possible; the
grandeur of his manhood, the splendor of his rulership, again became
palpable things; the nightmares fled leaving a sane world about him; the
Swede no longer seemed a thing to so greatly fear or envy.
He was Czar of All the Russias, and a strong man in his youth.
With a laugh he pressed his friend’s arm, and Mentchikoff laughed also,
knowing his master cured for a while.
“Shall we trouble for that Northern boy, we who are Peter?” demanded the
Czar, holding up his head and staring at the sea; he spoke thickly, for
his tongue had swollen where he had bitten it, but the unhealthy pallor
had left his face and his eyes had the calm of a healthy man.
“Come and have supper, now that your melancholy is over,” said
Mentchikoff, in a happy voice, “and I will show you a gay creature who
will make you glad.”
“Until it is dark I will stay under the trees,” replied Peter, “and I
shall not drink to-night.”
CHAPTER III
When the last glow of the sun had faded, the air of desolation, of vast
gray spaces isolated from the world, returned.
The nightingale had ceased to sing and there was no other living
creature abroad; the swamps beyond the wood were devoid of life, the
night sky had the lead-colored look of the North, and there was no moon;
there was no sense of summer now that the moon was gone.
Peter turned away; the sea being hidden from his view, he had no
interest in the landscape; he moved slowly and with a ponderous step
through the last trees of the woods, until he came to the chain of lilac
thickets, now past their blooming, that led to Danilovitch Mentchikoff’s
house, Oranienbaum, a palace that he was erecting near to his master’s
cottage of Marli.
The night air refreshed the Czar; he was now perfectly sober and
completely master of himself, but his spirit was plunged in a profound
melancholy and his mental vision filled by the cold mighty figure of the
young Scandinavian who had so suddenly crossed and blocked his path.
He felt no hatred towards this rival and no common envy, but a sad sense
of his own failure beside the triumph of this heroic youth.
He had a long walk to the palace of Mentchikoff, which was situate
almost at the mouth of the Neva, and on the opposite shore to where the
fort of Cronstadt was being raised; but the exercise pleased him and he
would not go to Marli for a horse, or a light, or a servant, but strode
alone through the gloomy dusk, without hat or cloak.
There was nothing new to Peter in this experience, though it was a
remarkable one for the Czar of All the Russias; he had wandered through
Europe alone, and poorly clad. When he reached the gardens that
Mentchikoff was laying out, it was already completely dark, for the cold
stars gave no glow, and Peter was guided only by the lights that shone
through the open windows of the palace on to the parterres of brilliant
flowers and the high hedges of clipped hornbeam; some one was playing
the bailaika; the thin music sounded sadly in the empty gardens; Peter
slowly went in at the principal entrance, the door of which stood wide.
The first floor of the palace was finished and furnished in a gorgeous
style that was a mingling of the West and the East, of Europe and
Russia.
The hall was hung with arras sent from France, and lit by Dutch lanterns
that had come from the prows of ships.
The room that Peter entered had vermilion walls, vases of purple jasper
on malachite stands, and Chinese furniture of ebony inlaid with ivory;
on top of the great enamel stove was a beautiful ormolu clock which was
not going; lengths of French silks and Eastern damasks covered the
couches of which there were several, and a silver branched candlestick
of Italian workmanship held seven candles that were the sole light of
the room.
This stood on a long table of gray marble mounted in heavy gilt, which
occupied the center of the apartment.
In one corner was an ornate black cabinet set with various colored
stones, in another a beautiful Dutch bureau in oak; the tops of these
were crowded with goblets, boxes, bottles, and trays of silver, gold,
enamel, and glass, some heavily encrusted with precious stones. Near the
window which was curtained with cut velvet in orange and blue, hung an
ikon, one mass of carved silver and rubies, and still hung with the
Easter offerings of wreaths of wax fruit.
The air had been scented by the burning of pastilles, and a faint bluish
smoke still obscured the atmosphere.
The whole effect was one of brilliant and crowded confusion, tasteless
and barbaric; to Peter it was very splendid; a feeling of pleasure
touched him that his favorite should have such a magnificent house.
“Danilovitch!” he called and went up to the table, and stood there,
resting his hands on the gilt edge.
The twinkling notes of the bailaika stopped, and, from an inner door
that Peter had not hitherto perceived, a woman entered carrying the
little instrument.
They looked at each other across the candle light.
She was as tall as he, and beautiful, with a robust and splendid beauty;
her carriage was magnificent; she wore a robe of crimson satin with an
overdress of scarlet, stiff with gold embroidery, that reached the floor
and stood out about her, only being open at the sides; a square plate of
gold set with rubies shone at her breast, hung by rope on rope of
twisted pearls her dark brown hair fell on her shoulders, from under the
stiff Russian headdress of gold satin studded with turquoise, and to her
feet behind, depended a long white gauze veil. Her fair, bold face, firm
and beautiful in line and color, and sweet and pleasant in expression,
was turned full towards the Czar.
He, in his worn green coat, disordered appointments, and tired bearing,
was in a contrast almost sad with the room and the woman.
“You must be the Czar,” she said; she put down the bailaika and came
towards him, moving lightly on gold-shod feet.
“I am Peter Alexievitch,” he replied, “and you?”
“My name is Marpha,” she said simply. “I hardly know who I am.”
“A Russian?” he asked, for her speech was strange, as if she used a
tongue with which she was not familiar.
She shook her head.
“A Livonian, sire--a Lutheran--I do not know who my parents were,” she
added, anticipating his next questions, “nor why Prince Mentchikoff
should bring me here.”
“Why,” said Peter, “you are the person he spoke of who could cure me of
my melancholy.”
She again shook her head.
“No, it could not be I--I am only a servant--in my best clothes”--she
laughed gaily, glancing at her attire. “I have never been so fine
before, but to-night Danilovitch Mentchikoff ordered me to dress so!”
The Czar was interested in her; she had an air of extraordinary
vitality, of serene courage, and generous good-nature; she gave out an
atmosphere of pleasant warmth and kindliness, of enthusiasm and joy of
life, more remarkable than her beauty; Mentchikoff’s vivacity and high
spirits had always been his greatest attraction for Peter, but this
girl’s calm happiness and aspect of radiant health were more potent than
the favorite’s gay humor in their effect on the Czar’s somber mood.
“Why are you melancholy?” she asked, with a straight look from her large
clear gray eyes. “The Czar of Holy Russia, and sad?”
Her glance seemed to have a certain pity for his marred and weary
comeliness; it was as if she were the Empress and he the peasant, so
splendid and composed was she, so shabby and downcast was Peter.
“I have something to make me sad, Marpha,” he said.
“And many things to make you happy,” she replied simply, “but you great
men are never gay. There is supper to-night in the pavilion. Will you
come and I will pour your wine?”
“No,” said Peter, “I shall not drink to-night.”
Remembrances of the cloudy horrors of the day darkened his face; he
glanced round the gaudy room with the restlessness of a creature finding
itself suddenly caged.
“I will go into the garden,” he said; then abruptly, “You are a
Livonian. Do you know anything of your King--Karl of Sweden?”
He paused in the open window, looking at her keenly, and ready to break
into anger at whatever answer she might make.
But Marpha’s simple sweetness was too strong for his suspicious anger;
she defeated him by the sheer frankness of her reply.
“I know nothing of him,” she said, “and what can he matter to such as
the Czar of Holy Russia?”
Peter glanced at her, baffled; his vanity was soothed by this ignorant
creature’s perfect faith; his pride began to rise against this dread and
envy of the threatening figure of the unknown young King.
“Yes, I am the Czar,” he said sullenly, “and I can put a million men
into the field for his every thousand, and if they are not as good
soldiers I can knout them into being so.”
With that he turned into the garden, and his tall figure was immediately
lost in the darkness filled with the sound of the waving sumach boughs.
Marpha gazed thoughtfully at the open window; her hands that were white
and smooth, but thick and strong, the hands of a peasant, played with
her heavy jeweled breastplate.
Prince Mentchikoff entered from the hall where he had been waiting
behind the open door.
“Has he gone?” he whispered.
“Into the garden,” said Marpha.
“What do you think of him?” asked Mentchikoff eagerly.
“He is comely,” replied the girl.
Mentchikoff laughed.
“He is the greatest man in the world.”
“Ah, yes, the Czar of All the Russias.”
“Not that only--he is a hero and a genius,” said Mentchikoff, with
passionate enthusiasm. “He is creating a new Russia.”
“I understand none of these things,” replied Marpha. “The world seems to
me very well as it is--but I like Peter Alexievitch.”
“Then--if you can--make him happy--keep him cheerful,” said Mentchikoff;
“in many ways his life is barren.”
The girl looked at him with those clear eyes that were full of an almost
startling sincerity and truth.
“Then you are tired of me, Danilovitch Mentchikoff, and wish to hand me
to your master?”
He returned her look frankly; both were of the same class, one by
talent, the other by beauty elevated to these surroundings of royal
luxury; she had been little better than a camp follower and he was from
the gutter; neither was disguised to the other by their present splendor
and the pomp of their surroundings; both held their positions by the
frail tenure of another person’s favor--he by that of the Czar, she by
his; for the powerful Prince was, after all, but a dependent on the
favor of Peter, as the peasant girl was dependent on the caprice of
Mentchikoff.
The two adventurers looked at each other keenly and there was a laugh
between them; hers was wholly indifferent, perhaps heartless, his was
gay and confident, for she cared for no creature but herself, nor ever
would, while his least thought and meanest action was ennobled by his
love for his master.
“I am not tired of you, Marpha,” said Mentchikoff, “and never shall be.
I think you are a wonderful woman. I think you might help the Czar where
I fail--as now when he is in his melancholy--and when he is drunk, and
when he is ill.”
“I do not like sick people,” said the Livonian slowly.
“You have enough health and vitality to be able to share it,” replied
Mentchikoff sharply.
She drew up her superb body that so proudly bore the heavy ornate
trappings, and turning her beautiful head slowly, looked out into the
darkness of the garden.
“We speak of the Czar of Holy Russia,” added the Prince, with some
offense at her indifference.
“We speak of a dangerous man,” she replied, with that shrewdness that
had already earned for her Mentchikoff’s respect. “I do not wish to be
raised up to be dashed down. He can be cruel, and he has all the power.
Let me keep out of the way of Peter Alexievitch.”
“You said that you liked him,” said Mentchikoff sternly; he had been
hoping more than he admitted to himself from this second influence on
Peter, that was to have been like a doubling of his own.
“I like him, but I am afraid of him,” she answered concisely. “He has
many devils. I saw them peep out of his eyes. Keep me for yourself,
Danilovitch Mentchikoff, for you are a peaceful man.”
The Prince replied violently: “If you will not please Peter Alexievitch,
you shall not please me”--and passing her roughly, followed his master
out into the murmuring darkness of the garden.
Marpha colored, and her serene pleasant face was overcast.
She had been quite content with her lazy life of ease and admiration,
which had been like Paradise after the hardships of her earlier years,
and she was sorry that Mentchikoff, for whom she felt a placid
affection, had put her in the Czar’s path, for she was without ambition,
fond of ease and comfort, and entirely uninterested in statecraft and
politics; she could not write her own name, and was in every way
entirely ignorant save in the natural arts of reading men and managing
them; she would rather have been left in peace, and this though the dark
sad face of Peter attracted her as she had never before been attracted.
With a little sigh she turned to her own apartment to take off the
garment whose splendor rather constrained her, and put on the peasant
costume that she usually wore.
In the pavilion Peter and Mentchikoff were discussing the coming
campaign, the Czar showing a sudden fervent interest in those events
that he had refused hitherto to even glance at; he would not drink, but
turned half a glass of wine out on the table, and dipping his finger in
it, proceeded to draw a rough map of the scene of the King of Sweden’s
operations on the green marble.
His knowledge of the country was accurate; he correctly placed
Copenhagen, King Frederick at Tönning, Augustus of Saxony falling back
before Riga and the victorious forces of Sweden.
Then he drew a swift line through Poland towards Narva.
“There he will fall on Russia, Danilovitch.”
“Here we can meet him,” replied Mentchikoff.
Peter frowned; his dark head with the full short curls was bent low over
the stains of wine on the malachite table; carved wooden dishes with
birds’ heads, full of fruit, beakers of pierced steel and horn, had been
pushed aside by the sweep of his right arm; the light of the candles
fixed to the white walls of the pavilion shone on his stooping figure,
and the harsh, earnest face and brilliant caftan of Mentchikoff.
Peter, staring at the smears of red on the green, was seeing those vast
disputed provinces that he coveted, Ingermanland and Karelia ceded to
Sweden nearly 100 years ago, Livonia and Esthonia lost by Poland to the
same power in 1660; the possession of these lands would secure that
Baltic port which had been the dream of Ivan IV, and which was so
passionately desired by this first Czar who had beheld and loved the
sea; the first ruler of Russia who had aspired to seize the trade with
Asia and open up sea-going commerce. He had believed that the boy King
of Sweden would be utterly incapable of defending his provinces, and
that his secret league with Denmark and Poland would be easily and
successfully pursued to a victorious conclusion.
Now Denmark had fallen out of the fight and Poland was a wavering ally;
but Peter still put some faith in Augustus, because of the trained Saxon
soldiery.
So he remained for a while, staring at that crude map, his swift mind
filled out with all detail; then he suddenly smeared the wine spillings
together with his open hand and looked up at Mentchikoff, who was
regarding him eagerly.
“This is a more difficult task than punishing the Strelitz or subduing
the Cossacks,” he said, with glittering eyes. “Surely it is more
pleasure, Danilovitch, to overthrow free men than to put one’s feet on
the neck of serfs.”
“The Cossacks will join Karl,” remarked Mentchikoff, kindling eagerly at
the Czar’s fire.
“To-morrow we return to Moscow,” said Peter, and his face was as fierce
as it had been in the days after his return from his travels, when the
streets of the capital had run red with the blood of the old Moscovite
army, which had revolted against his foreign reforms.
He pushed back his tangled hair with his wine-stained hand.
“Send for that Livonian woman,” he said, “she amuses me.”
CHAPTER IV
Peter held his councils in the Kremlin surrounded by the pomp of the old
world and the new; the reforms that he had introduced with so fierce and
imperious a violence had not as yet greatly affected the nation, but the
nobility who came directly under the influence of the Czar had been
largely forced to adopt European ways, much as they might hate them and
the men like Gordon and Lefort, who, mainly because they were
foreigners, had so great an influence over Peter; these were both lately
dead, but their inspiration remained. The Czar gathered his boyars
together in the Golden Hall of the Sign Manual where his predecessors
had sat on a silver throne under the gilded vaults, clad in robes stiff
and blinding with jewels, and holding a rich orb as symbol of the
universe they commanded; there Peter himself had sat in splendid pomp as
a child with his idiot brother enthroned beside him. Peter was not
magnificent to-day; in his plain green uniform and short hair he looked
like a European foot soldier and utterly out of place in this great hall
hung with scarlet, carpeted with Eastern tapestries, and decorated with
jasper and silver, malachite and lacquer. The silver throne stood on a
dais under a crimson canopy, and on the steps of it sat Peter, his hands
clasped round his knees. The boyars had gone with their breastplates and
caftans, robes, and caps, and there remained only the Duke of Croy, the
German who commanded the army, and Mentchikoff.
All these were in the habit of Europe, Mentchikoff gorgeous in laced
coat, star, cravat, and a flowing French peruke which heavily framed
his long, harsh face.
Peter, though affecting the most utter simplicity himself, liked to see
those about him richly clad, and his favorites vied with each other in
the splendor of their appointments; nothing pleased him more than to see
the man who had worked beside him at the carpenter bench at Wapping and
Zaandam, clad in workman’s overall, appear in all the trappings of a
French or English courtier. To-day he was in a good humor; the boyars
had been compliant before his every command; his blood-thirsty vengeance
on the reactionary party who had dared to raise a rebellion during his
absence abroad was indeed too fresh in the minds of all for anyone to
risk angering the terrible Czar.
“I will teach Russia the arts of war as I am teaching her the arts of
peace,” he remarked, looking at the Duke of Croy whom he admired as a
tried soldier.
The German made a suitably loyal reply, but Mentchikoff broke in with a
sharp remark.
“How many years do you think it will take you, Peter Alexievitch?”
“All my life,” replied the Czar humbly.
“All your life,” smiled Croy, “and not the meanest serf in All the
Russias will thank you for your labors.”
“What do you mean?” asked Peter.
Croy lifted his shoulders.
“Oh, go on with your wars and your politics and your reforms,” he said
cynically. “You are a strong man--but stronger is Holy Russia!”
Peter looked at him with a certain eagerness entirely devoid of anger;
though he was so haughtily autocratic with his boyars he would take even
insolence from these men whom he had put in the position of his masters;
for a long while Croy and his like had represented European civilization
to Peter.
But Mentchikoff resented on his master’s behalf this speech made so
sharply by the German.
“The Czar holds the Russias in the palm of his hand,” he said haughtily.
“Oh, la, la!” cried the Duke.
Peter smiled grimly; he was thinking of the little chapel a few yards
away, from the window of which his uncle had been hurled out on to the
pikes of the soldiery below, and of his own boyhood of flight, and
peril, and hiding; not far away in this same fierce fortress was the Red
Staircase where Ivan the Terrible had stood to watch the cross-formed
comet that had predicted his own ghastly end, that staircase where, one
blood-stained June, Feodor Borisvitch, strangled by the sheltsi, had
been flung down, this but in revenge for another murdered Czar; the
history of his predecessors might indeed teach Peter that Holy Russia
was not so easily governed or so rapidly subdued.
“The House of Romanoff has had its misfortunes but also its greatness,”
he said simply.
“And yet may give a lesson to the impertinent Swede,” said Mentchikoff
haughtily.
“He is a great soldier,” added Croy, in his stern way.
The Czar’s face darkened; he rose abruptly, his great height overtopping
all of them.
“If he throws himself against Russia, he breaks himself,” he remarked
gloomily.
“He will attempt anything,” said Croy; his imagination like that of most
men of action had been fired by the figure of the Northern hero, who,
like another Viking, had arisen to defend his country with so much
majesty and cold magnanimity.
Peter did not care to hear his General praise his enemy.
“Where is Patkul; has he not returned?” he asked briefly. “He should
have been here--I want news from Livonia.”
No one knew where Patkul might be; it was not easy to travel in the vast
kingdoms of the Czar, and a man might be late in obeying his sovereign’s
commands, and his letters might be lost, for no other reason than the
size of the country and the primitive confusions of all its services.
Peter would have liked the presence of the fiery Livonian, with his rage
against Swedish tyranny and his hatred of Karl XI, who had condemned him
to death for protesting against the wrongs of his countrymen, and his
scorn for the present King as a haughty boy who would soon be tripped up
in his giant’s stride.
But Patkul, at present with Augustus of Saxony as ambassador of Russia,
had not come nor answered the summons, and Peter knew very little of
what was happening in any of the Baltic provinces; he saw them in his
mind as a vast confusion, and felt impatient considering how much there
was to be done and how inadequate his means were; his military plans had
got no further than a proposed expedition to Esthonia, to seize, if
possible, that province, and to send help to Augustus in Poland, or
rather to effect a juncture with him, as Peter greatly relied on the
trained Saxon troops and the polished diplomacy of the Elector; General
Patkul should be with the Polish army, Peter knew, but since Dahlberg
had worsted him at Riga, the Livonian’s credit as a soldier had fallen
in the Czar’s eyes and he wished to consult with Augustus.
He was conscious of defects in his own statecraft; the Muscovite envoys
whom he kept in Stockholm to swear friendly relations with Sweden had
merely angered and disgusted the severe honor of the Northern King, and
the Russian manifesto, in which the most puerile reasons were given for
declaring war, had been better if never published; but so far no Czar of
Russia had ever published any document concerning European diplomacy; in
everything Peter trod new ground and was keenly conscious of his
numerous mistakes.
“I will go to Poland,” he said, his words following out his train of
thought.
“You will have to defeat Sweden first, sire,” replied Croy.
“Well,” said Peter gloomily, “one can try. We march against Narva. The
Swedes do not fear a winter campaign--since they are willing to fight
amid the ice we must learn to do so also.”
Saying these words with a certain simplicity, he abruptly left the
chamber, and, passing through a maze of gilt and painted apartments,
came out on the great terrace of the Kremlin that overlooks Moscow and
the bridges over the Moskva.
He felt neither excited nor elated; perhaps he knew better than either
Croy or Mentchikoff the difficulty of this, his first great enterprise,
for, by the measure of his own wild heart he could judge of the
greatness of his rival in glory; extraordinary himself, he found it easy
to credit the extraordinary in others, and just as he was prepared to
open war in the depth of winter, in a Polar climate, so he believed that
Karl would be ready to meet him; nothing could prevent him from carrying
out his ambitions, even if he had to perform feats that in the eyes of
ordinary men were madnesses, and he rightly gauged his enemy’s character
to be the same in this respect.
He was glad that it was not possible to open the campaign till the
winter, for he considered the added difficulty an added glory; with that
sense of his own deficiency that was his truest greatness he did not
intend to command his army himself, but to serve in it as a lieutenant,
thereby giving the Russians a lesson in discipline and the value of
training, for he was aware that his soldiers would consist of a horde of
armed slaves and his officers of lawless nobles without experience or
any capacity for warfare.
But here again his pride supported him; the more impossible the
material, the greater the glory of creating for Russia an army that
should out-rival those of Europe.
With a quiet step he walked the terrace of the fierce old palace,
half-fortress, half-monastery, filled with churches and tombs, treasures
and chambers, haunted by the remembrances of cruelty and bitter
passions, all old, half-decayed, half-vividly splendid, dirty, holy,
secret, and foul.
Peter did not greatly care for this residence of his predecessors; he
preferred the little cottage that he called Marli or any of the humble
houses in the Dutch style that he had built since his return from
Europe; the Kremlin oppressed him; there was something in the atmosphere
that seemed to drag him back into the old ways of his ancestors here;
his green uniform and his foreign friends could not disguise from
himself his Tartar origin, his Asiatic breeding, which everything he
touched reminded him of; neither did he love Moscow with that reverent
love that he knew was in the heart of most Russians; he dreamt of that
other city that was to spring out of the mudbanks of the Neva and rival
Paris and London.
Pausing in his walk, he turned his soft and beautiful eyes over the
prospect of the barbaric city which glittered in many brilliancies under
the pale, greenish sky which was fading towards the evening hour; near
by, beneath the battlements, was the river, full of reflected light, but
void of color; beyond the plain was covered with crowded houses, a
confusion of roofs of a dull brown hue above which rose the myriad
cupolas and towers of the churches, shaped like strange fruits and
decorated with fantastic designs in every color and shape, only alike in
this, that each had the Christian cross surmounting the Tartar crescent,
memorial of the time when the Asiatic hordes had possession of Russia
and had changed the churches into mosques and of Ivan Vassilivitch who
raised the symbol of Christ above that of the Infidel.
These crosses were all fastened by golden chains to the cupolas, and
many were hung with discs, orbs, and stars that swung and glittered with
every changing wind or shifting sunbeam.
Despite the splendor of the churches there was something dull,
colorless, and melancholy about this prospect.
The Kremlin (a city in itself) was also gloomy; when Peter turned from
looking over the city he could see, across the sandy, weed-grown
courtyard, the whole of the citadel; the golden domes rising above walls
disfigured and neglected, the three old cathedrals where the Czars were
crowned, married, and buried, the great tower built by Boris Godunof,
and behind all the red structure of the palace and fortress.
Peter was never pleased when his glance fell on these three churches
that crowded round his royal residence; they reminded him too forcibly
of the position assumed by the Church.
Peter meant to deprive the Patriarch of much of his power, and to vest
in himself the religious as well as the temporal prerogatives of
Aristocrat of All the Russias.
He began pacing up and down the terrace again, and presently took from
the skirt pocket of his uniform a little letter which he read while the
evening breeze fluttered it in his hand.
It was an appeal from his sister, miserably confined in the convent of
Novo-Devichi, for a slightly better treatment; she was very ill, she
said, having grown too stout and being covered with ulcers, and she
begged for a little air and exercise.
Peter read the appeal with unmoved serenity; Sophia had inspired the
late rebellion and could never be forgiven.
“A pity,” thought Peter, “for she is clever and might have been useful
to me.”
He considered that he had been extremely generous in allowing her her
life; the heads of her supporters still rotted on the battlements of
Moscow; his wife, Eudoxia, suspected of favoring the rebels, was
enclosed in a convent with a shaven head that last day of September, in
the Krasnoi Ploshtshad, Peter had executed with his own hand several of
the wretched rebels already broken by torture, and had himself shaved
the beards the nobility wore as a sign of their adherence to ancient
custom; on the first day alone of the executions, two hundred persons
had been ferociously put to death in the presence of their frantic wives
and children; in the seven days’ vengeance more than a thousand had
perished; the bleeding members of the rebellious Strelitz had been
nailed to the bars of Sophia’s prison; every square in Moscow, every
corner of the battlements of the Kremlin, had been hung with corpses.
And Sophia, who had been spared, ventured to complain of her prison!
The only effect of her letter was to make her brother resolve that if
she gave any trouble during his present absence she should be strangled
in the jail she found so irksome.
Tearing the paper into little pieces he cast it away, so that the
fragments floated down the terrace and lodged in the broken pavement and
the weed-filled terraces of the wall.
The sunset glow, pale and dim, but faintly tinged with a warm light, was
now full on his smooth and rounded face with the large soft eyes and the
loose curls; he looked younger than his years, an ardent boy; his
thoughts had turned to his new adventure, the coming experiment of war.
He returned to his own chamber, not speaking to those whom he met on the
way, walking softly through the gorgeous and dismal apartments of the
Kremlin, with his hands locked behind the skirts of his coat and his
head bent.
His room had a gold-domed ceiling and walls of sparkling mosaic, a holy
picture set with precious stones between two pillars of gilt vermilion
and Eastern carpets of silk on the floor, but the furniture was that of
a camp, and the iron bedstead was covered only by the meanest blankets.
On a bright green cushion by the closed window sat Marpha, the Livonian
peasant; she wore a plain white wool robe girdled with scarlet, and
orange leather shoes; her head-dress had been removed and her bright
opulent hair hung in heavy locks over her broad shoulders.
On the floor in front of her stood the crowns of the Russias, and she
was playing with these in turn, like a child fondling toys, while on her
lap was a bag of sweetmeats from which she fed herself continually,
eating noisily and licking the sugar from her lips.
When the Czar entered she had in her left hand the plain gold crown of
the Crimea, and before her the massive crowns of Astrakan, Kazan,
Siberia, and Georgia, which pulsed with the light held and given forth
by a thousand precious stones.
Peter looked at her with the eyes of love.
“Have you ever had such pretty playthings?” he asked.
Marpha glanced at him without either greed or envy in her expression.
“I would rather have an ivory comb,” she said simply, and rose with the
crowns in a half-circle at her feet.
“You shall have,” answered Peter tenderly, “as many ivory combs as there
are hairs in your head.”
He crossed over to her and embraced her, resting his head, with a little
sigh, on her bosom; she looked down at him calmly and with a certain
indulgence.
“Marpha,” he asked, “will you come to the war with me?”
“Still thinking of the war?” she replied gaily. “Have you had your
supper? Will you eat here with me instead of with your boyars to-night?
I have the kvas ready.”
Peter lifted his head and looked at her; the atmosphere of the room was
close and foul, the air full of flies and mosquitoes; both the room and
the woman were dirty; her gown was soiled, her face and hands sticky
with perspiration and sugar; the taint of brandy was in her breath, and
her expressionless beauty was clouded by her slovenliness. But the Czar
saw none of these things; he felt as happy as he had ever felt in his
life as he flung himself into one of the camp chairs, and she hastened
to bring him his drink; the native spirit and fine French wine in equal
parts.
He drank this, glass after glass, as the woman went into the inner room
and prepared the rude supper, singing in a sweet voice and thinking of
nothing much but the good, plentiful food and the fine, plentiful drink
and the gay dresses and lazy days now within her reach.
And Peter, as he became inflamed with the spirit, imagined himself
crushing the Swedes as he had crushed the rebellious Strelitz, and he
nodded at the pale-faced ikon between the scarlet pillars, promising it
an egg-shaped emerald when he should have taken Narva.
BOOK III
JOHN RHEINHOLD PATKUL
“His grief was but his grandeur in disguise
And discontent his immortality.”
CHAPTER I
By the first day of October, Peter, after ravaging Ingria, found himself
before Narva, swiftly bearing the thunders of his vengeance against his
Northern rival, who, despite the extreme severity of the climate (it was
already midwinter in this bitter latitude), was steadily advancing to
meet the last and most powerful of his enemies.
Peter was on fire to prove to the people, who were half unwillingly
accepting his gigantic efforts to lift Russia into the position of a
great power, that his new methods of warfare were capable of rendering
null the treaties of Stolboro and Plivia, and Karl was equally resolute
to prove that he was invincible in defense of what he had every right to
consider his own territory.
John Rheinhold Patkul, the Livonian noble who had been largely
instrumental in forming the threefold secret treaty against Sweden, who
had been first in the service of the Elector of Saxony and afterwards
Peter’s envoy at Dresden, was now with the Muscovite army, and the
report of his presence there further inflamed the cold anger of the King
of Sweden, who, crossing the sea with a fine fleet of transport, was
marching towards Narva six weeks after Peter had commenced the siege,
regardless alike of the increasing rigors of the winter and the
disparity of numbers between his own army and that of the Czar.
He had reason for his confidence, for it was in numbers only that Peter
had the advantage.
A skilled general with a disciplined army would have been able to reduce
the little town of Narva into ashes in a few days, perhaps hours; Peter
had sat down before it six weeks in vain, while the Baron de Horn, in
command of the beleaguered garrison, was able, with his few pieces of
cannon, to again and again level the trenches, redoubts, and
fortifications that Peter had constructed round his camp, in accordance
with what he had learnt in his travels.
These rude attempts at the science of war were complete failures; 150
cannon could scarcely be fired and could never hit their objective;
nearly 65,000 men remained helpless before a garrison of 1000, in a
small ill-protected town.
Peter, in no way sparing himself (he still held the rank of lieutenant
in his own army), spent his days going from one part of his camp to
another, instructing, working, exhorting, threatening, enduring all the
hardships of the terrible weather and the inadequate supplies of the
badly provisioned army.
The Duke of Croy was in command; an able soldier, trained in the
traditions of European warfare, he yet was incapable of controlling an
army consisting largely of a horde of peasants, dressed in skins, armed
with scythes, pruning knives, and officered by a haughty and ignorant
nobility, who knew neither how to enforce obedience nor how to submit to
discipline.
There was not one good gunner in the whole army and no one who had seen
a siege before; the only passable troops were the Strelitz, decimated by
Peter’s late vengeance on their reactionary spirit and only accustomed
to Eastern and Asiatic methods of warfare.
Day after day Peter, dressed in the old green uniform, with a worn fur
cap and mantle, smoking a Dutch clay pipe, watched, with a dogged
patience, the erections of fortifications that Horn’s artillery always
accurately demolished; his brooding gaze traveled over his soldiers,
courageous, robust, and willing, but completely ignorant and
uncontrollable, and he thought of what he had yet to do for Russia.
Easier to build his city on the marshes of the Neva than to frame out of
these an army that would defeat Karl of Sweden! He became melancholy and
fierce; neither Mentchikoff nor Patkul nor Croy could divert his gloomy
musings; the only creature who had any power to soothe him was Marpha,
the Livonian peasant, whom he had brought with him and who bloomed like
a winter rose amid the rough life of the camp; she enjoyed her
surroundings, could give or take a rude jest with the least of the
soldiery, wait on the Czar like a foot-boy, yet be a wild Aspasia to
this strange Pericles.
The King of Sweden, with about 8000 men, of which the half were cavalry,
landed at Pernau in the gulf of Riga; with all the horse and about half
of the foot he advanced at once on Revel, without waiting for the rest
of his troops.
Peter meanwhile had left the army before Narva in charge of the Duke of
Croy, and had himself hastened to Pskov to bring up a new body of 30,000
troops; his design being to enclose Karl between two armies; he had
already thrown across the road from Revel to Narva 55,000 men, including
his best troops, the Strelitz, 5000 of which formed an advance guard,
who soon found themselves facing the first regiments of the King of
Sweden’s army.
The Strelitz were so well posted among the rocks that a far fewer number
than they possessed could have easily hindered the approach of a much
larger army than that possessed by Karl, but the Russians, not knowing
what they had to face and believing the Swedes innumerable as well as
excellent, fled with little resistance. This panic communicated itself
to their compatriots behind them, and in two days the Swedes had swept
before them 25,000 men, taken all the Russian outposts, and appeared
before the Czar’s entrenchments before Narva.
It was a black morning of dreadful cold, the last day of November, when
Karl found himself before the army of Peter.
A gray sky hung heavily over the desolate landscape and seemed to press
heavily on the bare trees; the Swedes were fatigued with the march from
Pernau and the encounters with the Russians on the road; Karl called a
halt.
A young Scotchman in his army, who had several times proved himself
useful in delicate work of espionage, had managed to get ahead of the
army and penetrate the Russian lines; the news he brought was considered
interesting enough to cause him to be taken before the King.
He had never seen Karl XII face to face, and it was with considerable
curiosity that he followed the staff officer who took him into the royal
presence.
The army was taking a few hours’ repose, but no tents had been set up,
and the Scotchman found Karl seated on the great roots of a huge pine
tree, with him Count Piper and several generals.
He was already completely inured to hardships for which his childish
training had well fitted him, and suffered from the severities of
warfare perhaps less than any of his soldiers.
He was now only a few months past his eighteenth birthday, but in every
respect had reached his full development; his great height and powerful
figure made him conspicuous even among an army of robust and vigorous
men; he had the grace of the athlete and the dignity of a king in his
carriage, yet there was an awkwardness, a stiffness in his manners that
might have been haughtiness or indifference or even shyness; his
expression was cold and unchanging, his speech abrupt and plain; he gave
no impression of youth save in the softness of his traits and the
slackness of his figure.
He wore a blue uniform, tight waisted and with a full skirt, closely
fastened with buttons of gilt leather up to the throat and showing no
shirt, but only the plain band of the black satin cravat; an ordinary
leather belt and strap supported his sword, and long gauntlet gloves
reached to his elbow, his soft knee boots and his breeches were alike of
leather; he wore a three-cornered black hat set well on his head, and
his fair hair arranged in curls like a peruke on his shoulders.
He had a mantle of blue cloth, lined with fur, but this, despite the
freezing cold, was cast on the ground beside him; his face, yet
beardless and showing, notwithstanding the exposure to intemperate
weather, still the bloom of extreme youth, had hardened in outline since
he had begun the life of a soldier; the features were firm as a mask of
stone, fresh with the warm tints of health, generous and full in line
and curve; neither enthusiasm nor humor, nor pride, nor tenderness
showed in his expression; his blue eyes looked out with a cold, level,
and serene glance; he had the air of one dwelling in a world of his own
with little care for others.
The Scotchman thought him remarkable but neither agreeable nor
attractive; the King had a personality too aloof from warm and human
weaknesses to command sympathy from ordinary men; he had many servants
but few friends, much admiration, but little love.
“Tell me,” he said at once, as the young man was presented to him, “did
you see the Czar of Muscovy?”
The Scotchman saw that the King attached much importance to this
question, and was chagrined that he could not answer in the affirmative.
“Sire, the Czar has left his army to hasten up the reserves.”
“I should like to have met him in the battle,” said Karl, but without a
trace of annoyance. “The reserves could have come up without him. I
think he did ill to leave his post now.”
“It looks,” said one of the generals who stood beside the King, “as if
he was afraid of your Majesty.”
“That is impossible,” replied Karl quietly, “for I take him to be a
great man.”
“But it is true, sire,” put in the Scot, “that the Muscovites have a
great terror of your Majesty; I was in their camp last night and heard
them speak of you and your exploits as they might have spoken of
supernatural things.”
“It needs but a poor prowess to achieve a reputation in the eyes of
savages,” replied the King, still cold and unmoved. “These Russians are
both ignorant and wild. How came you, sir, to escape detection?”
“I speak the German very well, sire, and passed for the servant of a
German officer, of whom they have several, and their camp is in such a
confusion one might almost come and go as one pleases.”
“They know nothing of war,” observed Karl, “but the Czar will teach
them.”
“He seems much loved--though unjustly cruel and unwisely generous. I saw
his friend, Mentchikoff, and the Livonian woman who they say has a great
influence over him.”
Karl smiled, as if he was glad to hear of this weakness in his rival;
there was not a woman in the whole of the Swedish army; the Scot
remarked how disagreeable his smile was; it seemed to disfigure his
noble face.
“Saw you this woman?” he asked.
“Yes, sire, at the door of Peter’s empty tent, making kvas, as they call
the stuff they drink. She had a fur coat of uncouth cut and was all
smeared with meal and honey, but in her way she is as beautiful as
Aurora von Königsmarck.”
The King abruptly changed the subject as if he regretted having shown
even so much interest in the affairs of his enemy.
“You learnt nothing of importance?” he asked with great indifference; he
had only spoken to the spy because he wished to know if Peter was with
his army; as to his own actions, he had decided what they were to be
ever since he had landed at Pernau.
The Scotchman proceeded to tell him of what he had learnt of the enemy,
their number, disposition, and probable plans.
Karl listened with patience, but with so cold a mien that the young man
faltered in his speech; the King’s face, blank as it was of all but
courageous steadfastness, overawed him and made him uneasy; he felt that
he spoke to one utterly beyond his knowledge or liking; he was glad when
he was dismissed.
As he went Karl rose from the tree roots, overtopping, by nearly half a
head, his tallest officer; the air was still and freezing, and a few
flakes of ghastly white snow began to flutter from the bitter sky.
“We should be able to attack at midday,” said the King; it was then
about ten o’clock.
“Your Majesty has considered the peril?” asked General Rehnsköld. “By
all accounts we must be outnumbered by a hundred to one, and they are
entrenched and fortified.”
Karl stooped and took up his mantle, shaking from it the first flakes of
snow that were large and hard.
“Do you doubt,” he answered, “that I, with 8000 Swedes, can pass over
the bodies of 80,000 Muscovites?”
He swung the mantle round his great shoulders and then added instantly,
fearful that he had seemed to boast, a thing his pride loathed: “Are you
not really of my opinion, Rehnsköld? I have two great advantages--he
cannot use his cavalry, and as the ground is enclosed his great numbers
will be but an encumbrance. It is I who am really stronger than he, and
have all the advantages.”
General Rehnsköld bowed his head in assent; there was not one of the
staff officers behind him who did not consider the young King’s action
rash to madness.
Karl saw this; for their opinion he cared nothing; but he greatly
disliked to be suspected of bravado; his was not the unconscious modesty
of a man who knows not he is great nor that his actions are remarkable,
but the conscious austerity of one who is aware he is extraordinary and
wishes to be acclaimed, but not by his own tongue.
“If I defeat the Czar here, Cracow and Varsovia are open to me,” he
said, turning his blue eyes on the quiet faces of his officers.
Again General Rehnsköld bowed.
“I am entirely of your Majesty’s opinion.”
“At least you submit very gracefully, General,” replied Karl, with his
ugly smile.
He turned away and Count Piper followed him.
“He will be as hard and obstinate as his father,” remarked an officer,
shivering under his fur, for the cold was of Polar intensity.
“Eight thousand men against eighty thousand!” exclaimed another. “He
thinks to rival Leonidas or one of his saga heroes.”
“Gentlemen,” said Rehnsköld, “I think he will do it.”
The King and Count Piper mounted and cantered along the lines of the
resting army; Karl had taken no deliberations and held no councils. He
considered that there was nothing to do but to give the order to attack;
after a brief survey of his men he would be back with his staff under
the great pine.
Count Piper, who was not a soldier but a true patriot, glanced several
times at what the black hat and full fair curls allowed him to see of
the King’s face.
He had been very eager to urge him into a defensive war, but he had
never dreamed of these reckless projects, this complete absorption in
war for war’s sake; he secretly suspected that all the cold but deep
passion of the King’s nature was concentrated, not on the desire to
better Sweden, but on the design of making for himself the reputation of
an invincible captain; the main object of the war was achieved in the
restoration of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp to his dominions; but Karl
had never said a word of returning to Stockholm, even for a visit, and
the last advices from the Council of Regency in the capital he had
thrust in his pocket without reading, and he had embarked on this
desperate winter campaign, with no purpose that Count Piper could see
but that of making the world stare.
“As long as these mad exploits are successful----” thought the
statesman, “but his first failure will cost us all Gustavas Vasa
gained!” He could not resist the endeavor to rouse Karl from his passive
hardness.
“When your Majesty has beaten the Czar of Muscovy, will you be content?”
“There is still Augustus,” replied the King; he glanced up at the
snow-filled air. “Look, the storm is blowing towards the enemy, we shall
have it at our backs, they in their eyes--did I not say I was
fortunate?”
Count Piper shivered; the weather was black and bitter enough to freeze
a man’s soul; he wished Karl’s ardor for glory had stopped short of
battle in midwinter at a latitude of 30 degrees Polar, with odds of a
hundred to one.
“You are cold?” asked Karl. “I like the snow. I wish Peter was with his
men. Surely he will return from Pskov.”
His blue eyes cast a bright glance over the precise ranks of his
perfectly disciplined soldiers; men who had prayers twice a day and
lived like athletes in training.
“I had an item of news from Stockholm when last I heard,” said the
Count, as they turned their horses’ heads. “Viktoria Falkenberg is
dead. It seems that she had long concealed a fatal complaint.”
The King’s expressionless face did not alter; he was skilfully guiding
his horse over the rough ground, already white with snow.
“The signal for the charge,” he remarked, “will be two shots--the
passwords--‘God with us.’”
A darkness enclosed the world with the soft descent of the snow; the
flakes hung in the folds of the King’s mantle and in his curls; his hat
was covered; the ground was frozen, the tops of the gaunt pines hidden
in the whirling storm; the rigid ranks of Sweden showed a darkness amid
the dark; facing them were the black gaping cannon of the vast army of
the Czar; even beneath their fur caftans the Russians were numb; Marpha,
wrapped in skins and wools, stared at a picture of St. Nicholas
Mentchikoff had thrust into her hands, but she was not praying but
thinking of the absent Czar; she wished he was back in the dirty tent
where she could minister to him and prepare him for the fight.
“I wonder if he is afraid of that boy?” she thought, then suddenly
crouched low as the sound of the Swedish cannon scattered the storm;
Karl and his eight thousand were hurling themselves on the ranks of
Muscovy; Marpha crept to the tent door and looked out, but the snow
swirled in and blinded her; again the cannon and distant shouts; she sat
huddled and silent, hating her lover for not being there.
CHAPTER II
“If you do not believe that I shall redeem Narva you are a fool,” said
Peter rudely. “The Swedes themselves will teach us how to defeat their
own armies.”
It was three months after his bitter failure when the King of Sweden had
scattered his immense forces in a few hours, and he himself, coming with
the reinforcements from Pskov, had withdrawn from the path of a
conqueror with troops so greatly inferior to his own; Karl was spending
the winter encamped near Narva and Peter had come to Birsen, a little
town in Lithuania, to meet informally (indeed it might be said that the
Czar never did anything formally) his ally, Augustus, Elector of Saxony
and King of Poland, on whose trained troops Peter still relied, though
Augustus had shown to but little advantage in the war, and had done
nothing since he had gracefully submitted to necessity in raising the
siege of Riga.
It was to Augustus whom Peter spoke now; the King Elector’s heart was
hardly in the war that for him had been mainly an excuse to keep a
standing army with which to overawe Poland, and that he had never
intended to go to these extreme, expensive lengths, and he had several
times referred, with that calm elegance that irritated Peter, to the
disastrous day of Narva, so fatal to the Russian arms that the terrified
inhabitants of Moscow, on hearing of the news, had not hesitated to
attribute it to magic on the part of the Swedes. And Peter had suddenly
broken out into violence.
“Perhaps you are a fool,” he added loudly.
Augustus flushed, but smiled and slightly raised his eyebrows, glancing
at the third occupant of the chamber which was the best parlor of the
best house in Birsen. This gentleman was John Rheinhold Patkul, the
prime author of the league against Sweden, at first in the employment of
Saxony, now in the service of Peter whom he continued to represent at
Dresden.
He looked at the Czar now with a glance of affection and spoke quietly.
“I am sure that your Majesty will completely revenge Narva.”
“Thank you, General Patkul,” said Peter sullenly, “but whatever you or
any other man believe, I am sure I shall humble that haughty boy.”
He put his elbows on the corner of the black oak table near which he sat
and supported his face in his brown hands.
The persons of these three men were in great contrast, and it was plain
that some extraordinary event outside their own volition or inclination
had brought them together. Peter wore his shabby green uniform, cracked
and old top-boots, a sword and belt like those of a common soldier, his
own tumbled short and dusky curls, only his linen was fine and clean
where it showed above the high buttoned coat; for the rest he might have
been a trooper, disordered after a day’s march.
Augustus, who sat in a great chair with arms near the log fire, was a
man of a physical strength famous throughout Europe; he was as tall as
the Czar and far more powerfully made, the splendid Karl would have
appeared a stripling beside him for he was now in the prime of his
manhood; a magnificent prince like the hero of a fairy-tale to the eye,
for he was extremely good-looking in a pleasing, conventional fashion,
gracious, easy in manner, full of fire and chivalry, and elegant as any
courtier of Louis XIV; his court was considered next to that of
Versailles for brilliancy, extravagance, and elegance, and he had made
Dresden nearly as fashionable as Paris.
He also wore riding costume, but in complete contrast to the
habiliments of the Czar; a mantle of dark blue silk, lined with black
fur, was flung back on his shoulders and fastened across the breast with
gold clasps; his coat was of fine deep crimson cloth gallooned with
silver; his rich laces, fastened with a black bow at the throat, fell
over a white satin waistcoat heavily embroidered in colored silks; his
close knee-boots were of the softest leather, his spurs gilt, his sword
and baldrick very handsome and tasseled; his kindly, charming face was
framed in the rich curls of a long peruke, and on the chair beside him
were his huge gauntlet gloves, his black hat with long white plumes and
his gold-headed riding-crop.
He looked both disinterested and slightly ill at ease, though his air
was one of perfect courtesy, and he seemed to pay more attention to the
Livonian nobleman than to the Muscovite Czar--finding the former more to
his ideas of civilization.
This man, who had already played such a considerable but more or less
secret part in the politics of Northern Europe, and who now defied Karl
XII with his sword as he had defied Karl XI with his eloquence, was
still young, but of an appearance ordinary compared to that of the two
princes.
He was fair, of medium height, with blunt features and earnest gray
eyes, an expression enthusiastic and serious; he wore the uniform of a
Saxon General, and his peruke was tied with a black ribbon; his
personality was sincere and attractive, and to any who knew his history
there was round him the fascination of lost causes and forlorn hopes,
the romance of the fanatic and the patriot, for Patkul had only lived
with the one object of rescuing his country from the tyranny of Sweden.
He had been elected as spokesman to put the wrongs of Livonia before
Karl XI; that stern monarch had received him graciously.
“You have spoken for your country like a brave man, and I respect you
for it,” he had said, but the next day Patkul had been arrested on a
charge of treason; he had broken prison and escaped abroad, and from
then had been the steady enemy of Karl XI and his son.
To Augustus he had been of infinite value, and he had only left the
court of Dresden because his single-mindedness, his haughty spirit, and
ardent purpose had accorded ill with the frivolous atmosphere,
bed-chamber plots, and petty intrigues of the Elector’s court; in Peter
he had found a more congenial master, but a sentimental tie still bound
him to Dresden; he was betrothed to a good and beautiful Saxon lady,
Mdle. D’Einsiedel.
The sincerity and simplicity of this love affair was in contrast to the
fashion of the moment; Augustus was slightly cynical and Peter did not
understand, but Patkul was not greatly concerned in these princes’
opinion of his private concern; they were to him but instruments to free
Livonia and humble Sweden, though for Peter Alexis he felt a certain
affection, for the Czar was also struggling with a gigantic, perhaps
hopeless, task.
Augustus glanced with some disgust at the somber figure of Peter; the
moods and melancholies of the wild, diseased Muscovite were very
repellent to the healthy, ease-loving Saxon; secretly he cursed the
alliance with Russia (though he was too good-natured to blame its
author, Patkul), and wished that he had found some less dangerous excuse
for keeping his standing army.
However, he had to force on his reluctant and somewhat lazy mind that he
was in a perilous position; Karl had defeated Denmark (who no longer
counted as a member of the league) and defeated Russia, and there could
be little doubt that the stern and haughty young conqueror would now
turn his arms against Poland; the King-Elector saw no ally and no chance
of support save in the Czar.
The treaty of Altona kept England and Holland tacitly at least on the
side of Sweden, and Augustus had never been looked upon well by France,
whose princes he had defeated in the candidature for the Polish throne.
His defensive measures must be taken in concert with Peter; a defeated
man, certainly, but one of immense resources and genius.
“While we talk, Sweden will act,” he said, with a slightly quizzical
smile, his good humor after all carrying the day in the struggle with
his irritation against the mood of the incomprehensible Peter; he rose,
very gorgeous and making the room look mean. “Let us have our dinner,”
he added, “and then come to some serious conversation.”
“Which has been too long delayed, sire,” remarked General Patkul
quietly; already the meeting between kings and ministers was several
days old, and nothing had taken place but mutual compliments and mutual
entertainments in which all had joined from Peter and Augustus to the
meanest secretary in their train; Patkul, the only man who had kept
quite aloof, was probably the only man in Birsen now completely sober;
it was the reaction from debauch that had plunged Peter into melancholy,
and Augustus was heavy-headed and heavy-eyed.
“Too long delayed,” he agreed smoothly. “Karl will not spend much longer
before Narva--why, having achieved his end, he cannot go home----”
Peter looked up.
“Achieved his end?” he questioned.
“Has he not got back Holstein-Gottorp and checked the invasion into his
Baltic provinces?”
“And you think that was his end!” exclaimed the Czar contemptuously.
“No, he wishes to dethrone you and me.”
Augustus laughed at this abrupt statement.
“A second Alexander? Not in these times, sire,” he replied. “Not even a
vain boy would dream of world conquest now--especially after the lessons
of Ryswick; what Louis could not accomplish Karl will hardly attempt.”
“I think that he will,” said Peter, measuring the Swede’s spirit by his
own.
He was seconded by the Livonian.
“I think that you are right, sire; there is no end to what Karl will
attempt--perhaps no end to what he will achieve. I think his Saxon
Majesty can hardly conceive the type, hard, cold, justly cruel and
justly generous--a man without mercy for himself or others, austere,
awkward, without grace or charm, yet underneath half-mad with pride,
with obstinacy, with the old Viking blood lust, the old Berserker fury
against those who oppose him.”
Patkul spoke with a feeling that pleased Peter, always intensely
interested in anything to do with his rival.
“He is reputed virtuous,” said the Czar.
“Virtuous!” exclaimed Patkul, with a flush in his blond face. “Yes--he
has prayers twice a day in his camp, and his soldiers do not take a
slice of bread that they do not pay for; he lives the life of a Spartan
and a monk, for it is his vanity to be considered above the weaknesses
of mankind, but he would see Sweden go to perdition sooner than forgo
one of his mad schemes or sacrifice one leaf from the laurels of his
barren victories!”
“You speak from your knowledge of his father,” said Augustus.
“From my knowledge of the race, sir. Karl XI thought something of the
good of his people, and embarked on no useless conquests, but the type
was the same--a man of granite. He killed his Queen with his hardness. I
think that he never said a kind word, all his days, to anyone.”
“And no woman was ever found to soften him?” asked Augustus, who was
trained in the traditions of Versailles.
“Never. They say that this man is the same,” replied Patkul. “He
prefers to govern his passions rather than to risk female domination and
has resolved never to look on a fair face.”
“I will send him Marpha,” said Peter gravely. “She would twine round the
heart of a saint.”
At the thought of such an ambassadress being sent to bewitch the haughty
young conqueror with her crude charms, and the spectacle of the Czar’s
entire belief in the illiterate camp follower with her rude speech and
neglected person who so offended the fastidious taste of the Saxon,
Augustus could not repress a smile of contempt.
Peter perceived it and rose; little flames of wrath sparkled in his full
brown eyes.
“Well, send him Aurora von Königsmarck,” he cried violently.
Augustus was utterly taken aback; he had never so been spoken to nor
surrounded by other than refinement and elegance; to even hear the name
of Aurora on the lips of Peter was a profanation, but to listen to her,
one of the admired women of Europe, the Montespan of his Versailles,
coupled, in this odious connection, with the Livonian peasant, raised by
the mad caprice of Peter, made him put his hand to his sword.
“Well,” said the Czar, with dangerous softness, “why not your woman as
well as mine?”
Patkul intervened.
“Leave the names of women, sire,” he said quickly and with some
authority. “The King of Sweden is not, in any case, to be outwitted that
way.”
Augustus recovered his composure by reminding himself that he had to
deal with a man almost wholly a savage.
“At least you will leave the name of the Countess von Königsmarck, sir,”
he said coldly.
Peter laughed with rude contempt; he had no respect for any woman, and
the brilliant Aurora who ruled the superb court of Dresden was no better
in his mind than Marpha, who stirred the kvas and drank brandy in his
dirty hut or tent.
Augustus did not like this laugh and spoke again, to avoid a quarrel.
“Surely it is time we joined Mentchikoff for dinner,” and he glanced
patiently at the cold winter day beyond the window.
“You are very fond of your dinner,” said Peter, who turned from the
French cooking provided by Augustus to devour half-cooked greasy meat
and parboiled vegetables soaked in vinegar.
The King-Elector, perfectly master of himself, turned easily to Patkul.
“General,” he said, “escort His Majesty to the dining-hall.”
And with that he left the room, gathering up gracefully his hat, gloves,
and whip.
“He is a silly fribble and a besotted rake,” said Peter angrily, as the
door closed.
“He has a fine army, sire,” replied Patkul quietly; he was used to
managing both these men, so utterly different and both so necessary to
his great schemes.
“Yes,” admitted the Czar sullenly, with envy in his eyes.
“The sort of army that is needful to defeat Sweden--come here, sire,” he
beckoned Peter to the window and pointed out, in the courtyard of the
modest house, the Saxon guard who had been appointed to attend on Peter
during his residence at Birsen. “Are they not splendid fellows? And
those passing, of the Brandenbourg regiment--and Augustus has thousands
of such men.”
Peter’s haggard eyes lit with professional enthusiasm.
“I will have men like that, Patkul.”
“Meanwhile it is useful to tolerate the Elector, sire.”
“And choke myself with his French sauces, and grimace with him over his
compliments.”
“Well,” said Patkul gravely, “I think your Majesties have some tastes in
common; you have been drunk together for three days on end, and that
should have promoted some fellow-feeling.”
The Czar gave no answer and Prince Mentchikoff entered the room; he was
dressed magnificently, and in tolerable imitation of the Saxon nobility;
the peasant had acquired Western polish more easily than the Czar.
Peter greeted him affectionately, taking his face between his hands and
kissing him; it was the first time he had seen him that day for
Mentchikoff had been sleeping off the effects of last night’s orgy.
Patkul left the two Russians together, and hastened after Augustus who
was already seated at table with several of his ministers and officers.
“You wish yourself back at Dresden, no?” he greeted the Livonian
pleasantly.
“Sire,” replied Patkul, “I should not care to be back at Dresden
thinking that this meeting had been fruitless.”
“You are right,” said Augustus, gravely, “and the sooner we finish this
treaty the sooner we can return,” and his eyes shone, as he thought of
his Aurora.
Patkul completed the treaty that day; the Czar was to send into Poland
50,000 men to learn to become soldiers, and, in the space of two years,
to pay to the Czar 3,000,000 rix-dollars; Augustus was to levy from
neighboring princes 50,000 trained German troops to send into Russia;
this treaty, that seemed to lay the foundation for the greatness of the
Czar and the ruin of Sweden, once completed, Patkul would have made
instant preparations to put it into force; but Augustus, despite the
attractions of his gorgeous darling and his fears for the safety of his
kingdom, joined Peter in a week-long debauch.
Meanwhile Sweden, breaking camp at Narva, marched on Riga, and Patkul,
unable to endure the idle orgies, obtained permission to join the Saxon
troops under Courlande and Steinau, who were defending the passage of
the Dwina against the conqueror.
CHAPTER III
“When things go smoothly it is well to be a woman, when they go ill I
would give my soul to be a man,” said Aurora von Königsmarck.
She was in her beautiful chamber in the Palace at Dresden, seated on a
low couch piled with cushions of shimmering brocade, holding in her long
fair hand a letter from the Elector.
“I think,” replied her companion, “you would not, under any inducement,
be other than what you are.”
Aurora looked up sharply.
“Would you?” she demanded.
The court favorite smiled as she spoke and flung herself farther back
into the soft cushions, crushing the stiff violet ribbons and frills of
silver lace on her magnificent gown.
“No,” said the other lady; she was fair and pale, and seated on a stool
of red lacquer was helping a tiny negro page to feed with sugar a parrot
that swung in an ebony ring.
“Why?” asked Aurora.
“Because I am betrothed to General Patkul,” replied the lady, without
looking round.
“Romantic love--in this age!” smiled the Countess.
Mdle. D’Einsiedel daintily placed the morsel of sugar in the bird’s huge
polished beak; he as daintily accepted it, and twisted round in his ring
sweeping his long green tail feathers into the face of the page.
“Tell me about it,” coaxed Aurora, leaning forward so that her beautiful
head peered over the gilt edge of the settee. “Tell me what it is like
to be in love--in love!--in that way?”
“I am sorry for you that you do not know. Countess,” smiled Hélène
D’Einsiedel, still amusing herself with the bird and not looking round.
Aurora von Königsmarck studied her with a curiosity that was not
entirely without malice and envy.
The young girl (she was hardly more than seventeen) made a beautiful
picture in her full rose-colored dress, seated on rose-colored cushions,
with rainbow-hued silk ribbons at her slender waist, and in her loosely
dressed pale hair, silk flowers; forget-me-nots and roses were amid the
fine laces on her open bosom, pearls in her ears and round her throat;
her delicate features shone fair with youth and health, grace and breed;
she was wealthy, noble, nurtured in a corrupt and brilliant court, and
she had consented to bestow her hand on a man who was no more than a
political adventurer; native of a country supposed half-savage and with
no particular attractions of person or manner, John Rheinhold Patkul had
never been popular with the courtiers of Augustus, but he had inspired
this girl with an intense devotion that no opposition could shake.
She continued with undisturbed grace to feed the parrot; behind her was
a tapestry of a woodland scene, gray-green in color, which formed the
background to her pale beauty which was in piquant contrast to the negro
with his scarlet suit and sky-blue turban and the harsh colors of the
bird.
“Well, child,” said Aurora at length, “if you will not talk----! You
will marry your Livonian, and go to live in his wild country and forget
about me.”
The girl looked at the sugar lying in her pink palm; Aurora had always
been her friend, to some extent her patroness, but she did not care to
talk to her of General Patkul.
“Obstinate!” continued the Countess. “You will not even distract me from
my bad news. Augustus is sick. And the fight by Riga goes ill for us.”
“Ah!” Mdle. D’Einsiedel turned her brown eyes now.
“I thought I should move you,” remarked Aurora maliciously. “Have you
not heard, then, from your idol?”
Patkul, with Courlande and Steinau, was disputing the sandy reaches of
the Dwina against the advancing troops of Karl XII; it was the first
shock of the opening of the young conqueror’s second campaign.
“I have not heard for several days,” replied the girl in a low voice,
“but why should I grieve or trouble? The cause is a sacred one, and I
feel sure that God will protect it.”
Aurora smiled at these trite words which betrayed the touching
confidence of youth in the continuance of happiness; she saw that the
girl was so wrapt in the splendor of a first and noble passion that she
could not think of misfortune as a possible thing. The Countess sighed
and pulled at her waist ribbons with restless fingers; all romance had
long left her life; her outlook was that of the brilliant adventuress
concerned only to keep the splendid position she had attained by talent
and beauty.
By now she had forgotten if she ever had loved Augustus, the handsome,
generous, good-humored Prince whose favor had made her great; he was
simply her world, the thing by which she must stand or fall; his ruin
would be her ruin, utterly; she was grateful enough and loyal enough to
scorn the thought of leaving him if he was defeated and brought to
disaster, but she could not view with calm the prospect of losing her
position as mistress of the second most brilliant court in Europe, and
all the pleasures and honors she now enjoyed as a famous beauty and a
clever and powerful woman. She was of a noble Swedish family with a wild
and tragic history; the names of her two brothers had long held a horrid
renown; Philip von Königsmarck had been the lover of Dorothea of Zell,
the Elector of Hanover’s wife, and, betrayed by a woman’s jealousy, had
been caught and horribly murdered as he left the Electress; the other
brother had been concerned in the brutal assassination of a wealthy
Englishman whose wife the young adventurer hoped to marry; his
accomplices were taken and hanged and he had fled, to perish miserably
and obscurely in battle.
These tragedies had not been without their effect on Aurora; she found
the echo of them in her own wild heart; she had wept with passionate
indignation for Philip and scorned the other for a fool.
As for herself she meant to be neither the victim of passion nor of
folly, but in every way to avoid disaster; her impetuous spirit was
governed by a cool brain; she was intelligent in large matters, clever
in small ones, intensely conscious of being an extraordinary woman, not
vain of her beauty nor her wit nor her charm, but aware of the value of
these things, how men could be led by them, and the power they might
purchase.
She had no evil qualities; her most sincere emotion was her passionate
love for her beautiful little son, Maurice; perhaps a sense of stifled
discontent lay deep hidden in her heart, mingled with the adventurer’s
secret longing for haven and security; this she never admitted even to
herself, but sometimes it colored her behavior, as now when she was
inclined to be spiteful with the young and rather silly girl absorbed in
the magic of a great love.
“She really would leave everything for him,” thought the Countess; she
wondered what it must be to feel like that; the creature was so shy and
reserved about it too.
Aurora had herself, purely as a matter of course, tried to bring Patkul
to her feet when he had first come to the Dresden Court; neither her
fidelity to Augustus nor the native coldness of her disposition
prevented her from endeavoring to subjugate every notable man who
crossed her path; that the Livonian had been ice to her and flame to
Hélène D’Einsiedel did not add to the good-humor with which she viewed
this romantic, old-fashioned love affair.
Vanity apart, her good sense condemned the type of man who could prefer
a stupid girl, endowed only with the passing prettiness of youth, to a
woman like herself.
She was extremely lovely, vivid in coloring for the North, bright brown
eyes, soft brown hair, graceful from crown to heel, every movement
charming, every look and gesture radiant with beauty.
“Why are you angry with me, Countess?” asked the girl suddenly, tossing
down the sugar on to the rose-colored cushions.
“How did you know I was angry?”
“Oh, la, you look as if you would like to beat me!”
Aurora suddenly moved and clasped her long hands round her knees.
“I suppose I envied you,” she said, in one of her careless generous
impulses. “You have something I have never had.”
Hélène did not quite understand.
“Little silly!” laughed Aurora. “Do you not know that I am incapable of
loving any man as you love your Patkul?”
“You pretend very well,” said Hélène, with a demureness that might have
hid a touch of malice.
Aurora was silent; yes, she could pretend very well, she had often
marveled at that herself, often been genuinely amazed at the strength
and sincerity of the emotion she could raise in others and her own lack
of response; she would have liked to have felt, if only for half an
hour, any adoration for any man equal to that this girl felt for General
Patkul; she knew that such an emotion would have been entirely in
opposition with all her plans and schemes, but in her avid desire for
life and knowledge, she would have given much for the curiosity of the
experience.
However, she put the thought out of her mind, moved quickly, and glanced
again at the letter from Augustus.
She was vexed that he was too ill to take the command of his armies in
person, the more so as she guessed this illness to be consequent on his
debauches with the Czar at Birsen; Peter to her was a monster, she could
not forgive in Augustus the weakness that made him the companion of his
ally’s vulgar orgies.
“Yes, ’twere better to be a man now, free on horseback,” she said. “This
waiting amid one’s toys is an ugly part of a woman’s life”--she paused,
then added quickly, “it must be hateful to belong to a man who is
defeated.”
Hélène gazed at her with startled eyes.
“You do not think that Saxony will be defeated, Countess?”
“He has been defeated already,” replied Aurora. “And do you think he has
very much chance? The savage Muscovite is no use--every battle will be a
Narva for him. Denmark is silenced--and the King of Sweden is great.”
Mdle. D’Einsiedel forgot her negro and her parrot.
“He is a cruel tyrant--a bitter oppressor!” she exclaimed; her pale
little face looked sharp with anger, “he fights for the lust of
conquest--a heartless, fierce man.”
“So speaks the betrothed of Patkul,” answered Aurora. “You are too
bitter against this man to judge him. He is a hero. And young and
splendid, a Viking, child.”
“This is not the age for Vikings,” said Hélène coldly, “he is like his
father. Patkul has told me of them--hard and cruel--how I _loathe_
cruelty.”
Tears shone in her soft eyes and her lips quivered; she was thinking
that it was just possible Patkul might one day be in the power of this
same cruelty.
“Nay, he is just and even generous; you heard how, after Narva, he gave
all the Russian officers their liberty, detaining only M. de Croy, to
whom he paid full honor--and the modesty of his dispatches! ’Tis said
that with his own hand he struck out his praises and put in those of the
Czar.”
“’Tis his vanity,” said Hélène scornfully, “he wishes to impress the
world--see if he is kind to his peasants--to his women-folk--see if he
has ever thought of the justice of Livonia’s wish for liberty--he
blindly continues his father’s tyrannies.”
Aurora checked her with a light laugh.
“That is none of it women’s business. Augustus is the best-natured
person in the world, but I doubt if he knows much of his peasantry in
either Saxony or Poland!” and she laughed again at the thought.
“He would be a better prince if he did,” said Hélène, with a sternness
strange in one of her youth and frivolous appearance. “Patkul says the
day will surely come when all the peoples will rise up and cast down
their rulers.”
“Patkul is a fanatic and a visionary--a rebel also. Karl is his King. I
am a Swede. Hélène, I have no sympathy with these revolting Livonians.”
Hélène glanced at the vivid lovely face of the Countess and her eyes
narrowed.
“The Elector would not care to hear you speak so of Sweden,” she
remarked.
“The Elector expects no hypocrisy from me,” replied Aurora haughtily. “I
am not his wife. He knows that a man like Karl would attract a woman
like me--I have told him I should like to meet him.”
She had, in truth, heard of the austere life and cold manners of the
young conqueror whose name was now so famous in Europe, and she had
imagined herself subduing him with her charm; she could not resist
picturing herself as the Cleopatra to this immaculate Cæsar; Augustus
had been amazed with anger at the Czar’s crude suggestion that the
famous beauty should be used to beguile their enemy, but the woman
herself had long toyed with the idea; it would be a wonderful triumph
and, she believed in her heart, an easy one. Karl was only a boy, after
all, and had probably never been tempted; it was impossible that he
intended to be absorbed for ever in schemes of military aggrandizement
and glory; and she had never failed yet. “Perhaps I could do more in
half an hour than your Patkul has done in a lifetime,” she said
suddenly.
“Oh, would you speak for Livonia?” asked Hélène, then quickly and with a
blush, “but no, Patkul would not like that.”
“Let him rely on his sword and his virtue,” said Aurora haughtily.
“Saxony may require my services.”
“He would not wish that you should sue to Sweden for him!” exclaimed
Hélène.
Aurora rose.
“Wait till King Karl has overrun Poland and is at the gates of Dresden.”
She clasped her hands behind her head, shaking down her bright hair that
was undressed, and gazing fixedly at her reflection in a circular mirror
framed with gilt balls that hung above the couch.
Hélène sat silent on the rose-colored cushions; the parrot swung idly in
the ring above her head; the page had wandered to the window and was
flattening his face against the pane; a monkey in a crimson coat that
had been sleeping in a basket lined with white satin, now came climbing
over the furniture, turning its wizened face from one to the other of
the two silent, beautiful women and chattering at both of them. This was
the only movement in the gorgeous little room, now filled with the
spring sunshine that streamed softly through the long curtains of
straw-colored silk. Aurora had dropped her arms, and with her hands
clasped before her continued to gaze at her resplendent image.
Her thoughts were entirely personal; she cared very little for politics
though she had an intelligent understanding of them; she had watched
Augustus undertake this war light-heartedly enough, knowing that it was
only an excuse to keep a large standing army with which to overawe
Poland, but the quality of Karl XII having surprised them all into
disaster, Aurora became angry with the war and those who had suggested
it, and impatient with the enthusiastic Patkul, and gradually her
attention had become fixed on the figure of the King of Sweden, rendered
more arresting by every success, more terrible in the eyes of men and
more attractive in the eyes of women.
Aurora knew something of what the Court of Sweden was like.
“He has never met a woman like me,” she thought, and there was a glow,
as of coming triumph, at her heart.
The other woman’s reflections had traveled far from herself! they were
with a fair, rather ordinary-looking soldier, with short-sighted,
anxious eyes, and a blunt-featured face that had a certain pathos in its
open sincerity and goodness, who was now probably riding to and fro in
the confusion of battle, steadying the Saxon troops against the
victorious ranks of Sweden.
She loved him so utterly, so ardently believed in his cause and his
life-work that he seemed to her like a being charmed whom no actual
danger could touch, yet she yearned over him, child as she was, with a
yearning that was near tears; and this, though her whole being was
pervaded by the supreme happiness of her love which kept her in a serene
and beautiful aloofness from all that was painful or terrifying.
The monkey clambered to the end of the couch, dropped into Hélène’s lap,
and began stealing the sugar scattered over the cushions.
Aurora moved slowly from the mirror and told the page to bring her
writing materials; when they were given her she began to write, not an
answer to her lover’s neglected letter but a paper of French verses to
Karl XII.
Hélène, wrapt in her dreams, heeded her no more than she did the monkey
crunching sweetmeats on her lap.
CHAPTER IV
In July of that year Karl XII totally defeated the Saxon troops and
forced the passage of the Dwina, near Riga, at a point where the river
was nearly a mile wide, making use of specially built boats for the
passage of his troops, and taking advantage of the direction of the wind
to create a smoke-screen that concealed his crossing from the Saxons.
The battle was long and bloody, Courlande, Steinau, and Patkul fought
with desperate bravery and considerable skill, but the victory of the
great captain was complete; he passed on through Livonia, took Mitau,
capital of Courland, and one after another all the towns of that duchy
surrendered; the whole of Lithuania submitted.
At Birsen, where his enemies had so shortly before drawn up the league
that they hoped was to be his ruin, he paused in his triumphal progress,
taking his residence in the house occupied by Peter and Augustus.
He was now in an extraordinary position of greatness; he had been but
little more than a year from Sweden and he had completely subdued his
enemies, crushed the revolt in Livonia, consolidated his hold on the
disputed provinces, and preserved his army in good health and perfect
discipline with very little loss of life.
His fame had spread all over Europe, and Sweden occupied a sudden
position of importance in the eyes of the West; the Czar’s glory was
eclipsed, and it was not believed likely that he would ever recover from
Narva sufficiently to again face the King of Sweden.
What the next actions of this hero, as yet not twenty and in a position
so unique, were likely to be, neither his friends nor his enemies could
guess.
He affected a deep reserve, and there was no one who could boast of
being entirely in his confidence, not even his brother-in-law, the Duke
of Holstein-Gottorp, whom he had restored to his dominions and regarded
with a certain affection, nor Count Piper, whom he kept near his person
and trusted implicitly in political matters relating to the government
of Sweden.
This latter, however, did not intend to remain so quietly in ignorance
of his master’s designs; he viewed Karl very differently since he had
observed his military genius and his obstinate pride and perfect
self-control, but he had not yet entirely relinquished all hopes of
guiding this strange character into the paths trod by Karl XI.
Sweden was ever uppermost in Count Piper’s thoughts; he believed that
she occupied but a small place in those of the King; to the minister all
the objects of the war had been now attained, and there remained but to
make an honorable, durable, and glorious peace which should strengthen
Sweden in position, commerce, and prestige.
And Count Piper felt that this was the moment, when Karl had the Baltic
provinces under his feet and his enemies disordered and confused, to
propose a set of terms, that however advantageous to Sweden, they would
be in no position to refuse or even to dispute. As the King’s haughty
and glacial reserve allowed no indication of his future plans to escape
him, Count Piper resolved to directly approach him, and endeavor to
discover if he did not himself consider this a favorable moment for
triumphantly concluding the war.
He found occasion to approach Karl one day after his dinner; this meal,
of the greatest simplicity, the King always took with his officers; he
was seldom more than half an hour at table; he drank only water and ate
the plainest of food, never had he faltered an instant in his rigid
self-discipline; his life could not have been more hard, stern, and
barren of all but duty; his one occasional amusement was to have
portions of the old Scandinavian sagas read to him, but even of this he
seemed slightly ashamed.
Count Piper found him now with his secretary in the room where Marpha
had served Augustus and Peter with wine, and Mentchikoff had sung
drunken chants for the amusement of the Saxon nobles.
Karl had had everything removed from the chamber but a table and a
couple of chairs; on the walls were maps of Lithuania, Livonia, and
Esthonia, and a large model of the globe in a black frame and roughly
painted in bright colors, stood beneath. The King sat beneath one of the
windows dictating to the secretary, a young Swedish officer, who sat at
the table which was covered with neatly arranged papers.
Karl wore the costume he had not altered since he left Sweden; the dark
blue cloth coat, the black satin cravat, the high boots, and buffle
gloves which he held now across his knee; his fair hair had been cut
short and he wore no peruke.
He was bare-headed and the summer sunshine was full on his face,
inscrutable in expression, showing superb health and hardihood in line
and color.
As Count Piper entered he was sitting silent, like one wrapt in dreams,
and the secretary was waiting, in respectful silence, for him to
continue the correspondence.
As soon as he observed the minister he roused himself from his reverie,
and with a gesture dismissed the secretary who rose and offered his
chair, the only one in the room, to Count Piper.
The King looked at the older man with the blue eyes that seemed to
express nothing but a steady strength and an adamant courage, and spoke
pleasantly.
“You had something serious to say to me, Count?” he asked.
The minister had not seated himself but remained standing, leaning
against the back of the plain wooden chair; in his rather rich civilian
attire, with his full peruke and fine appointments, he was in contrast
to the camp-like simplicity of the room and the austere figure of the
youthful soldier.
“I have come to ask your Majesty what you intend to do,” said the Count;
he knew that it was useless to try diplomacy or even tact with the King
who was offended with all but the bluntest of speeches.
“You have been wishing to ask me that for some while, have you not?”
smiled Karl, he was no longer brooding or thoughtful, but alert and
keen.
“I think that this is a decisive moment in your career, sire, therefore
in that of the history of Europe.”
This was the kind of bold compliment that pleased the King.
“I believe so,” he said calmly.
“You have, sire, achieved more than anyone could have believed
possible--there only remains for you to bless your country with a
lasting peace.”
“Ah!” exclaimed Karl shortly, with his disagreeable laugh.
Count Piper faced him calmly.
“Is not that your Majesty’s intention?”
“My intention,” said Karl, with his stare of blank fortitude, “is to
dethrone Augustus and Peter.”
The minister caught his breath; this was more than he had anticipated,
even from the headstrong obstinacy of a youthful hero flushed with
success.
“Did you imagine, Count,” asked the King, “that I should return to
Sweden?”
“I hoped so,” said the minister gravely.
“Why?” demanded the King.
“Because I am anxious for the honor and safety of our country. Sire,
Sweden will be better served by moderation than extremes--she does not
need conquests but good government.”
“And you think that I should return home to govern?”
“Yes, sire.”
“Not yet,” replied Karl.
“What else does your Majesty propose to do?” asked the minister.
“I have told you.”
“But, sire--to conquer Poland, Saxony, and Russia----”
“Do you not think,” interrupted Karl, “that I am capable of executing
this design?”
Count Piper was silent in sheer bewilderment; judging from the King’s
recent actions he was capable of anything; on the other hand, the
conquest proposed was so vast, the means so comparatively small that
common sense refused to be convinced even by the genius of this
extraordinary young man.
“Well?” said Karl.
The minister fastened on the aspect that was always nearest his
heart--how his country would be affected.
“Sweden will never stand the strain!” he exclaimed.
Karl shrugged his shoulders.
“It can be done,” he said.
“Before God, sire, I do not think that it can.”
The King’s obstinate blue eyes did not falter; his lips were curved in a
smile too indifferent for disdain but more freezing than contempt.
“Think, sire,” continued Count Piper energetically, “of the size and
resources of these three countries--Saxony will have all the German
States behind him--Russia is a continent.”
Karl’s face now betrayed where his principal hate lay.
“Peter is a savage commanding savages,” he replied; “the whip and not
the sword is necessary to disperse his hordes.”
“You think of Narva,” said Count Piper, “but he will learn. He will
train his men.”
“And if he does?” demanded Karl coldly, “what of the passage of the
Dwina? Am I not able to resist veteran troops?”
The minister could not deny the truth of this; to all appearance Karl
was invincible, yet the Count’s heart utterly misgave him at thought of
the gigantic enterprise to which the King appeared to have pledged
himself.
“It is purposeless, sire, and useless,” he said with vigor. “Sweden
could never hold these conquests if she made them; Europe would not
permit it, nor her own strength. You have made her secure and powerful,
respected and feared; have the strength, sire, to stop. This is not the
age for sheer conquest. War bars the progress of mankind. Sweden
requires your Majesty’s genius for her internal reforms; you do not know
yet your own country--your father, sire, knew it from end to end.”
If the King considered this speech too much of a reproof he did not say
so nor show his resentment by the slightest sign.
“You think I should return to Stockholm, Count?” he asked.
“After you have secured a victorious peace--a peace that will leave the
Duke of Holstein-Gottorp restored to his estate, you master of the
Baltic Provinces, Denmark silenced, Saxony and Russia punished. Sire,”
added the minister with a smile, “I think no young prince could desire
greater glory than this.”
This hurt the secret pride of the King, which hid itself under such an
aspect of stern modesty.
“I do not fight for glory,” he said haughtily, “but to dethrone these
villains.”
Count Piper was silenced; in these words he read the wild dreams of
unpractical youth, the mad schemes of a man who believed war the only
profession for a prince, the only occupation worthy of a gentleman, and
who would consider nothing beside his ambition.
“Sweden does not need this war,” he said, “nor can she afford it.”
But this argument was entirely lost on the King, who loved to achieve
the impossible; the difficulty and magnitude of the enterprise were
what gave it, in his eyes, its great attraction.
And Count Piper now began to experience the force of the King’s
extraordinary qualities, his hard obstinacy, his blind fortitude.
The King rose, and crushed his gloves in his strong white hands.
“I would as soon,” he said, with as much violence and impatience as he
ever showed, “be in my coffin as in Stockholm. I should feel as confined
in one as in the other.”
“Does your Majesty never intend to see your capital again?” asked Count
Piper sorrowfully.
The King stared at him; the good of Sweden or any interest in her was
far from the mind that was full of dreams of the conquest of Russia and
the subjugation of Poland and Saxony.
Karl had completely abandoned the government of his country to the
Council of Regency; he hardly troubled to acquaint himself with their
proceedings, and often left unread the home dispatches.
Patriotism did not touch his dreams of the cold greatness he had
conceived for himself. “I told my people,” he said, looking, not at his
minister, but out of the window at the summer sunshine on the dusty
road, “that I would never make an unjust war nor abandon a just one,
without the punishment of the offenders.”
“Are not these same offenders already sufficiently punished?” demanded
Piper quickly.
“No,” replied the King, and now his strange eyes showed a faint but
fierce fire like those of a noble animal roused from slumber to anger.
“Not unless they are dethroned.”
“Is it your Majesty’s ambition to wear these crowns?”
The King laughed shortly.
“I want nothing but to punish my enemies,” he replied. “What are crowns
to me?”
Boastful as the words sounded, Count Piper believed they were sincere;
he had already seen how, in the defeat of Denmark, Karl had astonished
the world by demanding nothing for himself, and he could credit that
Karl was capable of exhausting his country and spending himself in the
effort to gain countries only to give them away when he had conquered
them; he did not want Russia, only the pleasure of dethroning the Czar;
he had no desire to reign over Poland, only the wish to seize that
country from Saxony.
“I think your Majesty is wrong,” said the minister. “As one who was your
father’s friend and is the friend of Sweden, forgive me if I say so,
sire, if you stop now you are safe and glorious, if you go on, it may be
to disaster.”
The King winced at the sound of that word which no one had ever dared to
utter to him before.
“When I have humbled these two kings and punished one other we may talk
of peace,” he said curtly. “I speak of John Rheinhold Patkul.”
His fair face, so beautiful in line, but so devoid of expression as to
lack all attraction, hardened into an aspect of sheer cruelty new to
Count Piper; the King whose first act had been to abolish judicial
torture from his statute books had hitherto been considered as of a
merciful disposition, nor had his campaigns been stained even by the
usual excesses of war; yet his look as he spoke of the Livonian was one
of fierce hate and cruelty.
“Before I return to Stockholm,” he added, “Patkul must----”
He paused abruptly; it was evident that his cold magnanimity did not
extend to the man whom he regarded as a rebel and a traitor.
“Both Peter and Augustus are pledged to defend Patkul,” said Piper; “it
is not likely that he will be taken by your Majesty--he is too wary and
skilful.”
“I will force Augustus to deliver him to me,” said Karl, still with that
ugly look on his face.
“Your Majesty would make that one of the terms of peace?” asked Count
Piper in a curious voice.
“The first condition. And, Count, it is useless for us to converse
further. I have never liked talking. And my mind is made up about the
future. And I was always tolerably resolute in my decisions nor likely
to be moved in any way from my resolves.”
It was the end between King and minister; these words were as a
dismissal to Count Piper; he saw that Karl was set upon a path entirely
different to that followed by his father; his aim was the pursuit of
fantastic dreams of purposeless and costly conquest--he would make war
neither for the defense nor the aggrandizement of his country, but
merely to suit his own ideas of kingly occupation, his own secret ideals
of ambition and glory; he would probably ruin his country and might do
considerable harm to mankind, but he could not be stopped from the mad
use of the power which he held in his hands; at that moment Piper
disliked him; he was alienated by this cold obstinacy and by the look
and manner of Karl when he had spoken of Patkul; the minister would
almost rather have served Peter whose aims were progressive, not
obstructive, and whose madnesses were never without an object, and whose
cruelties were never cold-blooded but the result of inflamed passions.
He turned away and took a brief leave.
“An extraordinary man,” he said to himself, as he left the King’s
presence, “but there is no true greatness in him.”
Karl, on his part, was equally disgusted with Count Piper.
“I want no politicians about my camp,” he told his brother-in-law that
evening. “We are soldiers with soldiers’ work to do,” and he began to
discuss his plans for an advance on Cracovia and Varsovia.
BOOK IV
AURORA VON KÖNIGSMARCK
“Sylve paludes, aggeres, hostes, victi.”--_Medal of Karl XII._
CHAPTER I
“I think you have no idea of the confusion of my affairs--nor of their
apparent hopelessness. I speak of them to you because you are the only
person whom I can trust.”
Thus Augustus to Aurora, and in these words she read his confession of
utter defeat; she was deeply vexed; for some time past she had displayed
ill-humor at the growing discomforts and perils of her situation; she
was now at Varsovia, a barbaric place that she disliked, where Augustus
had come to attend the Polish Diet that he had been forced to convoke.
It was midwinter, and she sat over the fire in the huge stone chamber
that was so difficult to warm, her great coat of lemon-colored velvet
lined with white fur, thrown open on her lace gown, and the leaping glow
of the firelight all over her bright beauty.
She knew that perhaps her principal hold on Augustus was her good
temper, and seldom was she betrayed into anger; but now her
disappointment made her answer sharp.
“Why do you not abandon Poland and return to Saxony?” she asked.
The King-Elector looked at her reproachfully.
“Is that your comfort?” he asked.
“I think that it is very good advice,” she replied, controlling herself
not to speak bitterly.
Augustus, who looked tired and haggard (he was indeed more fitted to be
the head of a brilliant court, the patron of arts and letters, than to
confront these troublous times), flushed with rising annoyance.
“It is useless to discuss with you, Madame,” he said, “what you are too
flippant to understand----”
“Oh,” interrupted Aurora, “do I not understand that I am at Varsovia in
midwinter, cold and dull? That you are always ill-humored and absorbed
in affairs, and that I have no company beyond Hélène who is love-sick, a
parrot, and a monkey?”
Augustus rose from his seat by the great oak table.
“Very well,” he said quietly, “you had better return to Dresden, Madame.
It is true that here I can give you no comfort. It is also true that I
must remain--my crown, all my fortunes and perhaps my life, depend on
these events.”
Aurora bit her lip in vexation at her own peevishness; she scorned
fretful women, and she was moved by her lover’s gentle response.
She got up impulsively and held out her hands; a gorgeous creature in
her rich clothes and vivid loveliness, illuminated by the tawny light of
the flaming pine knots.
“Forgive me,” she said quickly. “I am ashamed of myself. I have been
idle and frivolous, tell me how I can help.”
He kissed her hands in instant gratitude; he had always found her his
best friend; she was more intelligent, perhaps more courageous than he,
but she had managed never to offend him with her superiority, and she
always soothed him with her firmness and encouraged him with her high
spirits.
She smiled now with a certain tenderness at this magnificent-looking
prince who was so downcast and so almost helpless; in her wild heart she
perhaps a little despised him; certainly he was not her ideal hero, for
all his strength and handsomeness and charm, but both out of kindness
and interest she was his ally.
“Come,” she said, “forget, sire, that I am a woman, and talk to me as if
I was your minister.”
She took the seat at the table he had just left and drew her coat round
her, leaning back and looking at Augustus, who remained standing by the
fire.
“My dear,” he answered, “I do not know if affairs could be much worse.”
“This Diet is not going to help you?”
“Would to God I had never had to summon it!” exclaimed the King-Elector.
“The King of Sweden has as much influence there as I!”
“Ah!” murmured Aurora, “they are not loyal to you, these Polish
princes?”
“There is not one man in Poland loyal to me,” replied Augustus bitterly;
“this cursed war has alienated all of them.”
The Countess knew that good statecraft would have foreseen this; Poland,
afraid of Sweden and jealous of its Saxon King, was fiercely resentful
of a war bound to end in her subjugation either at the hands of Karl XII
or at those of her own elected monarch; the remnants of the Saxon troops
who had survived the battle of Riga Augustus had had to send back to
Saxony to quiet the Poles, and for the same reason he had been obliged
to call a Diet when he wished to raise an army.
Aurora, remembering the time and money spent on acquiring the crown of
Poland, wondered if the bargain had been a good one for Augustus, who,
used to being an absolute ruler in his own hereditary dominions, found
himself little more than head of a Republic in Poland.
“Who are your enemies in the Diet?” she asked gently.
“Leczinski, of course, the Lubomirski, and the Sobieski--these and their
followers are all secretly with the King of Sweden, and, naturally,”
added Augustus, with, for him, considerable heat, “Cardinal
Radziekowski is playing his own game which is not mine.”
“In brief,” said Aurora, “these Poles are seizing this moment for their
own intrigues; they consider you as more dangerous than Karl, and would
as willingly see you overthrown.”
This plain view of the case slightly startled Augustus, but he had to
admit that it was true.
“And there is the revolt in Lithuania,” he added gloomily. “The Sapieha
and the Oginski at each other’s throats--my troops in fugitive parties
living on rapine because I have not the money to pay them----”
“You cannot summon the Polish nobles to raise their followers on your
behalf?”
“I dare not--for it would be to risk a refusal.”
Aurora bit her lip.
“But you have the Polish army.”
“There are only 18,000 men--not paid, not armed--and their generals
uncertain whether to fight for me or Sweden!”
“And every one knows this?”
“I fear that my weakness is but too apparent--see how they have forced
my hand in the matter of the Diet!”
“And you dare not bring back the Saxon troops?”
“It would be the excuse and the signal for a general revolt in Poland,”
replied the King-Elector.
Aurora von Königsmarck mentally cursed Poland; she had been perfectly
content in Dresden before ambition had urged Augustus into this
troublesome glory.
“What will the Diet do?” she asked, suppressing her irritation and
speaking with gentleness.
Augustus began pacing up and down the room.
“Who can tell?” he replied wearily, “intrigues and
counter-intrigues--all irresolute, all crying out for freedom and
justice and none knowing where to look for it! Meanwhile everything
goes to ruin while they are talking, and the King of Sweden advances
daily deeper into the country.”
Aurora frowned; hitherto, with a woman’s evasiveness, she had refused to
glance at the state of matters in Poland; now she forced herself to face
them, and to apply all her intelligence to helping her lover in what
seemed indeed a desperate pass.
“And the Czar?” she asked.
“The Czar needs assistance himself,” said Augustus grimly.
“But the Muscovites? Did you not tell me that he was sending some men
into Lithuania?”
The King-Elector became angry at the thought of this, the sole fruit of
the secret treaty of Birsen.
“He has sent some villains who are doing more damage than the Swedes,”
he replied hotly. “They have turned freebooters, and are utterly deaf to
discipline and orders--’tis but so many marauders the more in the
wretched kingdom, and yet further inflames the Poles.”
Aurora could not forbear a smile.
“There are the troops you were to train?” she asked.
“Yes, God help me, and now they are here I have not a single Saxon
officer available--not that a corps of Turenne’s veterans could train
these savages!”
Aurora knew, though she forbore to mention it, that Augustus had failed
to fulfil his side of the bargain, and had not been able to raise a
single regiment of the German troops promised to Peter, nor to pay him
anything for the maintenance of the Muscovites sent into Lithuania.
“So you see,” added the Elector, with rather a bitter smile, “that my
position is desperate on all sides.”
“Come here,” smiled Aurora.
He crossed to her chair; she took his hand and pressed her soft cheek
against his rings and ruffles.
“My poor dear,” she said caressingly. “I wonder if I can help you now,
to return a little all the joy you have given me?”
She would have kissed his hand, but he prevented her, eagerly lifted her
face and kissed her lips.
“What have I done for you!” he cried. “Why, you have gilded all my
life!”
“You have been very good to me,” she said, a little wistfully. “Men can
be so cruel. I think you hardly know how grateful women are for
kindness.”
He smiled tenderly; his handsome face lightened of half its care as he
looked at her.
“Not women like you, Aurora!”
“Yes, women like me,” she replied. “Why--you might get tired of me.” She
caught her breath a little. “I might fade--I am not as pretty as I
was--but you----”
“Aurora--I adore you.”
“Thank you,” said the Countess unsteadily. “Thank you for loving me.
That is why I want to help you--you have made life wonderful to me by
your love----”
He dropped his hands to her shoulders and she looked up at him.
“And you--have you not loved me, Aurora?” he asked.
“Oh, a woman’s love does not count!”
Augustus did not understand her mood, he was not a man to nicely read a
woman’s complexities; and the next second Aurora did not understand it
herself, and was lifting her shoulders with a laugh both for her words
and his bewilderment.
“I am a silly creature,” she said lightly, “but I only seek to please
you.”
She gently drew herself away, rose and went to the fire; the yellow
coat, the gleaming hair, dressed in long, smooth curls slightly
disordered and falling over the smooth white fur; the proud air and
bearing of her, the piquant, gay face, made a fair picture in the
brilliant glow that shone on her from head to foot and threw her
figure, a thing of light against the gloomy background of the room,
darkening in the fading light of the winter afternoon.
“Now--my advice,” she said. “I wonder--will you take it?”
Augustus smiled at her; his handsome face was no longer troubled as he
gazed at this brilliant, darling companion of his; his distresses that
sat lightly enough on him anyhow were almost forgotten as he
contemplated her courage and her gaiety.
“Tell me,” he answered gently.
There was something of challenge, almost of defiance in her beautiful
eyes as she replied, but she spoke very sweetly.
“You must make peace with Karl.”
Augustus did not speak.
“Of course you will have to take his terms, but it seems to be his rôle
to be generous,” continued the Countess. “And better be at his mercy
than at that of the Poles, your own subjects.”
Augustus thought so too; it was not very pleasant to contemplate
humbling himself before the boy King whom he had hoped to conquer so
easily, but his pride was not very deep-seated, and he bore no rancor
against anyone, not even against the man who had defeated him; if he
could purchase ease and safety by submitting to Karl he was ready to do
so without any bitterness, and, as Aurora suggested, it was easier to
accept terms from a fellow-monarch than from his own subjects.
“You must open negotiations at once before you lose everything,”
continued the Countess quickly.
“But he will not listen--why should he?” returned Augustus doubtfully.
“If the ambassador is well chosen he will listen.”
“But it is no object to him to make peace,” said the King-Elector
uneasily. “Doubtless he will prefer the glory of overrunning Poland and
possibly Saxony.”
Aurora did not yet mention what made her feel sure that the King of
Sweden might be brought to reason; she was sure that her project would
be distasteful to Augustus, and she was waiting her moment to broach it;
twisting one of her long ringlets round the slender fingers of her left
hand that sparkled with some of the Saxon jewels, she frowned into the
flames.
“No,” added Augustus gloomily. “I see no hope--’tis a youthful captain,
intoxicated with success, inured and implacable by nature. I believe he
fights for glory, and nothing, to him, would be greater glory than the
conquest of Poland--by arms and by intrigues. He thinks to dethrone me
by means of factions--look how he has armed the Sapieha against me and
torn Lithuania with civil war----”
“I know,” interrupted Aurora, curbing some impatience; it seemed to her
that Augustus went round and round the same points, in a confused
manner, which was irritating to her own clear mind that looked ahead to
ultimate issues. “But the trial might be made.”
“It would have to be secret,” said the King-Elector, “and kept very
carefully from the ears of Patkul and the Czar.”
“Naturally,” replied the Countess drily. “The Czar will be easily
hoodwinked; as for Patkul, it is he who is the cause of all this
trouble, if need be he must be sacrificed.”
Augustus turned a startled face.
“Patkul?”
“Yes, Patkul, this adventurer who has embroiled us all!”
“You mean that I should surrender him to Karl?”
“If Karl demanded it.”
“God forbid!” cried the King-Elector hastily.
“Oh, Sweden would be merciful,” said Aurora impatiently, “as I told you,
it is his rôle.”
“He would not be merciful to Patkul,” replied Augustus, “who, besides,
is Peter’s envoy, and sacred.”
“Oh, bah!” exclaimed Aurora, with a flash of her gorgeous eyes. “What
is the Czar to you, or what has he done for you that he should be
considered?”
“My honor and the law of nations----” began Augustus.
The Countess speedily demolished this masculine defense.
“Where,” she asked acutely, “was either, when you attacked the King of
Sweden?”
As this action had been contrary to both, the King-Elector had nothing
to reply; rather pale, he stared at the ground.
“You see,” added Aurora, anxious to soothe now that she had silenced,
“it is not, and never has been, any question of any law or any honor,
but simply of each man for himself in a desperate game.”
Augustus sighed.
“We need not raise the question of Patkul,” he said, with the evasion of
weakness.
“We must,” replied the Countess. “For I believe it will be the first
thing the King of Sweden will demand, and we must know how to answer
him.”
Augustus did not speak; he did not think it possible that he could ever
come so low as to deliver the man who trusted him to his enemy, but he
thought that Karl might be pacified with some apparent submission and
Patkul saved nevertheless.
“As you said yourself,” continued Aurora, “matters are desperate, and we
cannot pause for niceties.”
She cared nothing herself for anyone but the man who, at once her master
and her slave, was essential to her power and therefore to her
happiness; the terrors of war, the miseries of the peasantry, the
sufferings of the civilian populace, the bloodshed, the families ruined,
the lands laid desolate, did not touch Aurora von Königsmarck; her gay
and volatile nature did not even glance at the dark side of life.
Already, in this bitter crisis, her spirits were rising at the thought
of the new exciting and brilliant part she intended to play with so much
success.
Patkul was to her but a pawn in an elaborate and delicate game, and she
had completely forgotten Hélène D’Einsiedel.
She went up to Augustus and laid her proud head against the laces on his
breast; tall as she was she hardly reached to his heart.
Clasping him tightly in her lovely arms, and looking up at him, all soft
and smiling, she whispered: “I will be your envoy to Karl of Sweden!”
Augustus remembered Peter’s words at Birsen, and caught hold of her
hands and held her away from him with a movement almost of anger.
Aurora only laughed; she had foreseen this opposition and knew that in
the end, as always, she would have her own will.
CHAPTER II
Aurora von Königsmarck left the King-Elector’s presence more elated than
she had been since the Polish troubles began.
Augustus had promised to allow her to conduct secret negotiations with
Karl; she was to travel as soon as possible to his camp, and through the
influence of Count Piper, an ancient friend of her family, she was to
obtain a private interview with Karl.
The King-Elector was to offer to withdraw all claims to the Baltic
provinces and to renounce all alliances against Sweden, also, if need
be, to surrender Patkul, but this, Augustus stipulated, was to be done
in such a manner that Patkul should be enabled to escape to Russia.
Aurora gave her promise; she was not greatly concerned for Patkul, she
thought that if she was able to influence Karl at all she could
influence him to be generous to the Livonian; but the thing weighed on
the mind of Augustus; his weakness, torn between honor and prudence,
caused him the acutest suffering his easy temperament had ever known.
He went to attend one of the bitter stormy sittings of the Diet, sad and
sullen, unlike the gracious prince who had charmed Poland as much by his
gaiety and good-nature as by his gold and his soldiery.
He was humiliated by the position in which he found himself, irritated
that Aurora had won his consent to expedients that he despised, and
tortured by inner doubts as to whether all concessions might not be in
vain, and Karl remain adamant even before the potent charms of Aurora.
No such misgivings troubled Aurora von Königsmarck; neither the honor
nor the utility of what she had undertaken disturbed her, for she did
not perceive anything contemptible in what she did, and she felt assured
of her success.
But as she turned up the narrow dark stairs to go to her own apartment,
she was startled by a slight figure leaning in an angle of the wall, and
a swift sensation, as of shame, touched her heart; the girl before her
was Hélène D’Einsiedel. Aurora had completely forgotten her, but now she
felt abashed before this child, her own favorite, to whom she had always
been a kind protector and patroness.
“Come upstairs,” she said hastily, glad of the dark that concealed her
face. “You will get cold here; what a silly child it is.”
The girl did not reply, she wore a dark pelisse over a dark dress, a
great hat that shaded her face and was but dimly seen in the shadow.
“Come with me,” continued Aurora, her momentary uneasiness passing. “Why
have you been out this bitter day?”
But even as she spoke she knew full well; General Patkul had been at
Varsovia to consult with Augustus, and was due to return to the theater
of war; Hélène had been to say good-bye.
“You should have made him come to you--you are too fond of this man.”
She took Hélène gently by the shoulder and led her upstairs.
“He did come, he has been with me a long time,” said Hélène, in a
muffled voice. “And then I went with him a little way--it was good-bye.”
“La, la,” replied the Countess, “one would think it was forever by your
voice!”
They entered her apartments that clever French maids and valets had
arranged in tolerable imitation of the gorgeous chambers at Dresden.
Silk and wool tapestries covered the walls, delicate carpets the floors,
the graceful furniture, cushions, mirrors, and ornaments, without which
Aurora never traveled, were elegantly disposed, and a perfumed fire
burnt on the wide, old-fashioned hearth.
A maid was just lighting the candles in their tall sticks of
tortoise-shell and gold, another was drawing the curtains of
sapphire-blue velvet across the windows, so shutting out the mournful
prospect of the winter evening.
Hélène stood stupidly in the middle of the room looking at the fire; she
had neither gloves nor muff, and her little hands hung red and cold at
her side.
Her face was pale and distressed, the black beaver hat falling
carelessly over her tangled curls, her pelisse was roughly dragged
together with a silver clasp fastened crookedly, and she wore her thin
house shoes which were slightly stained with dirty snow.
“Come, child,” said Aurora kindly. “This grief and agitation are
useless. Nothing has happened.”
“Things are terrible,” replied Hélène in a low, hurried voice. “You know
yourself that all goes as if to disaster. The armies broken, the country
in a turmoil--and he is leaving me.”
On these childish words a sob broke her voice, and tears filled her eyes
already reddened with weeping.
She seemed indifferent to the presence of the Countess and the two
chamber women, and continued to stare into the fire, raising her clasped
trembling hands to her quivering lips while the tears fell on to her
knuckles.
Aurora wanted to say “Patkul is safe,” but the words stuck in her
throat, even though she quieted her conscience by the resolve that by
some underhand means the Livonian must be saved.
She shivered a little in her warm coat, and spread out her fair hands to
the fire.
“It is hard for all of us,” she said evenly. “Do you think, dear, that I
like Varsovia? And as for the Elector he is more ill-natured than I
have ever known him; I wish he would go to the war and rid me of his
moods. These wretched Poles are giving a great deal of trouble, and
there is no denying that for the moment the King of Sweden has the
advantage.”
“Patkul thinks there is no hope at all for Livonia,” murmured Hélène.
“He saw in the battle of the Dwina what these Swedes are.”
“I think my countrymen are tolerably good soldiers,” said the Countess.
The Saxon girl disliked her for this remark, and turned away abruptly;
the beautiful, comfortable room seemed to her hateful; she ran to the
door, pulled it open, and fled down the dark stairs; she heard the
Countess’s voice half-laughing, half-angry, raised in protest, but she
took no heed; nothing mattered to her now in the world but the fact that
she must see her lover again before a separation that, some dreadful
premonition told her, would be long if not eternal.
She could not explain to herself why she was so terrified and
overwrought; this love of hers, born amid the tumults of wars and
factions, had known many bitter partings and long absences, but youthful
hope and joy had hitherto kept her immune from the terrors that assailed
her to-night. She must see him again; it was as if her body moved
without motion, so strong was the force of the spirit within, as if the
cold night air carried her, a disembodied creature, to his side.
It was now nearly dark, the town full of soldiery and discontented
civilians; Hélène did not notice these things nor yet the bitter cold;
she hastened along the frozen roads, the dried snow flying from beneath
her feet, the fresh snow, beginning to drift in flakes from the leaden
sky, falling on her dark clothes and chilled face and hands.
She found the house where he lodged; it was not far from the residence
of the King-Elector. At the sight of the light in the windows the blood
seemed to stir in her body again; he was still there; she would see him
again, nothing seemed to matter but that the whole future narrowed to
this moment of their meeting.
A Polish soldier was just leaving the house. Hélène brushed by him,
stepped into the dim-lit hall, and asked the Livonian servant standing
there for his master.
Before the man had time to reply General Patkul appeared in the doorway
of a room immediately inside the entrance.
They advanced towards each other, and he seized her in his arms and
almost carried her into the room.
It was a small rough chamber, lit by an oil lamp and a log fire; some
half-packed valises lay on the floor and the table was strewn with
papers, portfolios, and maps.
He expressed no surprise at thus seeing her again so soon after their
farewell, but, caressing her, led her to the great chair with arms by
the fire, threw back her damp coat, and chafed her cold hands.
“I had to come,” she murmured, looking up at him in speechless joy. “You
know that, do you not?”
“I have been thinking of you so it seems as if you had never left me,”
he answered; his whole face and neck had flushed, and his narrowed
short-sighted eyes had darkened till they looked black as he gazed at
her. “You come between me and everything, Hélène, even my unfortunate
country.”
“You must not go,” she said, with sudden energy, “it is quite
impossible--do you hear?”
“Darling--I leave to-morrow morning. Presently I will take you home in a
sledge and you will dream of me, knowing that I am happy in the thought
of you, and in that I am doing my plain duty.”
As he spoke, with great tenderness and the gravity of an ardent
enthusiast, he went on his knees, and taking her little cold slippered
feet in his hands, rubbed them and held them nearer to the fire.
“What do I know of duty?” asked Hélène desperately. “I want to be
happy.”
“You have never spoken like this before, my dearest.”
“I have never been so frightened before.”
“Frightened?”
He lifted his honest gray eyes, so shining with noble love to the frail
face bending towards him; she touched the curls of his blond peruke that
hung on his breast.
“Yes, frightened, John.”
“Why?”
“That I could not tell. But you do not think these things are foolish,
do you? When I had left you just now I felt that I could not bear it--it
was like someone tearing my limbs from me--as if I had to follow you or
die--as--as if--I might never see you again----”
Her words stumbled over one another. She grasped the lapels of his
soldier’s coat; her pleading eyes were fixed on his face with an
expression of passionate entreaty.
“Oh, you will stay--you will not leave me!”
“My dear, my dear!” he cried deeply moved, “this must not be--you will
unman me.”
He rose and raised her to his breast, clasping her tightly; he dared not
voice the agony in his heart, how he entirely longed to keep her now
that she had flown back to him--how wrong and wicked all further parting
seemed, and how utterly paltry all his schemes and duties seemed beside
the fact that they were together, and the wish that they should be
forever together.
For he loved her as stern men, engrossed in affairs and indifferent to
feminine influence, will sometimes love one woman--with complete trust
and devotion.
He had never known what life could mean until he met her; she made his
former pleasures appear pale, his former work dry and purposeless; she
infused into his whole life color and joy and beauty.
And she must be foregone.
He looked ahead into the future and saw it dark and uncertain, and
wished that he did not enjoy such perilous greatness, and that his lot
had been cast in times less fierce and turbulent.
Now that he held her, trembling, but content against his own
wildly-beating heart, the task he had undertaken seemed so difficult as
to be impossible; Livonia was in a worse plight than she had been when
he undertook her liberation; the huge conspiracy against Karl XII which
had cost so much toil and pains had only succeeded in rousing a captain
who made North Europe tremble, and in settling the Swedish yoke more
firmly on the necks of the wretched people of the Baltic Provinces.
“Perhaps I had better have left it all alone--perhaps I was not born to
do my country this service!” he exclaimed.
Hélène looked up at him, pressing her flushed face closer to the
braidings on his uniform.
“You must not go, you are safe here,” she answered, as if reassuring
him.
He laughed tenderly at her feminine point of view; he had not been
thinking of his personal safety, but of the fierce disappointment of his
apparent failure.
“I am in no danger,” he said, to comfort her; and he believed what he
said; not only was he the Czar’s envoy but he trusted, without question,
the protection of Augustus, nor did he even imagine for a moment that
the King-Elector would enter into secret peace negotiations with Karl.
Hélène also had faith in the people who had always been her friends and
protectors; it would have been impossible for her to suspect Aurora von
Königsmarck of treachery; yet she felt this tremendous though vague
uneasiness as to her lover’s safety.
He saw the trouble in her sweet eyes which were wide and bewildered like
those of a child in pain.
“Do you not think that I shall be as safe in Dresden as in Varsovia?” he
asked.
“You are going to Dresden?”
“Eventually, dear. I return to the army in Saxony with messages from
Augustus. Then I wish to see the Czar. My greatest hope is in him----”
“God preserve him,” said Hélène simply. “What will he do for you?”
“More than Augustus, I think. He is a man of genius. A tyrant, of
course--no more a lover of liberty than Karl--but he serves our ends.
Give him time and he will beat Sweden.”
“How happy you will be that day!” smiled the girl.
“If it means the freedom of Livonia,” he replied, looking at her
earnestly.
Neither were paying much attention to what they were speaking of; they
were thinking only of each other, of the wonder of these few moments and
the long dark separation ahead of them; each in their heart was crying
out against this parting; clinging to each other they spoke quietly to
steady themselves and prolong these last farewells.
But now she could talk no more of politics, not even of those with which
her lover’s life and happiness were bound up.
“When shall I see you again?” she stammered.
In silence he gazed at her; his short-sighted eyes narrowed as he dwelt
on every lineament of the beloved face.
“What is the need of this?” whispered Hélène. “Why should one suffer?”
“Love, we part to meet again--if it was forever you might weep----”
“Supposing it was forever?” the dreadful thought transfixed her; she
drew herself away from his embrace, her face sharp and pale, “but, of
course, I should die,” she added, with a little sigh of relief.
He could not trust himself to answer her; taking his hands from her
shoulders he turned abruptly away across the plain dismal room.
The fire was burning low and the air was becoming cold; the outside
night showed in the black squares in the uncurtained windows; now and
then the red reflection of a passing torch or lantern glimmered across
the shadowed room.
Patkul stared at the fine frost flowers hardening on the glass; he had
his back to Hélène; she took off her hat which had fallen back on to her
tangled hair, mechanically arranged her curls, and replaced the hat;
then with stiff fingers she fastened the pelisse.
She was too young and simple to lament against destiny or to endeavor to
alter her fate with violent hands; her court training and the society of
Aurora von Königsmarck had not altered the direct outlook and
conventional point of view of her young girl’s heart and mind.
She had been taken out of herself, inasmuch as she had come to him now
spurred by the awful desolation, the unexplainable sense of disaster
that had torn her soul; now she could do no more; she did not know how
to deal with the moment, but stood stupidly arranging her hat and
buttoning her pelisse in dumb wretchedness.
He thought wildly of taking her with him, of marrying her without delay
or ceremony; his heart contracted as he imagined her always with him--as
Marpha was with Peter--or Aurora with Augustus--his companion, his
consolation, and his hope in all his adventures. Sweetening even
ultimate defeat, if it must be, or glorifying ultimate victory into a
happiness more than mortal.
He looked at her, strode over to her, took her by the shoulders and
turned her round, forcing her to look at him; slender and frail she
quivered under his grasp.
The agony of question in his gaze met no response from hers which was
full of nothing but blank, sad love.
He knew that if he asked her she would come--he knew that he could not
ask her; “when the war is over I will marry her,” he thought, and
stilled his heart with that.
Very gently he kissed her cold face.
“I must take you home,” he said.
“I will try to be brave,” replied Hélène.
They went together to the door; the darkness was thick with snow; he
sent his servant for the sledge and they had another moment alone; but
neither spoke.
Hélène felt suddenly very tired, almost drowsy; she was exhausted by her
strong emotion to the point of apathy.
When the sledge came she stepped in obediently; there was a brief ride
through the cold and the dark; his chilled lips on her chilled cheek,
some stammering words and they had parted. She could hear the jingling
of his sledge-bells as she returned to her room; she seemed to be in a
world empty of everything but that one sound.
Aurora von Königsmarck looked from the door of her brilliantly lit room;
she had gay words on her lips, but after glancing at the girl’s face she
went back silently to her place by the perfumed fire.
CHAPTER III
Aurora von Königsmarck, accompanied by a few servants and a small escort
of Saxon cavalry, traveled secretly to the Swedish camp in Lithuania.
Karl was advancing on Grodno, and the affairs of Augustus looked daily
more unfortunate; at the last moment he had wished to stop this journey
of the Countess, and to send a formal embassy in his own name and that
of the Polish Republic to ask the conqueror’s peace terms.
But Aurora was resolute that this depth of humiliation should not be
reached, and confident that Karl could be persuaded to private means of
agreement with Augustus.
In any case she was determined to try her influence on a man so singular
and so famous.
“It has certainly never seen a woman like me,” she repeated to herself,
not with vanity but as the calm statement of a fact.
She had no difficulty in obtaining an audience of Count Piper.
The minister was cynically interested in her mission; he was now no
longer in the confidence of his master (if indeed he had ever been so),
and performed his duties as a servant, not as a friend; perhaps he
faintly disliked the King; in any case he was grimly amused at the idea
of exposing Karl to the fascinations of a woman like Aurora von
Königsmarck and facing the fair Countess with a man like the King.
He offered her little hope.
“The King is bent on conquest,” he said. “He has no idea of a tame
peace, but intends to dethrone all his enemies.”
“The dreams of a boy,” replied Aurora.
Count Piper shrugged.
“A boy who will carry out his dreams or perish, Madame.”
“So obstinate?” she smiled, “and has he no weaknesses, this hero?” she
added, with an inflection of light scorn.
The minister smiled; he saw her superb confidence in her radiant beauty
and brilliant intelligence, in her experience and charm; he thought that
her perfections would be wasted on the man who had received without a
change of color the news of the death of the only woman in whom he had
ever been interested.
“I do not say that I do not wish you good fortune, Madame,” he said,
“for myself there are other things besides war. And I should be glad of
a peace. As for the King, I know little of him, for all that I have
watched him since a child--or else there is little to know. He has no
friends, and no favorites, and since the war began I have not known him
influenced.”
“He is so young,” remarked Aurora, “do you think this military austerity
will last all his life?”
“’Tis a hard race,” replied the Count, “but as you say--he is young.”
“Let me see him,” urged Aurora, “my mission can but move and alter
him--if he would play Alexander he must be prepared for the family of
Darius.”
“I will do my utmost,” said Count Piper, and with sincerity; but he was
soon piqued by finding that he had promised too easily; Karl absolutely
refused to see Aurora von Königsmarck.
“Why should I talk to a woman on this business?” he said. “If Augustus
wants peace let him send a man to ask for it.” Without the least emotion
he resisted the Count’s efforts to persuade and induce him to see the
fair ambassadress.
“She will think you are afraid of her,” remarked the Count, with some
malice.
“I have no doubt a woman’s vanity would go that length,” replied the
King calmly. “Tell her I am afraid of her,” he gave his ugly smile, “if
that will content her.”
“Nothing will content her but an interview with your Majesty.”
“Then she must leave dissatisfied,” said Karl, with an indifference more
hopeless to combat than open anger.
The minister reported his ill-success to the Countess; she had not
expected that the King would refuse even to see her, and angry
disappointment nerved her with yet greater determination to gain her
object.
“I will achieve my end by other means,” she said, and thanked Count
Piper for his useless services.
Though she had been a week near the camp, lodging, most inconveniently,
in one of the little village houses, she had not yet seen the King, save
once when he had swept by with a number of his guards, and she had not
been able to distinguish his person.
But she soon ascertained that it was his custom to ride abroad
unattended in the early morning and the afternoon, and she resolved to
encounter him on one of these occasions, and one day stationed herself
in her little light carriage on the road the King took most frequently.
As soon as her servant pointed out a solitary horseman coming towards
them, saying, “The King of Sweden!” Aurora descended into the road still
covered with frozen snow, and put herself in the middle of the way,
holding her black fur mantle up from the road, and looking steadily up
under the broad brim of her beaver hat.
The King approached, and, as soon as he saw her, sharply reined up his
iron-gray charger, sending the scattered snow over the lady.
“Sire,” said Aurora, “I have never been a supplicant before; will you
not make it a little easy for a beggar and--a woman?”
It was not quite what she had intended to say, and her voice faltered
more than she had meant it to, for she was taken aback by the
magnificent appearance and curious personality of the man to whom she
spoke.
The King, with his plain uniform, black satin stock, remarkable face of
immobile, almost displeasing beauty, was totally different to her
preconceived notions of Karl.
He had himself so well in hand that he did not even change color at her
address; he touched his hat in a stiff military salute, turned his
horse, deftly, and rode back the way he had come.
It was a long while since the angry blood had rushed into Aurora’s face
as it did now, coloring her fair skin from throat to forehead.
“So that is the King of Sweden!” she murmured. She shivered in her heavy
furs and mounted her carriage, gazing after the figure of the departing
horseman, clear against the pale tints of a sky colored with the first
blue of a Northern spring.
She could do nothing but leave the scene of her defeat, but she did not
accept her discomfiture as final; at least now she knew his person and
could judge him, perhaps manage him better in consequence.
He was her own countryman, yet this type of the pure Scandinavian was
fresh to her, after the many years she had lived abroad, and the
fairness, hardness, and strength of this man repelled her; he was as
powerful as Augustus and far more healthy; he sat his horse like a
creature of steel and iron, at one with the magnificent creature he rode
in power and purpose.
No passions had ever marked his face, which expressed nothing but an
unfeeling calm and complete courage.
It would be impossible to believe that that countenance could ever look
on the thing it feared.
Aurora sighed; in her heart she admitted that she had never dealt yet
with a man of that quality; it would be the greater triumph to make him
swerve, if only for a second, from his inhuman fortitude.
The next time the King of Sweden went abroad he found himself some miles
from the village, and in a narrow road face to face with a horse-woman
who took off her traveling mask and revealed the lovely features of
Aurora von Königsmarck. “Now will you speak to me, sire?” she asked
gravely, almost coldly.
At least he looked at her; she directly barred his path and he could not
have turned, as he had done before, without glancing at her; his steady
blue eyes stared at her with calm repugnance.
She was wrapped in a heavy white horseman’s cloak, with gray fur
gauntlets and a black beaver hat; her bright curls fell into the heavy
folds of the cloth, and her face looked pale and delicate as a snowdrop
above her winter attire; she rode a fine black horse, and her saddle and
harness were ornamented, in the Polish fashion, with brilliant colors of
red, yellow, and blue.
“I am Aurora von Königsmarck,” she added, in the same tone; her soft
eyes were steady as those that gazed at her so coldly.
“Madame, I recognized you--there is no other lady would trouble to set
herself in my path,” replied the King.
“Your Majesty is greatly to be feared and greatly to be admired,” said
Aurora. “Do you not wonder at my courage in venturing to address you,
sire?”
“You consider yourself invincible, Countess,” he replied, “therefore
your courage is only a sense of security.”
She was studying him eagerly under the broad lids that drooped so
indifferently over her brilliant eyes; her purpose had gone into the
background of her mind; she was not thinking of him as the King of
Sweden who held the fate of her master in his hand, but as a man who
might or might not be won, and she noted his size, his fairness, the
severity of his dress, his curious face, his colorless voice with a
growing sense of antipathy and hopelessness.
“I only ask for the charity of a few words speech,” she said in French,
and then she recalled that though he was acquainted with that language
he obstinately refused to speak it, and she added hastily in Swedish,
“Will you not hear me, sire, a few moments?”
He checked his horse that pawed the ground impatient to proceed, and
gave Aurora a chilling look.
“On what subject should you have to speak to me?” he demanded.
The Countess flushed, for all her self-command; she would liked to have
given him a glance as freezing as his own, and have ridden away before
he did so; she hated him for the disadvantage she was at--obliged to
conduct this interview on horseback, muffled in a heavy mantle, in the
open air and keen cold, half her graces concealed, half her charms
useless.
“Has your Majesty’s success and glory taught you only to be cruel to the
unfortunate?” she asked, with a quiver in her voice.
“On what matter could you have to speak to me?” repeated the King; he
gave a short unexpected laugh, and she was startled to see how it spoilt
and rendered unpleasant his handsome face. Aurora’s hand was forced.
“I come from the King of Poland,” she said, with dignity.
“You could not come on a more hopeless errand, then,” he replied. “I
discuss no politics with women, Countess.”
“I am more in the King of Poland’s confidence than any of his
ministers,” she declared boldly.
“That,” he said curtly, “is well known.”
Aurora controlled herself, but her hands shook on the reins; never had
she been treated so boorishly by any man.
“I come on a mission so delicate there was no one else could have been
trusted with it,” she answered. “You, sire, are not rendering my task
pleasant to me.”
“Therefore I would have avoided you, Madame,” said Karl.
“I have been trusted by King Augustus with this mission----”
A look of scorn flashed over the Swede’s impassive face.
“Does Augustus think I shall find you dangerous? Believe me, I do not.”
Aurora quivered under the calm insult; all her weapons seemed powerless
before the freezing indifference of this boy; she felt as at a loss as
any inexperienced girl might have done.
“Augustus offers peace,” she said desperately, almost choking over the
words. “Augustus begs for peace.”
Karl’s proud eyes gleamed for a second, and his full lips curled.
“Madame,” he replied, “I will discuss peace in Varsovia.”
Before this implacable front Aurora shrank; he meant then to take the
capital?
She knew that Augustus could not defend Varsovia, and her quick mind
foresaw the last misery of a flight to Saxony; she was quite aware that
the Poles would probably tolerate Karl at least as peacefully as they
did Augustus, and that the latter’s chances of retaining the crown were
indeed desperate.
“Nay,” she said faintly, flinging back her head with a womanish gesture,
and holding out one little hand, from which she had stripped the heavy
glove, in an attitude of appeal. “Can one so great be so hard to the
fallen?”
This was not the kind of compliment that flattered the iron pride of
Karl; it always irritated him that anyone should believe him capable of
being moved by fulsome flattery, and it was his particular weakness to
consider himself impervious to the wiles of man or woman.
“Your horse will take cold, Madame,” he said. “I give you good day.”
He saluted and was turning away; Aurora thought of her last card that
was to have been played in such a different manner, with so much more of
finesse and address.
“I was empowered to treat on the subject of--General Patkul,” she
stammered.
At that name Karl did stop and turn his head; he seemed amazed and
almost as if about to be betrayed into passionate speech, but he
controlled himself.
“Would Augustus surrender Patkul?” he asked, in a curious tone.
Aurora could not answer; she felt as if she had committed an incredible
baseness.
“He would, eh?” added Karl, with a look that was like a blow in the face
to the proud woman to whom it was directed.
“So that is your errand?” continued the King, still fixing her with a
hard and merciless stare that became increasingly contemptuous.
“I have not stated my errand,” replied Aurora; her eyes flashed to meet
his and the blood stained her face. “From the manner in which your
Majesty treats a woman, I do not think you would be tender with a
rebel--need we therefore be so nice in discussing General Patkul?”
“It is not in my nature to be tender,” said the King, with his ugly
smile. “I shall not be merciful either with Patkul nor yet with Augustus
of Saxony.”
“Your Majesty makes a boast of cruelty, then? I had hoped one of your
nobleness would have been satisfied by having your enemy your
supplicant.”
Her bosom heaved beneath the rough mantle and her face was beautiful in
her sincere indignation, flushed and vivid with feeling and emotion; but
she might have been a hag for all the effect she had on Karl of Sweden.
“Peace in Varsovia, Madame,” he repeated sternly, and turned and
galloped away down the frosty road, this time without a salutation.
Aurora gazed after the disappearing figure with eyes dimmed by tears of
passionate rage; she was cold and trembling, never had she believed
herself capable of any passion as strong as the hatred now inspired in
her haughty heart by this young man.
“A hero!” she thought, “a boorish boy! a rude churl!”
Slowly she turned back to her lodging; useless to expose herself to
further mortification--it would be only to repeat her failure, only to
madden herself for nothing.
She must return to Varsovia and tell Augustus of her humiliation.
The future appeared to her desperate; she did not even care to think of
it; this adamant and implacable prince clearly meant to conquer both
Poland and Saxony.
Aurora saw her whole world tumbling into the dust of chaos; this man
would be the master of her fate; and she could do nothing with him; he
had looked at her with--first indifference, then contempt, and always as
if she had been old and ugly.
In Augustus she had no hope; she knew that he was at the end of his
resources, and he had no personal qualities with which to inspire
confidence; she foresaw that his bewildered policies would lead to a
total overthrow of his fortunes, and that his submission would partake
of the nature of panic and thereby further gild the triumph of Karl.
She felt angry with her lover for the failure that had placed her in
such a position of unendurable humiliation and insecurity.
In her bitterness, as she rode slowly along the hard lonely road, the
cold skies above her and the unawakened landscape barren and still
frozen about her, her dominant thought was a regret, almost passionate
regret, that she had not attached her fortunes to those of a more
successful man than Augustus of Saxony.
CHAPTER IV
The unhappy Augustus went swiftly on the path of disaster; when Aurora
von Königsmarck failed and returned making the best she could of a poor
tale, the King-Elector appealed to the Diet still sitting at Varsovia,
by means of one of his partisans, the Palatine of Marienbourg.
He asked that the army of Poland might be placed at his disposition,
promising to pay the men two quarters in advance, and requested
permission to bring to the defense of the country 12,000 Saxons.
Cardinal Radziekowski, Archbishop of Gnesne, Prime Minister of the
Realm, and President of the Diet, the most powerful enemy of Augustus,
and the most active partisan of the Sobieski, the family of the last
King of Poland, was eager enough to seize this opportunity of insulting
a king elected against his wish and who was an object of his keen
personal dislike; the answer he returned to the Palatine of Marienbourg
was dry and hard.
“His Majesty was advised not to bring any Saxons into Poland as the Diet
was on the point of sending an embassy to the King of Sweden.”
In this extremity Augustus resolved to throw himself once more on the
mercy of Karl; he privately sent a chamberlain to the Swedish camp to
inquire how and where the conqueror would receive an envoy from himself
and from Poland.
This secret ambassador suffered an even severer reception than that
which had been accorded to the Countess von Königsmarck; as the
formality of the passport had been overlooked Karl put the chamberlain
in prison without seeing him, declaring that while he might listen to
the Republic he would not hear anything from King Augustus.
The only consolation that this unfortunate prince had in his disasters
was that of seeing that the Republic was treated almost as harshly as
himself.
Karl received the five senators sent by the Diet in his tent near
Grodno, with a pomp that was unusual to him--surrounded by his dragoons
and generals, seated on a throne, and clad in a rich uniform with
damascened cuirass; but the two spokesmen, Tarlo and Galesky, could,
after all, only obtain from him the sentence with which he had sent away
Aurora von Königsmarck that he would “discuss peace in Varsovia.”
Flooding the country with manifestos, in which he declared that his
cause was identical with that of Poland, and that his arms were directed
solely against the Saxon, Karl marched on the capital.
His propaganda was insidiously aided by the Cardinal Primate, and by
those numerous senators who were either secretly of his interest or
actively opposed to Augustus, who remained abandoned by all save the few
nobles who were of his party and the envoys of Peter, the Pope, and the
Emperor. His orders to the Polish nobility to take arms with their
followers and come to his assistance were ignored while the Poles
hesitated, watching with more satisfaction than dismay, the daily
advance of the conqueror.
Even those senators loyal to Augustus would not consent to his calling
in his Saxons, but he had secretly commanded the 12,000 he had asked for
to advance to his aid, and had recalled another 8000 that he had
promised to the Emperor to use against France.
He knew that to do this was to violate the Polish law that did not allow
him more than 10,000 foreign troops, and that he was risking a revolt
throughout the country, but his necessity was desperate, and he believed
that he had now little to lose in Poland.
While he was waiting for the arrival of these troops he left Varsovia
and went from one Palatinate of Poland to the other, endeavoring to
secure the nobility on his behalf, and to raise some sort of an army
with which to face the conqueror. Meanwhile, Karl arrived before
Varsovia, which, not fortified and without a garrison, opened her gates
at once.
The victor contented himself with disarming the citizens and exacting
the moderate tribute of 100,000 francs.
Among the first to present himself before the Swedish King was Cardinal
Radziekowski, who had left Varsovia to withdraw to his residence at
Lowitz.
Karl received him, without pomp or ceremony, in his headquarters, which
he had established at Praga, near the capital.
The Cardinal Primate looked at this youthful hero with a curiosity equal
to that with which Aurora von Königsmarck had first gazed at him, and
with the same desperate desire and eager hope to turn him to his own
ends.
These ends were directly in opposition to those of the fair Countess; he
labored to overthrow the crown she wished at all costs to preserve. Karl
was standing with his brother-in-law, Count Piper, and several generals,
distinguished from the others by his height and the plainness of his
attire; he wore his heavy blue cloth coat with gilt leather buttons,
black satin cravat, white breeches, high boots, and leather gloves that
came to the elbows; he had his hair short, in contrast to the flowing
perukes of the other gentlemen, and his still beardless face was browned
above his fair proper complexion. He advanced to meet the Cardinal with
an air of friendliness, but there was but little change in his cold
countenance and the steady gleam of his blue eyes.
The Cardinal felt chilled, and faltered a little in the high-flown
compliments that he had prepared to salute the conqueror.
“You have come to speak of peace?” asked Karl, cutting short his speech.
“Your Majesty,” replied the Cardinal, with some difficulty, rallying his
wits in face of this personality so unusual and so unexpected, “Your
Majesty promised peace in Varsovia.”
“I promised to discuss peace in Varsovia,” replied the young conqueror,
“and I shall keep my word.”
The Cardinal bowed his head; it was difficult to know what to say before
such imperious abruptness.
“Your Eminence represents Poland?” added Karl.
“All save that portion that remains with King Augustus,” replied the
cautious priest.
“You are of the Sobieski party?” demanded the King.
“Sire, I have striven to be of no party, but the servant of Poland.”
Karl smiled; he was tolerably well acquainted with the intrigues and
factions of the Republic, and, though he disdained politics, on this
occasion he had allowed Count Piper to meddle in the affairs of Poland,
greatly to his own advantage. He glanced at the Duke of
Holstein-Gottorp.
“We have not come to impose terms on Poland, have we?” he said briefly,
then turned again to the Cardinal without waiting for the young Duke’s
assent. “My quarrel is not with Poland.”
“We are, indeed,” replied the Cardinal, with some dignity, “unconscious
of any offense towards your Majesty.”
“But your King,” said Karl, “waged on me a most unjust and aggressive
war. He must make reparation.”
“Sire,” answered the Cardinal, with secret exultation, “he is in no
condition to refuse your Majesty’s terms.”
“We have not yet come to the discussion of my terms,” responded the
King, with an increase of his freezing hauteur. “If your Eminence is the
mouthpiece of your country--I have only this to say--that I will give
Poland peace when she has elected another King.”
No words could have been more grateful to Cardinal Radziekowski, who was
the adherent of the Sobieski, and the man who had, in default of James
Sobieski, rendered too unpopular by the memory of his father’s faults to
be a possible candidate for the Polish throne, caused the Prince of
Conti to be elected, and would have crowned him but for the power of
Saxon arms and Saxon money.
“You may tell, sir, your palatines and nobles this news,” added Karl
curtly. “If they require peace they know the means by which they can
attain it.”
He moved away in a manner which seemed to terminate the interview that
had not lasted more than a few moments; but the Cardinal Primate hardly
noticed the abruptness of his dismissal in his satisfaction at the news
he could now carry all over Poland, with a fair certainty of dethroning
Augustus.
“This priest,” remarked Karl to his brother-in-law, “will save us much
trouble. The Poles will themselves cast off the Saxon.”
He looked as he spoke at one of the officers who had remained in the
window-place during his interview with the Cardinal.
This was a young man of a frank and pleasing countenance and attired
very richly, Stanislaus Leczinski, Palatine of Posen, and one of the
first Poles to join Sweden; his behavior was stained by some ingratitude
towards Augustus, to whom he owed his fortune, but whose election he had
opposed on the ground that no foreigner should rule over Poland.
Karl had already shown a marked interest in this young man, who was in
most things more youthful than himself though eight years his senior.
It pleased his peculiar pride to give his friendship to one who could in
no wise requite it; and just because Stanislaus had little influence in
Poland and could be of no assistance worth considering to Karl, that
monarch favored him above the Sobieski and Sapieha whose power might
have been of immense service to him; Stanislaus had held the office of
treasurer under Augustus, but had little weight in politics beyond that
given by eloquence and hardihood.
It was to this young noble who had so early reported himself at the camp
of the victor to whom Karl now addressed himself.
“Do you not think,” he asked keenly, “that Augustus will soon be
dethroned?”
“I think, sire, that he will, when he is desperate, fight,” replied
Stanislaus. “When the Cardinal Primate make public your Majesty’s
ultimatum, the Elector will make an effort to redeem his fortunes.”
“I hope so,” said Karl dryly; “he needs a further lesson. Is he not now
at Cracovia?”
It was Count Piper who answered.
“The last advices are, sire, that he has gathered the nobility of that
province about him, and awaits the arrival of the Saxon troops.”
“We will advance on Cracovia,” said Karl calmly, “and when we have taken
that city, we will decide the question of the crown of Poland.”
With these words, spoken too dryly to savour of pomp or bombast, Karl
smiled at the young Palatine of Posen, and left the room with a brief
salute to the others.
“He will make himself King of Poland,” said Stanislaus Leczinski, as the
door closed.
“He will not,” answered Count Piper, with a touch of sarcasm in his
voice. “That would be too ordinary an exploit to please His Majesty’s
temper.”
“What can he do more astonishing or more magnificent than to take a
crown from his enemy’s brow to place on his own!” exclaimed the young
Palatine, turning his frank, pleasant face towards the Swede. “And I for
the first,” he added, with genuine admiration in his voice, “would be
ready to acclaim him in the greatness that he has so nobly won.”
“You do not know the King,” said Count Piper dryly. “His pride is to be
the arbiter of other men’s destinies--he would not consider himself made
greater by another crown; his is a lofty pride, and a strict if hard
code of honor; he would disdain to turn a defensive and punitive war
into one of conquest. You will see that, as in the treaty with Denmark,
he will ask nothing for himself--unless it be one thing.”
“And that?” asked Stanislaus.
“John Rheingold Patkul.”
“The Czar’s envoy!”
“To Karl a rebel--and undoubtedly the Livonian was the arch-conspirator
in this plot to despoil Sweden.”
Stanislaus did not reply; his secret sympathies were with Patkul, whom
he believed to be sincerely working for his own oppressed country, but
his interest and his admiration lay with Karl; the strange figure of the
young conqueror fascinated his chivalrous and ardent nature, and he had
been flattered by the notice of so remarkable a man.
His wish to see Karl King of Poland was sincere; this was the type of
king he desired for a country to which he was attached with a strong
affection; he had never liked the indolent good-natured Saxon.
“Naturally,” added Count Piper, with a glance at the Swedish officers,
“I shall do my utmost to persuade His Majesty to accept the crown of
Poland if it is offered to him; it would be a safe, sound step that
would bring Sweden some return for the expense of this war--but the
King,” he added with meaning, “is not likely to take my advice.”
The Palatine did not think any the worse of Karl for this; he was
headstrong and independent himself, and could appreciate that a man in
the position of intoxicating glory occupied by the King of Sweden would
refuse to be led by the advice of a mere politician.
“Perhaps,” he said, with his native pleasantness, “we may be able to
move His Majesty to our wishes.”
Smiling, he picked up his gaily-feathered hat, and went out to find the
King who he knew at this hour would be taking one of his lonely rides
round Praga.
The action of Augustus was exactly that predicted by Stanislaus
Leczinski.
When the Cardinal Primate informed the Diet that it was necessary to bow
to the will of the conqueror and dethrone the Elector of Saxony, that
Prince resolved on a desperate battle for his kingdom, and advanced to
meet Karl who was marching from Varsovia, the new capital, to Cracovia,
the ancient capital which had been chosen as the Saxon headquarters.
Karl had 12,000 men, picked Swedish troops; Augustus, his own soldiers
having arrived, had 30,000, of whom 20,000 were those that had lately
arrived from his own electorate, and the rest the Poles who had remained
faithful to him during his reverses.
In numbers he was therefore greatly superior to the King of Sweden, and
the Saxons were as well equipped, armed, and trained as the Swedes, but
such was the respect inspired by the invincible Karl that Augustus went
to meet his fate with a heavy heart.
“Why does the Czar do nothing?” asked Aurora passionately, when her
lover took leave of her.
“What of his hordes of Muscovites?” she added.
Augustus smiled sadly.
“Those troops he has sent I should be better without,” he replied.
“Peter trains his men--I know not when he will be ready. Think not of
aid from him, dear heart.”
The proud-hearted woman clasped her fair arms round his bravery of satin
and steel, and raised her sad countenance to the kind handsome face that
looked at her so tenderly.
But no words of love or softness left her beautiful lips.
“If you do not defeat the King of Sweden, I think that I shall never
forgive you,” she said fiercely.
Augustus, harassed, perplexed, and overwhelmed, took leave of her with
less than his usual affection.
Hélène D’Einsiedel gave him a gentler “God-speed,” while she thanked God
in her heart that Patkul was in Russia; far away, but safe from the
approaching horror of battle, thought the poor girl, as she watched the
army leave Cracovia.
In a few days came the news that Augustus had met Karl at Klissow, and
that despite a desperate resistance and heroic bravery, had suffered a
complete reverse, his stores, flags, artillery, falling into the hands
of the Swedes who drove him before them in headlong flight.
Karl entered Cracovia as he had entered Varsovia, overwhelmed all by the
sheer terror of his arms, established a Swedish garrison, taxed the town
100,000 rix-dollars, and proceeded to follow Augustus who fled towards
Marienbourg.
Livid with anger and despair Aurora von Königsmarck had rushed from room
to room of the palace, snatching her jewels, her gold and silver
ornaments, her tapestries and clothes, calling together her maids,
pages, dogs, and monkeys, and in hasty retreat with coaches and
baggage-mules, fled to Lublin, accompanied by Mdle. D’Einsiedel, whose
entire being was occupied in prayers for the safety of General Patkul.
When the weary women reached their new place of refuge they were
relieved by the news that Augustus had a respite.
Karl, hotly pursuing his enemy, had fallen from his horse and broken his
leg, which necessitated his return to Cracovia and would keep him
confined several weeks to his bed.
“Now--if you have a man’s courage and a prince’s spirit--is your
opportunity,” wrote Aurora, in a fiery letter to the vanquished Prince,
who was striving to gather together once more his resources at
Marienbourg.
BOOK V
THE ELECTOR AUGUSTUS
“Victrices copias aliam laturus in orbem.”--LUCAN.
CHAPTER I
The Czar Peter listened in silence to the news from Poland; he had
appeared lately to have forgotten the war, and to have become entirely
absorbed in the building of his new city and fort on the mud-banks of
the Neva.
Anxious to break the spirit of the Malo-Russians who had shown
themselves restive under his autocratic rule, he had transported
thousands of these men whose forced labor was draining the morass as a
preliminary to the foundations of the new city.
That hundreds of them died through the unhealthfulness of the district
and the hard conditions of their life was nothing to the Czar.
He had decided that the new capital was to be called St Petersburg, and
that the great fortress therein was to be named St. Peter and St. Paul
and used for the burial-place of the Czars of Russia, instead of the
church of St Michael in Moscow.
When General Patkul joined his master at the little house called Marli,
he found, to his great disappointment, that Peter exhibited a moody
indifference with regard to the war and the astonishing conquests of
Karl XII.
He was now often in his carpenter’s shed dressed like a Dutch skipper,
and working with his hands.
“Karl could not do this,” he said one day to Patkul, who was surveying
his occupation with some dismay.
“Do what, sire?” asked the Livonian.
Peter touched the planes and lathes on the carpenter’s bench.
“This,” he said. “No, he could not turn a table-leg--nor found a city.”
“He can conquer kingdoms,” said Patkul bitterly enough.
Peter leant back against the rough wall of the shed; his short, soft,
dusky curls were hanging over his eyes; his expressive charming face was
pale and tired; his large dark eyes full of a veiled fire; his blue
blouse was open on a fine cambric shirt (he was always very nice in his
linen) and his breeches and woolen stockings were covered with sawdust
and chips of wood.
He looked at Patkul kindly.
“Do you think that what that man does will endure?” he asked.
“Conquests have endured, sire, nations have been enslaved for
generations through the exploits of a man like this.”
The Czar was not thinking of the freedom of future generations; he meant
to build a great nation, not a free one.
“Sweden can never hold the Baltic Provinces,” he replied.
“Who is to prevent him?”
“I shall,” said Peter.
Patkul looked earnestly at the Czar, as if to discover if he spoke in
jest or earnest.
“Well,” added Peter, with narrowed eyes and signs of a rising temper.
“Do you not think I shall yet utterly crush the Swede? I have had my
lesson, Patkul.”
He seized a knife and stabbed moodily at the carpenter’s bench before
him.
“Your Majesty has the genius to profit by it,” said Patkul gravely.
“All my battles are not going to be like Narva,” continued the Czar. “I
have learnt something of war. The King of Poland is a fool. Why did he
not train my Muscovites?”
“He told me, sire, that he had no officers, and complained that the
Russians were out of hand and ravaging Lithuania.”
“I hope they may lay it waste from end to end,” said Peter. “At the same
time, if any ever return to Russia, I will have them knouted for
disobedience.”
He frowned as he thought of Augustus, a character that intensely
irritated him; the elegant splendid Elector and the savage Czar had been
only able to tolerate each other when both had been intoxicated; only in
debauchery had they anything in common.
“He is a fool,” repeated the Czar. “If he had kept to the treaty of
Birsen, Karl would have been ruined by now.”
“He lacked both money and means,” said Patkul, who had a certain
friendship for Augustus, and a clear understanding of his difficulties.
“I think, sire, you can hardly conceive how he was, and is, hampered by
the Polish Diet and families like the Sapieha.”
“He should punish them all. Had I been King of Poland, by now there
would not be a rebel left,” answered Peter gloomily. “What is the merit
of governing if one cannot overcome opposition?”
Patkul remembered the fate of the Strelitz who had ventured to oppose
the Czar’s innovations, and the vengeance he had taken on his own wife
and sister; certainly Peter knew how to make himself both feared and
obeyed.
“Poland is in reality a Republic,” said the Livonian, “and Augustus is
not free, even to punish.”
“Ah, Poland!” exclaimed the Czar impatiently. “What matter the laws and
constitution of Poland? She can be dismembered as easily as that,” and
he pulled apart a piece of wood he had snatched up in his strong
fingers.
“The King of Sweden may take the crown of Poland,” said Patkul, thinking
to rouse the Czar.
“And invade Saxony, and frighten the Elector’s fiddlers and dainty
ladies!” laughed Peter.
“And invade Russia, sire.”
Peter rose.
“That is his design?”
“I am sure of it.”
“Well, we have a little time in which to drill our armies.”
“Sire, not so long.”
Peter smiled; he still did not seem greatly stirred by the account of
the exploits of Karl.
“Is he not at Cracovia with a broken leg, eh, Patkul?”
“He mends fast; he is a creature of iron, and, once he is in the field
again, Augustus will be driven before him as he was before.”
“Curse the Saxon,” exclaimed Peter, with sudden violence. “Had I faced
Karl with 20,000 trained troops I had sent this Swede reeling backwards
in his tracks!”
He spoke with a passion and a simple grandeur that warmed Patkul’s heart
with some glimmerings of hope, unlikely as it seemed to him that out of
the chaos that was Russia even Peter could raise an army that would
overthrow the Swede, before whose arms the finest troops in Europe had
broken.
“Klissow was extraordinary, sire,” he said. “The Saxons had never a
chance----”
“And the Poles?”
“They broke and fled at the first cannonade.”
Peter made an impatient gesture.
“And Augustus still thinks to raise an army from these materials?”
“He is at Lublin or Marienbourg, sire, endeavoring to rouse the
Palatinates.”
“Oh, he had better return to Dresden and amuse himself with his toes,”
said Peter contemptuously.
“Karl would not leave him in peace, even in Dresden.”
“He will grovel?” asked Peter.
“I think he will,” replied Patkul. “He sent the Countess von Königsmarck
to make terms. I know this, although the matter was kept secret.”
“A fribble and a fool!” cried Peter. “Have I ever had a chance, Patkul,
with two such allies? This Saxon weakling--and Denmark, what does
Denmark do?”
“He maintains a prudent silence, sire, and respects the treaty he dare
not break.”
“A couple of dogs, of spiritless dogs!” said Peter fiercely. “But I, my
friend, do not need either of them. The issue lies between Sweden and
me.”
He paused, and fixed his dark powerful glance on the slight, energetic
figure and resolute face of his general.
“Do you think,” he asked, in a quieter tone, “that this man’s work is to
be compared to mine? I construct--he destroys. Is it easier to knock
down a house with cannon or to build it up, carefully, brick by brick,
with your own proper hands? And which is the more useful to mankind? I
make Russia and Karl destroys Sweden.”
“But these conquests will enrich--as did those of the great Gustavus.”
“Nay, he does not fight for trade, for liberty, for the advancement of
his people--for forts or markets, but for the empty fame of armies; he
drains Sweden of men and money--to the point of exhaustion--for what?
That he may make Europe stare at barren conquests.”
Peter, roused, as was his capricious manner, suddenly from a gloomy
indifference to a deep enthusiasm--from melancholia, almost despair, to
firm self-reliance and confidence--spoke with a power and a force that
encouraged as it impressed Patkul, who hailed the man of genius and the
great ruler in this young man in the peasant’s blouse who paced amid the
litter of a workman’s shed; would to God, he thought, the Czar could
always have his faith in himself, this clear outlook, this patience and
calm judgment.
“All these lands will belong to Holy Russia,” continued the Czar. “Aye,
and Poland too; his glory shall vanish, leaving but a name for
children’s tales. I shall leave a power that will fight the world.”
He smiled, mournfully, almost tenderly, at Patkul.
“Are you dismayed at the progress of this Swede?” he asked, “and at my
inaction? Do you think I show poorly beside his glory?”
He stepped up to the Livonian and laid a hand on the sleeve of his rich
uniform.
“Look you, Patkul,” he said, with a noble air far removed from boasting,
“he takes Varsovia and Cracovia--but I built St. Petersburg! He sets his
heel on Poland, I give my hand to Russia, and raise her up--a nation
among nations.”
Patkul was both moved and comforted.
“Ah, sire, would that you were always in this mood!”
A shadow passed over the Czar’s expressive face.
“Sometimes the devils get hold of me,” he muttered, “and nothing on
earth seems real. When this war is over, I shall travel again. I should
have seen Venice,” he added, irrelevantly, “had not that rebellion of
the Strelitz called me back--think, a city on the sea! I, too, will have
my city on the sea. A pity that Gordon died--he was a good man, a keen
soldier, a faithful envoy. Poor Gordon, but I gave him a fine funeral.”
“Your Majesty is as well served now,” said Patkul gently.
“I know,” replied Peter warmly and affectionately.
“And those who serve me well shall be well rewarded.”
“Your Majesty’s success would reward me sufficiently,” said the Livonian
simply. “Could I see the Swede defeated and my country freed----”
Peter interrupted.
“If you do not go down in these wars you will see Sweden ruined. As for
your country--I shall be an easier master than Karl, if only because of
my friendship to you,” he added, with a smile.
With this Patkul had to be contented, nay, grateful; perhaps in his
innermost heart was a misgiving that Peter might prove as stern a tyrant
as ever Karl or his father had been; he admired the Czar, he was fond of
him, but he had not been able to deceive himself as to the terrible
aspects of Peter’s character; he knew of his excesses, his cruelties,
his fierce vengeances; it might have occurred to him that he was but
devoting his life to rescue his unfortunate country from one master to
place her under another, and that there could not be much liberty under
the autocratic rule of Peter, but he trusted, with something of the
faith of desperation, in the Czar’s love of progress and enlightenment,
and hoped that a man so remarkable would by degrees reform himself as he
reformed others.
There was, however, a shadow on his pleasant expressive face as Peter
pronounced these words that referred to the future fate of his beloved
Livonia.
The searching, though wild and mournful gaze of the Czar noted the shade
that clouded the ardor of his general’s look.
“Patkul,” he said, “_believe in me_.”
The Livonian eagerly seized and eagerly pressed to his lips the
work-worn hand of the Czar.
“Did I not believe in you, sire, I could not live,” he said quietly, but
with intense feeling.
Peter smiled.
“Come into the house,” he answered.
The two men, the Czar in his workman’s apparel and Patkul in the
splendid uniform of a Russian soldier, entered the little house called
Marli.
In the room on the ground floor a meal was laid, roughly, yet many of
the articles were of carved gold and beaten silver.
By the window where the late lilacs hung their blossoms from their
thicket of close-packed leaves against the casement, Patkul saw his
country-woman, now no longer Marpha, but baptized into the Orthodox
Church by the name of Katherina.
She wore a handsome Russian dress of green velvet and orange-colored
silk, both embroidered with gold; a long white gauze veil with a pearl
edging hung from her stiff satin head-dress.
She was seated in a clumsy attitude, eating sweetmeats; neither her
hands nor her face were clean, and already prosperity, idleness, and
good-living were coarsening and spoiling her opulent beauty.
Patkul, looking at her, marveled at Peter; he was used to the refined
loveliness of women like Aurora von Königsmarck, and to a court where
women such as the Livonian would not have been tolerated as
chambermaids.
Prince Mentchikoff entered, very splendid in European clothes, with a
great curling peruke and a star on his breast, and looking very much
like a courtier of King Louis.
Peter eyed him with satisfaction.
“My Lord Carmarthen had such a coat as that,” he said, fingering the
skirts of heavy gray silk. “Do you remember, Danilovitch, what a fine
gentleman he was? I should like to see him again--and his boat--that was
a fine boat, Danilovitch.”
“When the war is over we will go again to England,” replied Mentchikoff.
“They are the most sensible people in the world, and live in the most
comfortable fashion.”
“Yet in too confined and precise a way,” returned Peter. “Nothing is to
be changed or upset or altered.”
“Having achieved a fortunate constitution, under which it is a happiness
to live,” said Patkul, “they are jealous to preserve it, and this temper
shows in small things.”
The Tartar servant brought in the dinner; several kinds of drink, kvas,
and pungent liquors, boiled cabbage and beetroot, pickled cucumbers and
a great dish of parboiled fish, another of stewed meat.
The four took their places.
Katherina smiled pleasantly and placidly at every one; her breath
already smelt of brandy, and she began drinking before she ate; her
finery was stained with grease, for she was as often as not in the
kitchen among the pots, and stale sugar disfigured her veil.
Patkul sat opposite to her, and his glance rested puzzled on this woman
who had so entirely fascinated a man like Peter--perhaps the greatest
man in Europe.
She accompanied him everywhere he went now; it was believed that he was
going to marry her, even to make her his Empress if he could divorce
Eudoxia; she was his confidante, and it was said, his adviser, in
everything.
Her birth and breed made her sympathize with his schemes for a reform
that would humiliate the nobility, and with the abolition of customs and
conventions that made her own extraordinary elevation possible; like
Mentchikoff, she was in favor of a new Russia where she could find her
own fortunes; unlike him, no motives of patriotism, no appreciation what
the task Peter was endeavoring to perform, mingled with her satisfaction
at her personal good luck.
She was fond of the Czar; she had been as fond of Mentchikoff; she was
ready to be as fond of any man whom it was her interest to serve; but as
she could look no higher than Peter, her placid affections had
concentrated on him; she was in many ways a remarkable woman, shrewd,
well-balanced, quick and courageous; but it was difficult to know
wherein Peter found the supreme attraction that caused him to be
inseparable from her unless it was the immovable good nature and placid,
healthy calm that took all his melancholies and caprices with a smile.
Patkul contrasted her in his mind with Hélène D’Einsiedel, so fair and
soft and gentle; she seemed in his memory like a creature of another
world, and his heart contracted with a sense of bitter loss as he
recalled how she had come to him through the dark, snowy streets of
Varsovia and placed her cold hands in his and offered him her chill lips
in a mute sorrow of farewell.
And he had let her go, because he had shrunk from bringing her to
Russia, among such company as the Czar kept.
But was she any happier now, in flight before the conqueror, and in what
way, save for outward grossness, was Katherina worse than Aurora von
Königsmarck, who pandered to a worse man, and exacted a higher price
than did this peasant. While he was asking himself, with some
bitterness, these questions, Peter, hitherto absorbed in his food,
suddenly spoke:
“I shall keep you here, Patkul, Saxony is not worth your pains.”
The General flushed and started, the words came so pat on his
reflections.
“I wish to return, sire,” he said.
“Why?” asked Peter, with a certain annoyance, but Katherina
good-humoredly interfered.
“Why, let him go--his lady is there.”
Peter gave him a keen glance.
“You are safer in Russia,” he said. “Never trust a weakling,” he added
shrewdly.
“Sire,” replied the Livonian, “as your envoy I am safe anywhere.”
“Never trust a weakling,” repeated the Czar.
But Patkul was resolute to return to Saxony.
CHAPTER II
Augustus, with more energy than might have been expected from his easy
nature, set himself to redeem the disaster of Klissow.
Having taken advantage of the accident of Karl to spread the news of his
death, he summoned a convocation of the Polish nobles, and in the
reaction occasioned by the belief in the death of the terrible captain,
Augustus, by promises, smiles, and largesses, gained the support of many
of the Palatinates, who were only hesitating as to which was the winning
side.
The Cardinal Primate himself, who had been so eager to point out to the
Diet the necessity of dethroning Augustus to placate Karl, came to
Lublin and took, with the other magnates, the oath of allegiance to the
Elector.
A fresh army of 50,000 was raised before it became known that Karl was
alive, and even in the face of this news it was voted that six weeks be
given to the Swedes in which to declare their terms for peace or war,
and the same time to the rebel Sapieha of Lithuania, in which to lay
down their arms.
Meanwhile Peter showed signs of coming to his ally’s assistance when
Augustus had despaired of help from that quarter; moved by the energy
and eloquence of Patkul, the Czar sent that General to put some spirit
into the wandering Muscovite troops in Lithuania and Ingria, and these,
reduced to some order and discipline by the efforts of the gallant
Livonian, began to make vigorous attacks on the garrisons the King of
Sweden had left behind in the conquered Provinces; and even Karl’s
veteran troops admitted that the Muscovites were not so entirely to be
despised as they had been led to believe by Narva.
Count Piper saw his master’s glory stationary if not dimmed.
He did not urge the King to seize this moment to conclude a favorable
peace, having already proved the uselessness of such advice; but he
represented to him, as coldly as possible, that the renown won by his
arms might suffer by his entry into the confused field of Polish
politics, his meddling with intrigues so involved as to be hardly
understandable by a foreigner.
“While your Majesty waits to dethrone the King of Poland, Muscovy grows
stronger.”
“After Poland, Russia,” replied Karl from the bed where he lay confined
with his broken leg. “But I shall dethrone Augustus if I stay here fifty
years.”
And despite the advices of his generals he continued to support the Diet
of Varsovia, which, acting in opposition to that of Lublin, had been
called together by the intrigues of the Cardinal Primate, and endeavored
to give expediency an air of decency by searching the laws for
justification for actions sufficiently indicated by necessity, and so
giving a glow of dignity to the submissions exacted by the conqueror.
Karl, whose sole amusement was hearing the Scandinavian sagas read to
him, and who bore his enforced idleness, so bitter to one of his active
spirit, without either irritation or lament, had received greatly into
his friendship the young Palatine of Posen, whose chivalrous spirit,
high courage, and honorable character were pleasing to Karl’s code of
manhood. His brother-in-law, the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, had been
killed at the battle of Klissow (thus in reality rendering null the
object of the war, which was to restore this prince to his domains), and
the stern young King had no companion of his own age beyond this Polish
noble.
Stanislaus, frank, affable, and generous, neither presumed on nor
cringed for Karl’s favor, and cherished no ulterior designs; he was
content to see his country delivered from Saxon rule and hoped nothing
for himself from Karl’s conquests.
The Elector’s gleam of prosperity was short-lived. As soon as Karl could
mount his horse he advanced on the remnants of the Saxon army who, in
this brief breathing space, had rallied from their defeat at Klissow.
Gyllenstierna had sent from Sweden troops to the number of over 10,000
of whom 6000 were cavalry, and twenty pieces of cannon.
The Saxons, under Steinau, fell back on Russia. Karl pursued them, and,
swimming the river Bug at the head of his cavalry, fell on them at
Pultask and utterly defeated them, Steinau and his staff being among the
fugitives; then they marched on Thorn on the Vistula, where the again
defeated Augustus had taken refuge, and proceeded to besiege the town.
The desperate Elector contrived to escape from the beleaguered garrison
and retired towards Saxony.
Karl was now master of Poland; General Rehnsköld with one division of
the army holding the center of the country, the frontiers of Russia
being guarded by other army corps, and Karl, with the flower of his
troops, camped a few miles outside Thorn.
Nothing disturbed his glory which seemed now at the apogee; Denmark
respected the treaty at Traventhal and accepted in silence the near
approach of his hereditary enemy to its frontiers; Swedish ships were in
possession of the Baltic seas; and the arms of Karl threatened at once
Saxony, the Empire, and Russia.
North Europe awaited in silence the next step of this conqueror who, as
soon as his transports with reinforcements had arrived from Sweden,
proceeded to close round the imperial town of Thorn.
After a splendid resistance the city capitulated on the third of
October; Karl made a display of generosity by his munificence and
courtesy towards Röbel, the heroic governor, and one of meanness by
taxing the town, already ruined by the war, far more than it could
afford to pay; it was becoming more and more apparent that this King
cared for little but war, and knew not how to appreciate any but
military merit.
Dantzic and Ebling, two free and imperial towns on the Vistula, having
been too nice in granting consent to the passage of the Swedish
reinforcements, were soon made to feel the terror of the conqueror’s
arms, Dantzic being forced to pay a heavy fine and Ebling being entered
by the Swedes, soldiers quartered with the burghers, cannon packed in
the squares, and the inhabitants reduced to throw themselves on their
knees in the streets before his triumphal entry imploring mercy.
Karl mulcted the town in a large sum, seized her arms, and left a
garrison there, proceeding, with unmoved grandeur, on his implacable
conquests.
The intrigues of the Cardinal Primate, waxing bolder as the fortunes of
Augustus waned, succeeded in inducing the Diet to declare the Elector of
Saxony incapable of wearing the crown of Poland. The Diet, inspired by
the wish of the conqueror, would have crowned the life-long intrigues of
the Cardinal with success, by offering the throne to James Sobieski, son
of the last King of Poland, but this Prince, together with his brother
Constantine, was kidnapped by Saxon troops at Breslau and sent to close
confinement in Germany.
The assembly at Varsovia therefore found themselves bound to find
another rival to Augustus.
The Elector’s fortunes now indeed seemed desperate; there was little
more to be hoped from Saxony, where he had exhausted every resource, and
nothing to be hoped from Poland, where his party had dwindled to a
faction among factions, and where Karl was more absolute master than
Augustus had been at the height of his prosperity.
The Swede had taken up his winter quarters at Heilsburg in Polish
Russia, and from there surveyed tranquilly his conquests and his
neighbors who regarded him with the respect of fear.
The war, which had now lasted four years, had been for him a series of
unchecked victories; his arms had suffered no reverse and his reputation
flamed in Europe; there had been no such invincible captain since the
great Condé, and men could not remember a king who made a war of
conquest with justice and mercy; no outrage, no massacre, no pillaging,
or burning, no excesses, large or small, could be imputed to the
soldiers of Karl.
He had attained, in a few years, a glory which is seldom the reward of a
long and splendid career.
“Are you not now satisfied, sire?” asked Count Piper, with a real
curiosity.
Karl smiled; he was in a good humor, for he had made an end of the
Polish intrigues and was on the eve of giving a new King to Poland; he
gave little confidence to his minister, but continued to employ him as
one useful in those matters so distasteful to his own spirit, now
entirely absorbed in war.
“You think to get me back to Stockholm, Count?” he asked.
Count Piper smiled in his turn; he knew too well the iron obstinacy with
which he had to deal to attempt to persuade Karl to any design.
“Sire,” he counter-questioned, “on whom now do you intend to make war?”
Karl lifted his cold blue eyes.
“There is always the Czar.”
“But he has withdrawn himself, sire. I believe he cares no more about
the war, despite the appeals of the Elector. He is absorbed in building
his new city.”
“I will topple over the foundations of his city,” replied the stern
young King. “Piper, have you ever known me alter my mind? I told you
some while since that I had a mind to dethrone the Czar.”
“The occupation of your Majesty’s life is to be war?”
“What other occupation is there for a gentleman?” asked Karl.
Count Piper did not attempt to argue with him nor to express any opinion
on this speech; Karl’s career had been so startlingly and dazzlingly
successful that it seemed useless to warn him or advise him; the
cautious and prudent minister did not even venture now to point out the
immense difficulties of an invasion of Russia, and the almost superhuman
task it would be to subdue such a country and dethrone such a man as
Peter.
Karl could point to achievements so splendid that it seemed an
impertinence to hint at possible disaster, or to urge caution on one
whose exploits had been heroic to the point of miracles.
“At least, sire, accept some of the fruits of your victories.”
“You mean the crown of Poland?” said Karl thoughtfully.
He rose and went to the door of the tent, and stood looking out into the
encampment that was fresh with spring breezes.
The minister gazed at him with the questioning curiosity and amazement
that this young man had never failed to rouse in his heart.
Karl was now twenty-two years of age; a temperate, active, and simple
life had developed his already splendid constitution into perfect
hardihood; physically he was like the ancient Vikings whose exploits
formed the subject of the sole literature he cared to read; tall, in
fine proportion, with powerful shoulders and slender hips, and with the
easy carriage of the soldier and the horseman, a creature of bone and
muscle, nerve and sinew perfectly attuned.
His face had slightly changed, broadened and grown harder in the lines,
but the expression was the same, the full lips, the curved nostrils, the
blank eyes showed the same unmoved courage, the same indifference to
things about him that had once made Count Piper liken him to a god--or
an animal.
He still wore a dark blue uniform of the plainest cut, a black satin
cravat, and was without peruke or lace or ribbons or jewels; never in
the slightest particular had he deviated from the austere conduct he had
vowed to follow; his living was of the simplest, his couch a straw
pallet or his own cloak; his food such as that eaten by the meanest foot
soldier; since he left Stockholm he had never tasted wine nor spoken to
a woman beyond the few words he had been forced to exchange with Aurora
von Königsmarck. He passed his life in the camp, his companions were all
soldiers, and little seemed to interest him beyond the things of war;
the affairs of Sweden he left entirely in the hands of the regency; he
cared nothing for the news from his capital, and never corresponded with
his sole surviving relations, the Queen Dowager and his sisters.
Count Piper could not love him; perhaps because he had schooled himself
to be above human weakness, no one loved him; certainly he never asked
for anyone’s affections and disclosed to no one his thoughts; his
immense pride seemed to be satisfied by the fear he inspired even in his
friends and respect accorded him even by his enemies.
“The crown of Poland, sire,” said the minister, who could not resist
looking upon the present situation from a statesman’s point of view.
“Your Majesty is aware how easily you might obtain this for yourself?”
“Yes,” replied Karl dryly.
“It is what policy indicates.”
“I never loved your policy, Count,” said the King.
“Yet it is not to be disdained, even by a conqueror.”
Karl gave his short, ugly laugh.
“I think I can dispense with it. As for this crown, I think it pleases
me more to give it away than to wear it.”
Piper had been expecting this; yet he resolved to endeavor to turn
Karl’s fantastic pride in another direction, and inspire him with the
desire for a glory more useful to Sweden and mankind.
“Your Majesty might be truly the liberator of this distracted country
and unite all factions in concord under your protection; the Romist
faith whose arrogant clergy have enslaved these people might in this
manner receive a shrewd blow, and your Majesty appear as defender of the
Evangelical faith.”
Karl did not reply to this proposition with that rude coldness with
which he generally received suggestions not entirely in accordance with
his own preconceived plans.
The truth was that the prospect held out by Count Piper tempted him.
The great Gustavus had established the Lutheran faith in Sweden and had
banished forever from the North the corruption, the tyranny, and the
superstition of the Roman priests; to do the same in a country as large
and as important as Poland would be a feat that recommended itself to
the ambition of Karl.
To take Poland not only from Augustus, but from the Pope, would have
been a triumph such as he would have keenly enjoyed, for, while religion
had had little influence on his life, he accorded his hereditary faith
full respect and always enforced the observances of Lutheranism in his
camp.
Count Piper watched him in silence, seeing that he was at least
pondering the idea.
“Where will your Majesty find a King for Poland?” urged the minister.
“Not even your entreaties will prevail upon Alexander Sobieski to accept
the crown while his elder brothers are prisoners--and where is there any
other pretender worthy of notice?”
Karl knew that he spoke the truth; with the romantic chivalry
characteristic of the Polish nation, the youngest Sobieski had refused
to accept the crown that the fortune of war prevented the eldest from
enjoying, and there was, indeed, no one else especially indicated.
But to take this throne for himself was not sufficiently glorious for
Karl; he wished to do the unusual, the extraordinary, to make the world
stare--not by what he accepted, but by what he refused.
Even the design of appearing as champion of the reformed faith lost its
attraction for him, because a great prince lately dead had made his
chief fame in this part; Karl did not wish to follow in the footsteps of
anyone.
“No,” he said sternly, suddenly letting the tent flap fall and turning
to look at his minister. “I have more pleasure in giving away crowns
than in taking them.”
“You would, sire, sacrifice your interest----”
Karl interrupted.
“My interest!” he repeated as if offended, then with his ugly smile:
“You should have been minister to some Italian prince, Piper, you are so
fond of intrigues.”
The Count bit his lip and was silent; he would have liked to have
mentioned Sweden and _her_ interests, but knew the cold repulse he would
meet with.
The King crossed to his camp table and turned over some papers the
secretary had left for his inspection, but with an absent look and a
careless hand.
Count Piper was about to take his leave when his soldier servant ushered
in the young Palatine of Posnania and Alexander Sobieski.
This latter had waited on Karl to urge him to revenge the capture of his
two brothers by Augustus; it entirely suited both the temper and the
policy of the King of Sweden to promise him satisfaction, but he was not
now so cordial towards the young prince whose obstinate refusal to
accept his father’s crown had rivaled and perhaps shadowed the
generosity and strangeness of his own action.
But he greeted the two young Poles pleasantly, and offered each in turn
the strong white hand from which he had drawn the long buffle glove worn
with rein and sword pommel.
They were both brilliantly dressed, charming and graceful in manner and
looks.
Karl’s eyes, blue and cold as frozen water, cast a strange glance on the
elegant figure of Stanislaus Leczinski.
“Count,” he said, “here is the future King of Poland.”
The minister was startled into an imprudence; staring at the amazed face
of the young noble, he cried impetuously:
“The Palatine is too young, sire!”
“He is older than I am,” said Karl dryly.
CHAPTER III
Karl, having given a new King to Poland, and satisfied his somber pride
by being an “incognito” spectator of the election of the man whose
elevation he owed entirely to Sweden, marched on Lemberg, the capital of
Galicia, and took this town by assault, enriching his army with the
treasures of Augustus that were stored here, and that the inhabitants
surrendered to troops that neither burnt nor pillaged; he had hardly
established his garrison in the conquered town when he was joined by
Stanislaus Leczinski, cast from his throne after a reign of six weeks,
and forced to fly for his life before the Elector of Saxony, who had
appeared before Varsovia with a new army of 20,000 men, and had
triumphantly entered the capital, scattering the Polish guard of
Stanislaus and the Swedish garrison under Count Horn. His reverse was
received with calm by the King of Sweden; it did not touch him
personally, as he had not been present at the disaster, and he was not
displeased at the opportunity to twice give the throne of Poland to the
man whom he called friend.
“Let Augustus amuse himself,” he told Stanislaus. “How long do you think
he will hold Varsovia when I am before the gates?”
The words, spoken quietly and in no spirit of boasting, proved to be the
truth.
Karl, with Stanislaus riding at his side, marched back on the capital,
and the army of Augustus, consisting of lukewarm Poles, raw Saxon
recruits, and vagabond Muscovites, melted before the approach of the
terrible captain.
Count Schulenbourg, in command of the Elector’s army, did all that could
be done with such an army, and by a series of masterly marches, fell
back into Posnania where Karl overtook him near Runitz, and in a sharp
action forced him to retreat, without, however, throwing him into
disorder.
With the small remnant of his army he managed to escape, passing the
Oder in the night, showing a generalship so superb as to force a
compliment from the victor.
“We are the vanquished,” said Karl. “M. de Schulenbourg has
out-generaled us.”
He could afford to be generous, for Augustus had once more fled into
Saxony, and was engaged in fortifying Dresden, a task that showed his
fear of his enemy.
Stanislaus was crowned with splendid ceremonies in Varsovia by the
Archbishop of Lemberg, the Cardinal Primate dying that very day after
having refused to perform the ceremony on the grounds of displeasing the
Pope who had threatened to excommunicate all those who elevated a
Protestant King in place of a Catholic.
There was now only one person who dare even threaten Sweden, and that
was the Czar. The bands of wandering Cossacks that he had sent to help
Augustus had been easily subdued by the Swedish generals, and campaign
after campaign opened and closed without his taking any part in the war
beyond this feeble aid to Augustus.
But he was building St. Petersburg and creating an army and a navy, and
when Augustus was forced to abandon Poland, Patkul, the envoy of the
Czar in Dresden, was entrusted to persuade the Elector to meet Peter at
Grodno, and once more contrive plans against the might of Sweden.
Peter appeared at Grodno with 70,000 trained troops, engineers,
artillery, horse, and foot.
Augustus had nothing but a few Saxons under General Schulenbourg, and
some bitterness mingled with his marvel at the change in their
respective circumstances since last they had met at Birsen.
“Karl will not find it so easy to dethrone you as it was to dethrone
me,” he remarked to Peter.
“No,” said the Czar.
He was called from the conference to put down a revolt in Astrakan, but
his generals proceeded to put into practise the plans agreed upon by the
two kings.
Schulenbourg advanced on Poland, and the Russian army, divided in small
groups, marched into the Baltic Provinces.
There Karl met and defeated them, one after the other; he captured the
baggage of Augustus with great store of gold and silver, and a large
quantity of specie belonging to Prince Mentchikoff.
In two months the Russians were entirely defeated, and Schulenbourg
again obliged to retreat; Karl drove the Muscovites before him to the
frontiers of Russia, and Rehnsköld utterly defeated Schulenbourg at the
battle of Fraustadt.
Karl then turned and marched on Saxony, passing through Silesia, without
heeding the consternation of Germany and the protests of the Diet of
Ratisbon.
Saxony was at his feet in a few weeks, and from the camp of Altranstadt
he dictated his peace terms, forcing the Saxons to provide food and
lodging and pay for his soldiers, but most strictly preventing these
from the least insult, outrage, or disorder.
He passed his word to permit no excesses of any kind if the inhabitants
submitted to his orders, and as his honor was well known to be
unblemished a certain tranquillity took possession of the conquered
country, which waited, with more resignation than despair, the terms of
the invincible Swede.
Augustus, a fugitive in Poland, sent a certain Baron D’Imhof and M.
Pfingsten to the camp at Altranstadt to demand terms of peace.
These two envoys arrived at night, but were immediately admitted to the
presence of the King.
Each, despite the desperate importance of their mission, felt all
emotion absorbed in a curiosity as to this man who had in a few years
laid North Europe under his feet, and behaved in a manner so
extraordinary for a conqueror.
Karl, who had no personal attendant, valet, or servant, rose from the
rough camp bed where he took his few hours’ repose, and came at once to
meet the envoys of Augustus.
If he felt any satisfaction in this moment, when the man who had so
carelessly and contemptuously affronted him was reduced to send to sue
for mercy, it was not betrayed in his passive countenance.
He might indeed be used to triumphs; few men of his years had ever had a
career of such uninterrupted success, and perhaps he was already
indifferent to the haughty position of conqueror or at least too well
used to it; he stood a moment holding up a little lamp and looking at
the two Saxon gentlemen who stood, still in their traveling cloaks,
bare-headed before him.
For the first second they did not know who stood before them; they were
used to the magnificence and display of Augustus that he maintained even
in his downfall, and Karl in his plain coat and short hair looked like
an infantryman.
“The King,” said Count Piper, with a curious pride in the man whom he
disliked.
Karl cut short their rather confused compliments.
“You are from the Elector of Saxony?” he demanded sternly, and set the
lantern on the table.
Baron D’Imhof was the spokesman.
“Yes, sire,” he said.
“And what does the Elector want?” asked Karl.
The Saxon was a little taken aback; he had not been prepared to meet the
King with so little ceremony, to converse with him with this dry
abruptness.
With a bow he handed Karl the letter of Augustus, in which that monarch
entreated for peace on any terms.
Karl glanced at the seal.
“Why this secrecy, gentlemen?” he asked, with his sudden, unpleasant
smile.
The two plenipotentiaries were silent; they found themselves in that
position in which it is difficult to do anything with dignity or even
with grace.
“The Czar of Russia knows nothing of these negotiations?” demanded Karl.
“Sire,” said Baron D’Imhof, “my master wished this to be between himself
and you.”
“He is ready then to abandon his ally who is not yet prepared to
submit?” asked the King, his face, still as smooth as a mask of stone,
unmarked by care or emotion, and radiant with the look of perfect health
turned full towards the two Germans, and his strange eyes, chill and
blue as his Northern seas, swept them with a glance of cold contempt.
Again the Germans were silent.
“The Czar does not know of this letter?” demanded Karl.
“No, sire.”
“If he had known it would never have been sent, I think,” said Karl.
“Your master did well to keep this matter secret, seeing he is at the
mercy of the Muscovites.”
“Sire, my master’s actions are dictated by necessity,” replied Baron
D’Imhof. “He trusts a conqueror whom the world knows clement.”
“Clement,” returned the King. “I make no claim to be clement, sir. I am
just.”
His glance flickered over both of them, then to the letter in his hand.
“You have shown some courage in undertaking so unpleasant a task,” he
remarked.
“I was entrusted by King Augustus,” replied the Baron, “to obtain from
your Majesty a peace on as Christian and reasonable terms as your
magnanimity would be pleased to grant.”
“Why does your master,” asked Karl, “think I should be so merciful?”
The Saxon disliked this last word, but had to take it; he flushed
slightly and bit his lip; this youthful conqueror was proving more
difficult to deal with even than he had imagined. M. Pfingsten took the
word.
“King Augustus----” he began.
“Call him the Elector,” said Karl. “It is the safer title--we give him
that out of courtesy since Saxony is as lost to him as Poland.”
The envoy bowed, swallowed his humiliation, and began again.
“My master trusted something in the blood that unites him to your
Majesty.”
“Did he remember that we are cousins when he allied himself with Russia
to seize my provinces?” demanded Karl.
With that, he turned his shoulders towards the two plenipotentiaries,
and broke the seal of the unfortunate Elector’s letter.
Count Piper eyed him as he read.
Half-leaning against the table with the lamp-light full over his figure,
the young King, with his perfect physique, air of strength and
hardihood, his noble face and soldier’s bearing, made a picture grateful
to the eye.
“Generous and merciful!” thought the minister. “They think him that
because he punishes a soldier who steals a chicken, and gives away a
crown he might have worn--but we shall see if he knows even the meaning
of generosity and mercy.”
Karl finished the letter, put it in his pocket, and glanced over his
shoulder at the two waiting Saxons.
“Gentlemen,” he said, “you shall have your answer immediately.”
He took up the lamp and went into a little cabinet that opened off the
chamber, closing the door behind him.
The Saxons could not but stare at seeing the simplicity of the man who
had conquered Northern Europe.
The plain room without hangings or carpet, the entire lack of servants
or guard, the King’s own appearance and the way in which he waited on
himself, caused them astonishment, and would, under other circumstances,
have roused their contempt and disgust.
Count Piper noted their expressions and the glance they exchanged.
“Ah, gentlemen,” he said, “you do not know with whom you have to deal!”
“In what way, sir?” asked Baron D’Imhof, who felt more at ease in the
presence of the minister than in that of the King.
“Your errand is desperate,” replied the Count, with some feeling for
fellow diplomats in a hopeless position, “and the success of it,
gentlemen, does not depend on any arts of your own.”
“No,” said M. Pfingsten, “but entirely on the disposition of the King of
Sweden.”
“Exactly,” said Count Piper. “Your only hope is that you may excite
compassion in the heart of a man who has never known a gentle emotion,
and turn from his course the most obstinate creature who ever breathed.”
He smiled cynically, and made a movement with his hands as if he cast
away the responsibility of his master’s actions.
“You give us good hopes,” said Baron D’Imhof, with some bitterness.
Count Piper did not directly reply to this.
“Gentlemen,” he said, “I will give you this advice--whatever the King
says accept it; take up your hats and begone with what good grace you
can, for he will never alter his mind.”
As he spoke Karl entered from the cabinet, carrying a paper on which
the close writing still gleamed with the wet ink.
He gave this to Count Piper and bade him read it to the Saxons.
“I will give your master peace on these terms,” he said, “and you must
not hope that I shall alter any of them.”
The minister bent nearer the two tall candles on the table that gave the
sole light in the rooms and read, in an even official voice, the terms
of the conqueror.
The King had written his fiat with his own hand without troubling to
call his secretary, and the calligraphy was quick and flowing as that of
one whose thoughts move faster than his pen; as Piper knew Karl was only
now putting on paper the terms that he had in his mind from the first to
impose on Augustus.
The conditions were four in number.
“_Firstly._--The Elector must renounce forever the throne of Poland,
recognize Stanislaus Leczinski as King, and, even in the event of this
prince’s death, make no attempt to regain the throne.
“_Secondly._--He must renounce all the alliances he has made against
Sweden--particularly those with Muscovy.
“_Thirdly._--The Princes Sobieski and other prisoners of war are to be
sent with honor to my Camp.
“_Fourthly._--He is not to seek to punish any one of his following who
have joined me, and he is to deliver to me all these deserters whom he
has with him, and especially John Patkul.”
As Count Piper finished the two Saxons cried out in startled tones
against the hardness of these terms.
Karl smiled.
“Did you expect,” he asked dryly, “other terms? Think, gentlemen, what
Augustus would have exacted had he been at the gates of Stockholm as I
am at those of Dresden.”
“Sire,” returned M. D’Imhof, in great agitation, “my master is honorable
and merciful--he would never have propounded such a condition as that
last.”
“You question these terms?” demanded the terrible young conqueror, with
a cold and disdainful look.
“I say, sire,” replied the Saxon firmly, “that my master can never in
honor surrender General Patkul.”
The sound of the name seemed to anger Karl; his blue eyes darkened and
flashed.
“I do not argue,” he said. “These are my terms.”
“But General Patkul,” urged M. Pfingsten anxiously, “is an envoy of the
Czar, and as such sacred----”
“Since when,” interrupted Karl, with a biting contempt, “has the
Muscovite claimed the privileges of civilized rulers? Patkul is my
subject, a deserter and a traitor.”
“The conditions are very bitter,” said Baron D’Imhof. “Let your Majesty
reflect if they are such as a Christian Prince can accept.”
“Well,” replied Karl, with his cold air of stubborn hardihood, “no doubt
I can find another Elector for Saxony as I found another King for
Poland.”
“We may, sire, discuss these terms with Count Piper?” asked M.
Pfingsten, clutching at straws.
“As much as you wish,” said Karl, with a stern smile. “Count Piper knows
my mind and if I am likely to change it.”
“I have already warned these gentlemen,” remarked the minister.
Karl now turned and with a rude coldness was leaving the chamber.
Count Piper gave the piece of paper that had so tremendous a meaning to
the confused and humiliated deputies of Augustus.
M. Pfingsten took courage to speak.
“Our master can never surrender the crown of Poland or General Patkul.”
Karl paused on the threshold of the inner room.
“Why was John Patkul arrested in Dresden the other day, as soon as his
protector, the Muscovite, had left for Astrakan?”
“It was of some mistake, sire----”
“Ah,” interrupted Karl, with an ugly laugh, “it was no mistake. Your
master saw that he had the Livonian in his house before he asked for
peace--and why? Because he knew that I should ask for Patkul and that he
would surrender.”
With these words, spoken with a cold indifferency more than any
passionate tone of insult, Karl, disdaining to hold further argument
with the envoys of his fallen enemy or to take any ceremonious leave of
them, bowed briefly to the Saxons and left the chamber.
Baron D’Imhof could hardly contain himself.
“So this is greatness!” he exclaimed ironically. He put up the paper in
his bosom. “We will wait on you to-morrow, Count, though I doubt if it
will be of any use.”
“You have heard my master’s will,” replied Count Piper, “and he never
changes his resolutions.”
In the small, bare inner chamber the man, who had upset kingdoms and
altered the face of North Europe for no other reason than pride and the
desire for military glory, laid himself again on his straw mattress and
hard pillow.
Augustus was conquered as effectually as had been Frederic; it had taken
longer, years instead of weeks, but it had been done.
And Patkul, the arch conspirator, would finally be punished.
There remained only Peter....
Karl turned on his rude pillow and fell asleep, dreaming of the downfall
of the Czar, his last and greatest enemy.
CHAPTER IV
When M. Pfingsten returned to Poland with the articles of peace that no
amount of interviews with Count Piper had served to alter, he found his
master once again in Varsovia, in the midst of “Te Deums” and
bell-ringings for the first victory over the Swedes that had been
attained during the course of this long war.
The envoy from Saxony, almost confounded by this change of fortune,
learned that the Muscovites under Prince Mentchikoff had defeated the
Swedes under General Mardenfeldt who found himself in the Palatinate of
Posnania with 10,000 men against the combined Saxon and Russian forces
amounting to nearly 40,000.
But what surprised M. Pfingsten was the fact that the Elector had been
in this battle and had irritated Karl in this manner at the very moment
when he was imploring that monarch’s mercy.
He hastened through the ruined capital now being pillaged by the
Muscovites to the ancient palace where Augustus was again in residence.
The Elector immediately gave him audience; it was early in the morning
and he sat over a fire, for the autumn air was keen, and was drinking
coffee dashed with cognac, out of a pale porcelain cup.
Some attempt at refinement and splendor still surrounded the man who had
been one of the most brilliant princes in Europe; he was wrapped in a
blue and gold brocade dressing-gown, wore a French peruke, diamonds in
his lace cravat, and long ruffles of Mechlin at his wrists.
Elegant and beautiful articles were scattered about the room, and a
cardinal of violet silk and a pair of heelless white silk slippers
bespoke the presence of a woman.
But the fair face of the Elector was haggard and pale; he looked at M.
Pfingsten with eyes full of a cruel distress.
“Sire,” this gentleman hastened to say, “I rejoice to find you in
circumstances which can enable you to deal on terms of equality with the
King of Sweden.”
“Do not mock me, Pfingsten,” replied the Elector, in a tone of
agitation. “You find me in the most miserable position, and whatever the
terms you have brought back I must sign them.”
“Nay, God forbid!” exclaimed the envoy.
Augustus set down his coffee cup with a shaking hand.
“Are they then so hard?”
“Sire, they are impossible.”
Augustus gave a miserable smile.
“You do not understand my position,” he said bitterly. “This victory is
futile and barren and will only further serve to inflame the Swede.”
“Then, why did not your Majesty wait my return before giving battle?”
The Elector replied with the useless impatience of a weak nature.
“It was the cursed Muscovite! What was I to do? Mentchikoff would give
battle, no excuse would put him off. I knew that it would mean a defeat
for Sweden, they were so outnumbered. I had only a handful of Saxons,
and had those savages guessed that I was in treaty with the Swede they
had murdered me--cursed be the day when I was allied with such dangerous
rascals!”
M. Pfingsten could say nothing; he saw that this new victory had indeed
put his master in a delicate and difficult position; he was forced
either to affront his dangerous allies in whose power he was or to
offend the conqueror on whose mercy he had thrown himself; his was the
common fate of the weak, who, lacking all qualities of resolution and
daring, find that concession and subterfuge lead them into a position
where no way is open to them with both safety and honor.
“I sent privately to General Mardenfeldt,” continued the Elector,
pouring out another cup of the strong coffee, “warned him of his danger
and my secret negotiation, and advised him to retire--but the
hard-headed fool took it for a trap and would fight.”
“At least the victory was complete?”
“Yes. I was surprised myself. The Muscovites can fight as well as
marauder, it seems. Mentchikoff is sending the Czar a bombastic account
of it, but it is all futile,” he added peevishly.
M. Pfingsten, a man of more nerve than his master, did not entirely
agree with this dispirited view.
He thought that at least Augustus could now refuse the shameful terms
imposed by Karl XII.
Taking the letter from his breast-pocket he put it among the delicate
coffee service on the tulip-wood table by the Elector’s elbow.
Augustus picked it up with nervous fingers, glanced at it, and fetched a
groan, a look of real anguish distorting his handsome face.
Each of the four conditions were bitterly hard, the last struck at his
honor as a gentleman; Patkul had been in his service, had trusted and
did trust him, and was, moreover, sacred as the envoy of the Czar.
Augustus had shrunk from abandoning his ally; he felt it would be
impossible to betray him by delivering to his enemy a man who was
general and ambassador of Russia.
He put the letter down and sat staring into the fire.
“There was no possibility of moving the King?” he asked, in a broken
voice.
“Not the faintest; he prides himself on his obstinacy and sternness. I
think he is quite implacable,” replied M. Pfingsten, with dreary
memories of the hardness of the young captain.
“Then there is nothing for me to do but accept these terms,” said
Augustus.
This complete and instantaneous submission startled M. Pfingsten; he had
not believed that Augustus would have been so subdued by his miseries
and disasters as to have no spirit left with which to meet this
extremity.
“There is one thing your Majesty can do--you can advance into Saxony
with these Muscovite troops and attack the King of Sweden.”
Augustus gave the speaker a wild look.
“Take advantage, sire,” urged M. Pfingsten, “of this moment of good
fortune.”
Augustus hesitated; the terms offered by Karl were so hateful that he
was glad to catch at anything that seemed to promise relief from the
necessity of accepting them.
At the same time his reverses had been so continuous and terrible, he
had gradually lost everything and exhausted every resource, he was so
convinced of the invincible genius of Karl, so worn out in this long
combat with one in every respect his superior, that his spirit, by no
means firm or martial, though he was, in his way, brave and ambitious,
was completely broken, and his terrified imagination saw no escape from
his present difficulties save by throwing himself utterly on the mercy
of the man in whose hands his fate lay.
“If I could see Karl face to face,” he began in a distracted tone, “I
could surely induce him to soften these terms.”
“Let your Majesty put that out of your head,” replied M. Pfingsten
firmly. “The King of Sweden is as hard as one of his northern rocks--his
plainness and his show of courtesy to the vanquished but mask a spirit
without sentiment, a heart without feeling. Count Piper told me that his
preference for Stanislaus Leczinski is but based on his temperate
life--he has given that man a throne merely because he is his own body
servant and sleeps on a straw mattress! He admires nothing but Spartan
virtues and respects nothing but military glory.”
“Well, then,” cried Augustus, a prey to the most bitter distress and
agitation, “there is nothing for me to do but to sign this cursed
paper!”
“Your Majesty might strike another blow.”
“You do not understand my position--the Muscovites have defeated
Mardenfeldt, they cannot defeat Karl--and if they discover that I am in
negotiation with him, they will abandon, if not murder me. You do not
know, Pfingsten, the ferocity of this Mentchikoff or his devotion to his
master. As for my resources,” he added, with a sigh as of one who had
too well calculated, often enough, his hopes and fears, “you know what
they amount to--Saxony is barren both of men and money--Poland lost.”
“Some help might be hoped for from the Empire, sire.”
“Not while Austria wars with France.”
“And surely, sire, the Electorate is not yet exhausted,” protested
Pfingsten.
“Ravaged by the Muscovites, occupied by the Swedes, what can be hoped
for from my wretched country?” exclaimed Augustus bitterly; he rose, and
thinking of the only friend and confidante he now possessed, he went to
an inner door concealed under a hanging of stamped and gilt leather and
called a woman’s name.
Aurora von Königsmarck immediately entered the apartment.
She had remained faithful to this King who was without a throne, men,
money, or friends, perhaps out of compassion, perhaps because she had no
choice of a more glorious destiny; certainly she had accompanied him in
all his flights and battles and distresses as closely as had Katherina
the Czar, though with a colder sympathy and a more disdainful endurance
of evil fortune. She was the only person besides the two envoys who
knew of the embassy to Karl; she had sent even her women away, and was
alone in the apartment of the King.
“Well?” she demanded dryly, seeing by the Elector’s face that it was
further ill news.
Her bold glance flickered to M. Pfingsten.
“You have come on a disagreeable errand, sir,” she remarked, “but these
are disagreeable times.”
She came, with her quick, graceful walk, to the fireplace, and stood
before the flames looking at the downcast faces of the two men.
Since she had, in the height of her pride, lowered herself before Karl
XII, she had lost something of her beauty and all of her magnificence.
Like everything belonging to Augustus, she was tarnished by continual
ill-fortune; nor did she care for the neatness and order possible even
in poverty; she would be either splendid or careless, and disdained
those shifts that labor to cover deficiency with artifice.
She who had blazed in Dresden as the most gorgeous lady of the court,
now showed in a negligent undress of soiled sprigged silk over a
petticoat of yellow taffetas, with her rich hair fastened in a loose
knot without either art or neatness; her beauty was not of that radiant
youthfulness that can overcome these disadvantages, and she looked as
damaged in her fortunes, as eclipsed in her charms, as was proper to the
favorite of a fallen prince.
In silence Augustus handed her the letter from Karl.
He had a great faith in her intelligence, and even now cherished a hope
that her wit would point out some way of escape from his dilemma that
had not occurred to either Pfingsten or himself.
Aurora read the letter and her nostrils dilated.
Not Augustus himself knew a bitterer humiliation than she experienced as
she read the conqueror’s terms.
She hated Karl with all the hatred of which her passionate nature was
capable.
As he had so easily resisted her fascinations, so rudely refused her
advances, so completely scorned her, she did not regard him as a man,
but as some soulless creature, a werlion or wertiger sent on earth to
plague mankind.
She fumbled at her laces with a quivering hand and darted a keen glance
at the gloomy countenance of the Elector.
“Are you going to take these terms?” she demanded impetuously.
“Do you see anything else for me to do?” asked the disheartened Prince.
“Nothing a man like you _could_ do,” she replied sharply.
“Madame,” said M. Pfingsten, “there is the Muscovite army.”
“But where is the man to lead it?” asked Aurora, with a cruel glance at
Augustus.
M. Pfingsten was encouraged by her presence, which breathed energy and
vitality.
“Let your Majesty,” he urged, “tear up that paper--put yourself at the
head of the army now in Varsovia and march on Saxony--there is nothing
more to lose and everything to be gained.”
“Sir,” said the Countess bitterly, “you discuss expedients only possible
with another prince--and with another prince we should not have been
brought to this pass.”
Augustus flushed but could find no answer in his own defense.
“What is it that you propose to do?” she added sharply.
“To sign that paper and go to Saxony to entreat Sweden to soften these
terms,” replied the unfortunate Elector; he was indeed so absorbed in
the contemplation of his own misery as to hardly wince under Aurora’s
scorn.
She tapped her foot in an angry silence; she saw this was the fatal way
of weakness, which would have neither the dignity of defiance nor the
advantage of concession, since she knew well enough that Karl would be
merely irritated by any attempt to dispute his terms.
But she also knew the man with whom she had to deal, and that it was
hopeless to expect even the semblance of heroism from a Prince like
Augustus, overwhelmed by six years of a disastrous war that had stripped
him of everything, even faith in himself.
“Well, you must sign,” she said.
There was a little silence, then the Countess added in a hard tone:
“Mdle. D’Einsiedel came here last night--hurrying from Dresden to beg
for General Patkul’s release.”
“My God!” broke from Augustus, as he realized the baseness of the action
he contemplated.
“And she has been to Prince Mentchikoff, who is going to ask for the
Livonian’s release in the name of the Czar.”
Augustus stood in a wretched silence.
“I never understood why Patkul was arrested,” continued Aurora, in a
curious tone.
An uneasy flush stained the Elector’s distressed face; he did not look
up.
“Was it because you foresaw this emergency?” added the Countess.
M. Pfingsten was startled to hear her express the same question as had
Karl.
He knew that General Patkul had been arrested, on some flimsy pretext of
having exceeded his duties, immediately after the Czar’s departure for
Astrakan, and that he had been kept in easy and honorable captivity at
Sonnenstein, but not even when Karl had flung his sneer had he thought
for a moment that there was any connection between the arrest of the
Livonian and the position of Augustus before the conqueror.
Now, as he heard the sharp words of the Countess and looked at the
stricken figure of Augustus, it occurred to him as at least strange that
the very man, on the surrender of whom depended the peace, should be so
completely in the Elector’s power--so that no warnings by his friends,
no protection from the Czar, his master, could save him from being
delivered to Sweden.
“If you had not had Patkul at Sonnenstein,” said Aurora, “you could not
have surrendered him to Karl, and there would have been no pacifying
this victor. You are fortunate.”
Goaded, Augustus turned on her with a flash of impotent anger.
“You talk so much of General Patkul, Madame--you do not seem to attach
any importance to the fact that I shall have to surrender Poland!”
It was M. Pfingsten who replied--with great earnestness.
“Sire, your Majesty, by the fortunes of war, may easily regain the crown
of Poland, but you can never regain what you lose if you surrender
General Patkul.”
“You are a poor diplomat,” returned the Elector angrily. “Are there not
ways of saving General Patkul? I can appeal to the King of Sweden
personally.”
His hedging weakness angered Aurora; it was true that she had suggested
the surrender of Patkul and even broached the subject to Karl, but that
had been while there had been something to gain by concession; now that
her side was thoroughly beaten her blood was up, and, if she had been
Augustus, she would have cast Sweden’s terms in his face. Also she was
naturally generous, and once she realized what the delivery of Patkul to
Karl meant she could not put her hand to it; she saw that Augustus would
yield, had always meant to yield, and she despised him for it, as women
will despise men for weaknesses and meannesses of which they are capable
themselves.
“Very well,” she said, “sign those terms.”
She came quickly up to him, putting her lovely hand on his brocaded
sleeve.
“Patkul must escape,” she added, gazing into the trembling face of
Augustus. “Send an order to the Governor of Sonnenstein to let him,
secretly, go at once.”
Augustus was relieved by this suggestion that seemed to suit both his
convenience and his honor, yet he hesitated; to do this would be to play
a trick on the man on whose mercy his very existence would depend; if
Karl, who would be already sufficiently irritated by the victory of
Kalisz, knew of this fresh attempt to fool him, he would undoubtedly
refuse any possible concession in the harshness of his demands.
But Aurora had pushed pen and paper under the reluctant hand of
Augustus.
“He trusted you,” she said, “and to give him to Karl is to give him to a
cruel death.”
“Sweden might be merciful,” muttered Augustus.
Aurora ignored this feeble futility and resorted to another argument,
more powerful to influence the distracted Elector than the last.
“Sire, Prince Mentchikoff will demand Patkul, Mdle. D’Einsiedel will
rouse Russia--better, at least, compromise.”
Augustus seized the pen and hastily wrote an order for the secret and
immediate release of Patkul; Aurora von Königsmarck took it from him and
left the room.
Everything was lost, but the brilliant and wayward woman did not think
of that; she went to her bed-chamber, threw on a mantle, and hastened to
a little closet in her suite of apartments, now all dismantled and in
confusion.
A pale girl stood with locked hands at the window, staring out at the
chill September morning.
The Countess thrust into her hands the order for General Patkul’s
release.
“That goes to-day, dear, by our fleetest courier.” In the evening
Augustus signed the terms dictated by Karl XII.
BOOK VI
THE BETRAYAL
“Il y a un vulgaire parmi les princes, comme parmi les autres
hommes.”--VOLTAIRE.
CHAPTER I
Prince Mentchikoff returned at once to Russia to put before the Czar the
new turn of events in Poland.
Peter was still at Marli, superintending the building of his new capital
which was rising out of the filled dykes and drained marshes of the
desolate flats of the banks of the Neva.
Mentchikoff was almost beside himself with fury at the news he brought,
but his rage was as nothing beside that of the Emperor.
Peter glared at his friend with a wrath he could hardly sustain; but
contrary to his use, he made a terrible effort to control himself that
he might hear the tale to the full.
He had been, at first, vexed at seeing Mentchikoff, thinking that he
should not have left the newly regained Varsovia, but now he admitted
that the Prince had done right to bring news so tremendous himself.
He sat on a gilt leather arm-chair, in the little front room of his
cottage, dressed in a rough green frieze riding suit, his boots muddy
and a riding switch in his hand; he had just returned from a visit of
inspection of St. Petersburg, where streets, shops, palaces, and
churches were already covering the outlines of the city.
Mentchikoff stood before him in the rich costume of a Russian general,
European in cut, but Eastern in color and embroidery, a diamond in his
sword hilt, a star on his breast, lace at his throat and wrists.
His long brown and lean face, with the sharp bright black eyes and thick
lips, was pale with the intense passion of a fierce and uncivilized
nature.
“This is what he did, Peter Alexievitch! I put him back in Varsovia; he
did not want to give battle at Kalisz--one knows why now! And one
morning he was gone--gone! With his woman and his valets--gone! To
Altranstadt--to the camp of the Swede!”
“You were properly fooled,” muttered the Czar, in a stifling voice.
Mentchikoff made not the least attempt to deny this.
“There was one Pfingsten, one of his Germans, whom he sent to Karl--and
who brought his terms writ on a bit of paper, and he, this cursed
Augustus, signed and fled, to put himself at Karl’s mercy.”
The Emperor’s eyes showed red, a faint dew besprinkled his forehead, he
bent his whip across his knee till it cracked, then flung it away and
buried his face in his hands, running his fingers into his dusky curls.
“Mdle. D’Einsiedel came to me, the very day before--for months she had
been trying to find me--to tell me about Patkul. The whole thing was
kept secret, but it seems that he was arrested when you were called to
Astrakan. Of course Augustus knew the Swede would ask for him.”
“_My_ ambassador--_my_ general!” groaned Peter.
“When the Elector fled, this lady went back to vantage of his hurried
departure to order at once the release of Patkul, but there was much
delay, he having been moved from Sonnenstein to Königstein; the
messenger reached the governor of this place in time--the Countess von
Königsmarck was very active in this intrigue--but he tried to get
Patkul to pay ransom, knowing of his wealth, and while this argument was
in progress the Swedish officers arrived, and Patkul is now in
Altranstadt, fastened in a cellar with a great iron chain round his
waist.”
Peter raised his face which was quite distorted, the eyes infected with
blood, the lips livid.
“May the Devil overtake Augustus and torture him in Hell forever!” he
stammered. “May he be steeped to the lips in sorrow and bitterness, the
vile, false coward.”
He ceased with a sob of sheer fury; he had always despised Augustus, but
never believed him capable of this; disloyalty and cowardice were the
two unforgiveable crimes in the eyes of the Muscovite; his primitive
nature did not recognize the usual excuses offered by diplomacy for the
actions forced by necessity on states and princes; nothing could
palliate the Elector’s conduct in his eyes; he considered that he had
been treated with black treachery and base ingratitude, and that
Augustus had behaved with the utmost villainy. He certainly was
incapable of such conduct himself; he would have died cheerfully sooner
than submit to an enemy, and though he might punish even his own family
with savage cruelty if he suspected them of treachery, he would never
have deserted a friend or have betrayed an ally.
Through all the Elector’s misfortunes Peter had been staunch to him,
and, to the best of his ability, held out a helping hand; and when he
remembered that last Conference at Grodno, the amiable flattery of the
Saxon, the mutual promises, the sworn treaties, the vows of friendship
and mutual help against the Swede, and thought how the Elector had taken
advantage of his hurried departure to order at once the arrest of the
man who was a valuable asset in dealing with the enemy, he was shaken by
an excess of fury.
“Danilovitch!” he cried, “I shall never forgive you that you did not
discover this traitor and bring him in chains to me!”
“I shall never forgive myself, Peter Alexievitch,” replied the Prince
simply. “But who would have thought of such vileness? He has that smooth
Western way of lies and smiles.”
“The woman Königsmarck is in this.”
“I do not think so. I know that she did her best to save Patkul; she has
more courage than he, and I think, more honor. She is a friend, too, of
Mdle. D’Einsiedel--that child will die of this, Peter Alexievitch.”
“What will they do with Patkul?” asked Peter fiercely.
“He is to be tried by a council of war. Karl treats him as a rebellious
subject. He will suffer a cruel death.”
In Karl’s place Peter would have behaved with the same severity; he had
never shown mercy to those whom he judged rebels, and therefore he did
not feel the fury of hate towards Karl that he felt towards Augustus,
but he was conscious of a certain wonder that this young king whom he
had regarded with secret admiration as being much greater than himself,
could indulge in the same bloodthirsty vengeances.
“Is this Sweden’s famous clemency?” he asked bitterly. “Is he then so
magnificent?”
He was silent, communing with his own soul; he thought he would have
been more chivalrous than Karl, and not taken advantage of the weakness
of Augustus to demand the surrender of a man in the employ of another
monarch.
From that moment the cold knightly figure of the Scandinavian, vested
with all the virtues to which he himself might never hope to aspire, was
smirched in the eyes of Peter.
“The Muscovite prisoners were slain after Fraustadt--by whose orders?”
he said. “And now this. This man is no better than I,” he added, with a
strange simplicity, “and I shall defeat him.”
Then his thoughts turned to Augustus, and he flashed from brooding into
wrath.
“How was the Elector received at Altranstadt?” he demanded.
“The Swede met him privately, they say, and treated him with a cold
civility. Their talk was of trifles, mainly of the boots Karl wore,
which he had never been without, he said, for ten years, save to sleep,
and then Stanislaus Leczinski came, and Augustus had to salute him as
King of Poland.”
“Is it possible there lives a prince so spiritless!” exclaimed Peter.
“He must have suffered,” said Mentchikoff with satisfaction. “After
Kalisz Sweden’s terms became harder. Augustus had to send the archives
and State jewels to Stanislaus, cause his name as King of Poland to be
effaced from all documents and monuments, and write a letter of
congratulation to Stanislaus.”
“And that is the mercy he obtained by throwing himself on the compassion
of Karl!” cried the Russian, “and I was allied with such a prince! What
does he mean to do now?”
“Karl is supposed to retire from Saxony and leave him in peace,” said
Mentchikoff dryly. “As for the Palatine of Posnania, he has a poor gift
in the throne of Poland--the factious nobles, such as the Sapieha, have
laid waste what the Swedes and your Muscovites have spared. The country
is a smoking ruin.”
“And that is what the King of Sweden has achieved by his conquest,” said
Peter grimly. “Why does he so favor Stanislaus Leczinski?”
“No one knows--perhaps because he knows how to flatter him.”
Peter gave his favorite an ugly look.
“Do you think that is the sole reason for the friendship of kings?” he
demanded.
Mentchikoff saw his danger and fell on one knee, kissing passionately
his master’s rough hand; he knew that there is nothing an absolute
prince dislikes more than the insinuation that he is ruled through his
vanity and adroitly influenced by flattery, even though he is seldom
led by any other means or persuasion.
Peter was mollified by this act of homage.
“If you flattered me, Danilovitch, I should love you no longer,” he
said.
“If I had been a flatterer,” replied Mentchikoff, “I should not have
brought you this ill news, Peter Alexievitch.”
The Czar rose, raising his favorite also to his feet. He did not feel
any ill-will towards the Prince for his failure to detect the secret
negotiations of the Elector; all the force of his ardent soul was
absorbed in fury against his faithless ally.
“Patkul must be saved,” he said. “Am I to submit to this treatment? I
will appeal to England, to Holland, to the Empire!”
Mentchikoff did not voice his thoughts, which were that the name of Karl
now sounded so terribly in Europe that it was doubtful if any nation
would dare to interfere with him, besides the fact that the countries
mentioned by Peter were engaged in a costly war with France.
He frowned at the floor and was silent; he could see no way by which
Peter could come by satisfaction and vengeance save through his own
genius and might.
“Patkul shall not die,” said Peter. “Karl would not dare.”
“There are the Swedish prisoners who might be executed in reprisal,”
remarked Mentchikoff.
This suggestion suited Peter’s breed and training, and, perhaps, his
disposition, but that prudence and foresight that distinguished him from
his predecessors caused him to reject a proposal that was useless and
dangerous.
“There are more Muscovites in Sweden than Swedes in Muscovy,” he said
grimly. “I will take another vengeance. I will march on Poland.”
He paused and tore at his neckcloth as if to loosen it and give himself
air.
“Of all those who joined against Karl, there is only Russia left,” he
added, with a terrible look. “But Russia will defeat him--listen,
Danilovitch, I will not stop until I have crushed him, beaten him,
reduced him, as he has crushed, beaten, and reduced Augustus! And if he
slays Patkul----”
He paused and added in a low voice: “I loved Patkul.”
He took a turn about the room in a great and increasing agitation.
“Seven years have I fought him--with no weapons but those that I could
forge myself well; he had everything to his hand, and he conquered. But
I am ready now. Are not things different, Danilovitch? I have built a
city and a fort, a navy; I have trained an army--can I not defeat Karl
of Sweden?”
“I never doubted,” replied Mentchikoff, a look of fiery enthusiasm in
his little dark eyes, “that your Majesty would bring down this insolent
braggart.”
“To break him, Danilovitch!” cried the Czar. “To smash his invincible
armies, to send his veterans flying before me, to make him fly--to drive
him to ruin, to exile, to make the glory of his victories disappear like
smoke before the sun! That would be an achievement, Danilovitch!”
He paused, exhausted by his own passion, and caught hold of the back of
the chair in which he had been sitting.
“I did not enter into this war for lust of conquest,” he said, as if
justifying himself, yet with an almost wistful dignity. “Not for hate,
as Denmark did--not for folly, as Saxony did. I wanted my Baltic
ports--the trade, the commerce, the prosperity. No one understands
that.”
“These things must be fought for, Peter Alexievitch,” replied
Mentchikoff.
“To that end have I built a navy and trained an army,” said Peter
sternly. “I perceive that I shall get nothing of what I want as long as
Karl of Sweden is master of the North.”
He sat down again with something of a groan; rage at the defection of
Augustus so consumed him that he could hardly command his thoughts.
“Sweden does not know,” remarked Mentchikoff, “what he has roused in
Russia. He thinks the Muscovites may be scattered by the whip and are
not worthy of powder and shot--he insults Augustus with impunity because
he does not think that we are to be feared.”
Peter turned his inflamed eyes towards the dark, pearl-crowned ikon that
hung above the stove.
“God, help me to do this one thing,” he muttered. “To smite Sweden.”
His face assumed an expression of dark and lowering anger.
“If Patkul is slain,” he added. “Now would Sweden dare?”
Then, with a sudden and entirely unconscious pathos, “Europe will not
listen to me--I am only the Czar of Muscovy. They do not take me as a
power to be reckoned with, Danilovitch.”
“They do not know you, Peter Alexievitch,” replied Mentchikoff.
Peter pursued his own train of thought.
“He breaks all international law--if Patkul had been the envoy of any
other country but Russia the world would have cried out against this
treatment.”
Despite his passionate nature and his autocratic position he saw
shrewdly enough just how Europe held him.
“I will make my protest, but who will take any notice of it?” he
continued.
“Peter Alexievitch, you must make your own protest,” said Mentchikoff,
in an energetic tone. “Cannot you defeat Sweden?” added this fiery
Russian.
“It has been done,” responded the Czar, with a sudden smile. “You beat
them at Kalisz!”
He spoke warmly and without a trace of envy of his subject’s success in
a war where he had every time failed himself, thereby, had he known it,
showing himself greater than Karl, who had not been able to restrain his
jealousy on hearing of Mardenfeldt’s victory at Fraustadt.
With equal generosity and selflessness Mentchikoff replied:
“I was in a little way the forerunner of you, Peter Alexievitch--when
you strike, Sweden will quiver to the shock!”
The Emperor fixed on him soft and lustrous eyes, tired and earnest.
“I must call a council,” he said, “but I know what to do--I will descend
on Poland with my new army. Karl is likely to remain at Altranstadt?”
“There is no talk of his leaving. The English are sending an envoy to
him--at least a rumor says so.”
“They are afraid he will fall on the Empire,” said Peter instantly.
“He will not,” replied Mentchikoff simply. “His design is solely against
Russia.”
“He troubles himself not at all about the West?”
“Not at all, I think. He would be Alexander--Saxony is but his
Thrace--Russia must be his Persia, and he thinks all his conquests
little things beside that battle that must be his Gaugamela!”
“He would dethrone me, and I would break him utterly,” remarked Peter.
“It only is to be seen which is the stronger man.”
He pressed Mentchikoff’s hand and left the room abruptly, seeking that
comfort which never failed to soothe him in his most gloomy and bitter
moods, Katherina, now his wife.
He found her in the garden amid the lilac thickets that were just
beginning to be covered with their pale flowers.
The Livonian peasant girl was now rather stout, heavy and indolent in
habit, slow in her movements, generally silent, with a good-natured
smile on her full lips.
Her extraordinary elevation had in no way altered her disposition; she
was as unassuming as she had been when she was the servant of
Mentchikoff; she did not mingle in the least in politics of which she
understood nothing, but she was intelligent enough to at least feign an
appreciation of what Peter was trying to do for Russia, and her quiet
sweetness, her placid cheerfulness never grew stale to Peter; he looked
upon her almost as his savior, from the devils of melancholy and horror
that tore at his soul.
He was not nice in his tastes. Her lack of refinement did not vex him;
her over-blown, untidy beauty still satisfied him, neither her manners
nor her past troubled him; with a certain grandeur he disdained
everything but the fact that she was the one woman he had found wholly
pleasing; she went everywhere with him and knew all his secrets; so far
she had been faithful to him, perhaps because in her heart she was
entirely afraid of him, and, for all her outward calm, very wary.
The Czar flung himself on the seat she reclined on, and put his arm
round her shoulders, turning her fair countenance, framed in the long,
Russian veil, towards him.
“Saxony has delivered my Patkul to Sweden!” he said.
“Alas, poor gentleman!” cried Katherina, in genuine distress.
Peter kissed her fiercely.
“What do you think I shall do, my rose?” he asked.
“Why, rescue him, Peter Alexievitch.”
“That, if I can--if I am too late--” the veins stood out on his forehead
and a light foam gathered on his lips. “Do you not think I shall avenge
him?” he asked pitifully.
Katherina answered as if he had been a child.
“Why, of course,” she said.
CHAPTER II
Europe, absorbed in the war of the Spanish Succession, paid no heed to
the Czar’s bitter protests against Saxony and Sweden, and Patkul was
sent to Kazimicry.
Peter, with an army of 60,000 trained men, officered by Germans,
obtained secretly from the Emperor of Austria, who was alarmed by the
near approach of the terrible Swede, marched into Poland.
General Lewenhaupt was not able to guard the entries into this country
which was neither fortified nor united, and the Czar took Lublin which
had been left without a Swedish garrison, and there convoked a Diet on
the model of that of Varsovia, thereby further distracting an already
thrice distracted country.
Augustus was now as hateful as Stanislaus in the eyes of Peter, and his
project was to give all that the Elector had renounced by the peace of
Altranstadt to a third king; he had in his mind Racoczy, Prince of
Transylvania.
Russian gold and Russian promises soon gained a powerful faction in
Poland; Peter exerted himself to please.
His portrait, enriched with diamonds, was presented to the officers who
had fought at Kalisz, and gold and silver medals to the soldiers; it was
the Czar’s great pride to mention that these records of his first
victory had been struck in his new capital.
The Diet at Lublin, however, distracted by faction and intrigue, fearful
of Sweden and suspicious of the Czar, made little progress towards any
settlement of the affairs of Poland; it would recognize neither
Augustus nor Stanislaus, but was by no means agreed as to the man to put
in the place of these monarchs. Peter, with a slowness that led his
enemy into despising him, remained at Lublin watching these intrigues
and training his army, his sole encounters with the enemy being
skirmishes between wandering parties of Muscovites and detachments of
Lewenhaupt’s Swedes in Livonia and Lithuania; a kind of warfare which
ruined the wretched country without giving any advantage to either side.
Meanwhile the Sapieha and Oginski, again commenced pillaging and
burning, marauding friend and foe alike, causing Karl to send Stanislaus
with General Rehnsköld to Poland to endeavor to reduce these disorders.
Peter, finding it impossible to maintain an army any longer in a country
so ruined and desolate, and pursuing his waiting policy, left the Diet
of Lublin to their deliberations and fell back on his base in Lithuania,
daily strengthening his forces and filling the courts of Europe with his
plaints against Karl and his demands for the return of Patkul.
This left Stanislaus sole master of Poland, and the power of Karl was at
its height; his camp at Altranstadt held envoys from all the princes of
Europe, seeking his favor, endeavoring to discover his plans and to gain
his alliance.
In this moment Karl gave little thought to Peter, save to issue scornful
orders for the suppression of his predatory bands of Tartars and
Cossacks.
Karl now turned his attention to the Empire, and in revenge for a slight
he thought he had received at the hands of the Emperor’s chamberlain, he
demanded reparation from Joseph in the haughtiest terms, insisting not
only on the banishment of the offending Count Tobar, but on that
nobleman’s delivery into his own hands, and the surrender of the
Muscovite refugees that had escaped over the frontier into Austria.
This abuse of the law of nations passed without a murmur in Europe, so
powerful was Sweden, as did also Karl’s demand that their ancient
privileges be restored to the Protestants of Silesia.
Joseph humbled himself as Augustus had done, and the court of Vienna was
as humble as that of Saxony.
“If the King of Sweden had asked me to turn Lutheran I should have been
obliged to do it,” said the Austrian, in reply to the papal nuncio’s
protests.
Peter heard these things with outbursts of fury, but continued to accept
the German officers secretly sent him by the feeble Emperor.
He was in Lithuania, occupying his days with training and hardening his
troops, endeavoring to rouse Europe to save Patkul, and watching the
increasing splendor of his terrible enemy, when Hélène D’Einsiedel, who
had made her way from Dresden amid incredible difficulties, forced her
way into the Czar’s presence and besought him, in the accents of a
creature distracted, to rescue her lover.
“I am helpless,” said Peter, with a dreadful look at the livid face of
the wretched girl.
“He will be executed--in the most horrible way,” whispered Hélène. “We
were to have been married this autumn.”
“Child,” said the Czar kindly, “I have done what I could. I do not need
a woman to urge me to this duty.” He looked away from where she knelt,
huddled on the dirty floor at his feet, in her dusty traveling dress,
all grace and beauty crushed out of her. “I will break Sweden,” he
added.
“What is that to me,” cried Hélène, “if Patkul dies?”
“Would it not be something,” asked Peter, “to have revenge?”
She appeared not to hear him; her distraught mind was concentrated on
one thing only that was stronger than her fatigue or her despair--the
effort to save Patkul.
“Cannot you, who are an Emperor, do this?” she implored.
Peter turned fiercely to Mentchikoff.
“Take away this woman,” he said, “I cannot endure it.”
The shuddering creature staggered to her feet before the officers could
touch her, and flung out her poor, feeble hands with a shriek.
“They will break him on the wheel!” she wailed. “Oh, let me die first!”
Peter had looked on many frantic women before, and heard similar words
often enough. The wives, mothers and sisters of the Strelitz executed in
the Red Square, many of them by Peter’s own hand, had comported
themselves in similar fashion, mad with grief and horror, and he had
given them never a glance, yet the anguish of this fond creature, who
had traveled so far and through such perils that she was half-crazed
with terror and fatigue, to demand a protection it was out of his power
to bestow, moved him terribly; he could not bear to look on her, and she
was forced from his presence and given to the charge of the servants who
had come with her on this desperate journey.
“Let Katherina go to her,” muttered the Czar. “Katherina has a gentle
mind and a soothing tongue.”
For himself he sought Mentchikoff, that firm and tireless friend.
Throwing an old mantle about his shoulders, for this autumn was
unusually chill, even for the North, he mounted his great, rough horse
and rode to the quarters of the Prince that were far more comfortable
than his own.
He was humiliated and struck to the heart; with an impatience and gloomy
bitterness he eyed his huge encampment; what use was it to train these
men who fled at the very name of the King of Sweden? What good his
pains, his example, his rewards, his punishments, to mold a nation
uncivilized in every art and science?
The reactionary party was still at work; there were eager hands ready to
undo his every reform; his heir, son of the repudiated Eudoxia, was a
weakling, none of the children of Katherina, his chosen woman, had
lived.
Almost his task seemed too great for the Russian; the war had been long
and entirely disastrous; if it had taught him the art of war, it had
done so in lessons rude and bitter.
His allies had fallen away from him; his enemy was in every way
triumphant, had eclipsed his glory, dimmed his rising renown, made him
and his attempts at greatness a laughing-stock.
Europe would not even listen to him when he complained of Karl’s breach
of international law and demanded his ambassador; instead they sent
their representatives to do homage to the conqueror in his camp. The
Emperor of Austria cringed, Europe was at the feet of this young man--in
truth a second Alexander, who had but to decide in which direction his
further glory should lie; and no one troubled about Muscovy and its
passionate ruler, so fiercely trying to educate his country into some
semblance of his ambitious dreams.
“Sweden blocks me,” said Peter to Mentchikoff. “He must go, or all we
have done is in vain. He stops my progress, Danilovitch; he wants to
pull down, I to build. What am I to do--it seems that he is invincible.”
He spoke without malice or hate now, only with a sadness that was
wistful in its sincerity.
“And Patkul!” he added. “Patkul will be broken, Danilovitch.”
“I would we could break Augustus,” said the Prince.
“With my own hands,” remarked the Czar, “I would put him to the torture.
That little thing came from Dresden to ask me to save Patkul--and I can
do nothing!”
It was the bitterest mortification to which he had ever been subject in
a life full of vicissitudes; Mentchikoff knew it and scowled; he could
not endure to glance at the cruel position in which his adored master
found himself; his own whole being was absorbed in a deep hatred of
Augustus and the Swede.
But he had a greater faith in Peter than Peter had himself; the Czar
might be torn with doubts and fears, but the subject was certain of the
ultimate downfall of the Swede.
Peter, with an effort, it seemed, to shake off the gloom that was
settling on him, asked Mentchikoff for a certain Pole who had been
employed as a spy in the camp at Altranstadt, and who had lately
returned to Lithuania.
“I would like to see him,” said the Czar somberly.
“But he knows nothing,” replied Mentchikoff; “nothing--I have already
examined him.”
“He knows,” returned Peter, “something of the life of the King of
Sweden--bring him here, Danilovitch.”
Mentchikoff was reluctant to do this; he felt that it was morbid for
Peter to be so interested in the habits of his rival and a certain
slight to his own dignity, but he did not dare refuse, and the Pole, a
tall, thin fellow with red eyes and sandy hair, was brought before the
Emperor. Peter eyed him gloomily.
“Prince Mentchikoff tells me that you discovered nothing at
Altranstadt,” he said.
“Sire,” replied the Pole, with a movement as if he would prostrate
himself before the Czar, “how can one discover the secrets of a King who
has no confidants?”
“I think he has no secrets either,” remarked Peter, “his design is clear
enough. He wishes to dethrone me.”
“Yet that is not clear, sire,” answered the spy earnestly. “All the
princes of Europe have envoys at his camp trying to find out his plans,
each begging for his favor and alliance. And he is dumb to all.”
The Czar glanced at his friend.
“A proud position, Danilovitch!” he said. “A proud position!”
“They wonder,” resumed the spy, eager to show that he had not been
altogether useless, “why he lingers so long in Saxony--there are many
comments as to that. He cannot,” added the Pole, who knew that he might
safely speak of the humiliation of Augustus to Peter, “further lower the
Elector who has even written a letter of congratulation to Stanislaus
Leczinski.”
“May every ill overtake him for it!” exclaimed Peter in a loud voice,
and with a suffused face.
“He has even, sire, had the mortification of having to deliver his
favorite, General Fleming, to the King of Sweden who claims him as his
subject, and only the entreaties of Stanislaus Leczinski stayed Karl
from putting him to death.”
Peter was not interested in General Fleming, and was impatient of
hearing of what he considered further vileness on the part of the
Elector, whom he regarded as one dead and damned--no longer to be taken
into account, and only to be remembered to have his memory cursed.
“Tell me how the King of Sweden lives,” he demanded, fixing his soft,
dark, bloodshot eyes on the ferret-like face of the spy.
“Sire--as he has always done--he is the worst housed, the worst served
and fed in his army. He never touches wine, and his food is plain and
scanty, his bed a straw pallet. It is his pleasure to inure himself to
every kind of fatigue and hardship. He rides out three times a day, and
has no amusements or diversions of any kind.”
Peter looked at Mentchikoff, regardless of the presence of the Pole.
“Think what a man I could be, Danilovitch!” he cried enviously, “could I
so control myself!”
“Peter Alexievitch,” replied the Prince hotly, “do you seek to compare
yourself with this hard, heartless automaton?”
“It is a wonderful thing,” insisted the Czar, “for a man to be so master
of himself.”
“It is their manner in Scandinavia,” said Mentchikoff. “They have few
passions and dull appetites. But Karl boasts himself too soon if he
would be above humanity--he takes his revenge on Patkul!”
The spy glanced furtively at the two Russians, not himself daring to
enter on ground so delicate.
“Where is he better than us wretched mortals in that?” added the
hot-hearted Prince.
“Indeed,” said the Pole, “he is quite hard in these things. He has never
been known to grant mercy to those who offend him. There was a Livonian
officer captured and sent to Sweden, sire, and there in Stockholm judged
and condemned to death. The King would not listen to any entreaties, but
this soldier persuaded the Swedes that he knew the secret of the
philosopher’s stone, and the Queen-Mother sent to the camp to know if
she might offer pardon to the man in exchange for his secret. But the
King replied that he could not do for interest what he had refused to do
for compassion. And the officer was beheaded.”
Peter had listened intently, his eyes full of a dark fire.
“Did the King believe that the man knew how to make gold?” he asked
keenly.
“Sire, it is said that he did,” replied the Pole, “for a pure bar of
gold was sent him that the prisoner had made in his cell before the
Swedish councilors.”
“Then,” exclaimed the Czar, “this action shows a certain grandeur in
him!”
But Mentchikoff was quick to seize on another aspect of the tale.
“Did you say this fellow was beheaded?”
“Yes, excellency.”
“And Patkul is to be broken on the wheel--and his crime is equal to that
of this man. Where is the grandeur in that, Peter Alexievitch? Not the
offense but the man is punished by this cruel sentence.”
At this mention of his unfortunate general, Peter’s brow darkened again.
“Whether such a man as this is to be respected or not, I cannot say--but
he is to be feared, Danilovitch!”
The Czar then turned abruptly to the spy.
“Is there no whisper in Altranstadt as to Sweden’s future designs?” he
asked.
“Sire, there are many whispers. He has sent envoys into Persia and
India. The Sultan has sent an ambassador to him returning the Swedish
prisoners who fled into Turkey; his officers have always boasting
stories on their lips of what he will accomplish.”
“And they are right!” exclaimed Peter. “What may not this man,
twenty-five, hardy, fearless, never defeated, and whose feats of arms
have astonished the world, expect to achieve?”
“Nothing that you cannot thwart him in,” replied Mentchikoff, who did
not like his master’s attitude of admiration for his enemy.
The Czar took no notice of this remark but continued to question the
spy.
“He never looks at women, this Swede? There is no one who influences
him?”
“No one, sire. For him it seems as if women did not exist. When he is
forced to meet them he treats them with a freezing coldness--and avoids
them when he can. They say he favored one woman when he was in
Stockholm, but she died soon after he left for the war.”
“Indeed,” said the Emperor, who could hardly conceive of a life of such
austerity, “if he has never been drunk or in love or in a passion, he is
hardly human--and the more dangerous.”
“He is neither invulnerable nor invincible,” remarked Mentchikoff.
Peter suddenly flashed him a warm smile.
“You are jealous for my dignity, Danilovitch,” he said. “I love you for
it. And it is true that I am not defeated yet, nor old nor sick, and I
have still to try conclusions with the Swede. Twenty times has he driven
me out of Poland--and twenty times have I returned.”
But his heart was not as brave as his words; despite himself his
continued ill-success had induced in him a conviction of the
invincibility of Karl whom he admired for possessing all the qualities
he would have wished for in his own character, and whose glory, now at
its most dazzling height, a little blinded the eyes of Peter. He alone
knew the magnitude of the task that he had undertaken, the chaos of his
armies, and the factions in his court and among his people.
Not even Mentchikoff could gauge the difficulties on which Peter labored
on that long hard road, unenlivened by any success or encouragement,
which he had set himself to travel.
CHAPTER III
If the splendor of Karl’s achievements dazzled even Peter, to the rest
of the world it was indeed overwhelming.
This monarch, still in the first flower of his youth, found himself in a
position unique in the history of the modern world.
Louis XIV had begun his reign by conquests perhaps as considerable, but
his victories had been won by proxy; his cause was not so fine nor his
behavior so remarkable, and his vanity had taken a form more ordinary,
his pride had assumed the proportions to which men are most accustomed.
But both the achievements and the character of Karl were extraordinary;
his victories were owing to his personal genius, the discipline of his
army to his own efforts, the austere behavior of his men, so rare in the
soldiers of a conquering army, to his own example.
There was no danger or hardship that he had not shared with his meanest
soldier, and if they did not cherish that warm devotion for him that men
have felt for leaders more human in their weaknesses, at least they
accorded him an awed respect that did not permit them to murmur at his
most severe regulations.
They had come, too, to believe that while under his leadership they were
invincible, the one reverse they had received having taken place while
he was absent; they told each other that Mentchikoff would never have
beaten the Swedes at Kalisz had they been commanded by Karl; in his
heart Peter had thought the same.
The summer was waning, and still Karl remained at Altranstadt; Count
Piper, now become a feeble and sickly man through the effect of a
sudden illness, watched with a dull, half-cynical eye the glory of his
master, and his place was largely taken by Baron Görtz, the
grand-marshal of the Bishop of Lubeck, whose daring spirit and military
enthusiasms entirely suited the peculiar temperament of the King.
Stanislaus now reigned in Poland with as much security as was possible
to one who owed his elevation to a whim of fortune, and who ruled a
country so torn and exhausted by war; he had been recognized by the
leading courts of Europe, including that of Dresden, and in this
direction at least the ambition of Karl was satisfied.
Among those who came to Altranstadt to endeavor to discover the policy
or gain the alliance of the redoubtable conqueror who had just humbled
the Empire was a man whose fame as a captain had rivaled that of Karl,
though in all save military genius he was different from the Swede.
This was the English general, John, Duke of Marlborough, sent by the
English Government to sound Karl on the likelihood of his joining the
war of the Spanish Succession, either for or against the allies.
This the Duke, as able a diplomat as he was a soldier, hoped to discover
by proposing Karl as a mediator between the allies of France, a design
that he thought would flatter the King into disclosing his real
intentions.
Karl, who had treated with a cold indifference the other ambassadors and
plenipotentiaries who had waited on him, showed some eagerness to meet
this man who had never fought a battle that he had not won, nor besieged
a town he had not taken, and whose brilliant genius had broken the
mighty power of France.
The Duke himself had applied to the Baron Görtz for an audience, and by
him and the English minister was taken to Karl’s plain and severe
quarters at Leipzig, where he then was.
The King received him in a small room without hangings or carpets, and
with no furniture save a few chairs and a table of bare wood; he had
with him Count Piper, who looked ill and vexed; the minister was
prejudiced against the Englishman because he had applied to Görtz
instead of to himself for this audience.
The Duke of Marlborough entered with a light step the poorest royal
chamber he had ever seen, and saluted Karl with a courtier’s bow; these
two remarkable captains faced each other with a flash of curiosity that
for a second obscured all other matters.
The Duke was then nearly sixty years of age, but still of an unusual
handsomeness and an infinite grace in his person; he was attired in the
extreme of the fashion, black velvet brocade, white satin waistcoat
flourished in colored silks, a rich Mechlin cravat and ruffles, a black
satin cravat and a diamond buckle, a long curling peruke framing his
worn, charming, and vivacious face.
He was both perfumed and powdered, and carried an elegant little sword
with brilliants in the hilt.
The interest died from Karl’s blue eyes and a look of cold disgust took
its place; the Englishman was not the Swede’s idea of a warrior. Nor was
Karl in his old jackboots, worn blue great-coat with the rubbed leather
buttons, his black taffeta stock and soiled leather gloves, his stiff
air and ungracious look, the Englishman’s idea of a King.
Karl wore a light peruke and a three-cornered hat; his face was
impassive and cold, and he gave a bare salute in return for the Duke’s
greeting.
Marlborough was not in the least disconcerted. He had the perfect ease
of manner born of long acquaintance with princes and rulers, and was an
adept in dealing with all manner of men.
He was as ready with his opening compliment as if he had met with a
gracious reception.
“Sire,” he said in French, “I should be happy if I could learn under
your orders what I do not know of the art of war.”
Karl received this in a freezing silence; it was the type of flattery
that he most disliked, and he had taken a complete aversion to the
elegance of the great Englishman’s appearance and to his courtier-like
manners.
Marlborough, in no way discomposed, entered agreeably into further
compliments, since it seemed that it was he who must make the
conversation.
He spoke in French, and Karl, who knew this language but would never use
it, replied in Swedish, of which tongue the Duke was wholly ignorant.
The English minister interpreted, and the conversation on general topics
became slow and fatiguing. The English envoy was not in any way thrown
out by this.
He wished to discover if Karl was likely to interfere in the war between
France and the allies; he was dangerously near and had severely treated
the Emperor, the most doubtful member of the league against Louis XII.
This object the Duke believed he could attain by merely watching the
King of Sweden.
Karl, who knew his design, and disdained all those whom he thought were
wanting his favor or alliance, broached the subject with a cold
bluntness.
“I wonder your grace takes the trouble to concern yourself in this
affair. I gave my word seven years ago not to meddle in this war.”
Marlborough bowed gravely; he did not believe that anyone would
sacrifice power and interest to their word; he was too well used to the
ways of princes to be greatly impressed by what Karl said.
Perfectly at his ease and with a charming smile he studied this
imperious boy who had put Northern Europe under his foot.
With that graceful composure so natural to him he began to talk of the
war with France, naming some of the victories of the allies.
Karl could not listen without interest to any matter connected with
military affairs, and he had a natural prejudice against the French, so
he remained silent, resting his hands on the hilt of his great plain
heavy sword that he held in front of him, and followed with attention
what the Duke was saying.
But he was as impervious to the charm of Marlborough as he had been to
that of Aurora von Königsmarck.
Marlborough, who was used to swaying men and exercising a strong
personal influence, soon perceived this.
“Sire,” he said suddenly, his fine eyes keen, alert, and slightly
amused, “why do I speak of these things to one who has accomplished so
many greater ones? Your Majesty, who has already dethroned one King, and
will another----”
Karl’s eyes suddenly lit.
“Whom do you think I shall dethrone, my lord?” he asked, and signed to
M. Robinson, the English minister, to quickly interpret his question.
“So you are human,” thought Marlborough.
“Sire,” he said aloud, “I was meaning the Czar of Muscovy.”
Now there was no mistaking the fire that leapt into the cold eyes of
Karl; he would not answer, but Marlborough read him plainly.
There was a little map of Muscovy, in colored paints, lying on a table
by the window, and the Duke glanced at it as he spoke again.
“There can be no doubt,” he continued, “that your Majesty’s task will be
as glorious as it will be tremendous.”
When this was translated to Karl he turned imperiously to M. Robinson.
“Tell the Duke,” he said, “that my designs are not disclosed even to my
intimates.”
This was a little softened in the translation, but Marlborough was fine
enough to catch the full meaning of the words.
He was quite indifferent to this rude rebuff; he had discovered all he
wished to know and continued to discuss indifferent matters, soon
taking his leave, nor did Karl seek to detain him, but most coldly
accepted his adieux.
As the two Englishmen went away in Baron Görtz’s carriage, Marlborough
whispered to the other:
“We need not trouble at all about that young mad-man--his one design is
to dethrone the Czar--God help him!” he added, taking a pinch of snuff.
“Your grace thinks he will not succeed?” asked the English minister, who
was secretly impressed by Karl’s immense success and inclined to believe
him invincible.
“My dear Robinson,” replied the Duke suavely, “these heroes who feed on
military glory are bound to die of hunger some day.”
With which remark Marlborough, who was quite satisfied now that Karl
would never trouble Western Europe, dismissed the famous captain from
his thoughts.
Meanwhile Count Piper, left alone with the King, for Baron Görtz had
retired with the Englishmen, turned to Karl and asked his opinion of the
great Duke.
The King seemed to have forgotten his presence, for he had not spoken
during the interview, and turned to him with something of a start, as if
absorbed in dreams.
“What do I think of my Lord Marlborough?” he repeated; then he dismissed
the Englishman with nearly as few words as the Englishman had dismissed
him. “I do not think that he has the air of a warrior.”
“He is very pleasant,” remarked Count Piper, in a quiet tone that might
have been sarcastic, “and so is Baron Görtz.”
“Ah!” exclaimed the King, with a sharp look. “You do not like him.”
With that Karl paused; he was just enough to know that Piper had no
cause to like the younger man who was supplanting him and whose views
were so opposed to his own.
“Count,” he added, “I have always honored you and always shall. If I
have not always taken your advice I have at least respected you for
giving it--but I am one who goes his own way. As for Baron Görtz, he is,
and will be, what you are not, and will not be, my tool.”
This was a long speech for Karl to make and he was suddenly silent, as
if he already repented having said so much and so exposed his feelings.
Count Piper flushed; he knew that by these words the King had paid him
the greatest compliment and the greatest kindness that he was capable
of, and that he need look for no further recognition from his master.
He had long ceased to care much what Karl did and entirely to cease to
hope to influence him; he could smile now at himself for ever supposing
that he could have done anything with this young man, or moved him by
means of Viktoria Falkenberg.
He felt himself to be a man whose strength and position were both almost
lost, and he was, perhaps, a little indifferent now to what had gone to
make his life, but, for the last time, he resolved to sound the mind of
the King--on two matters that he, Piper, had much at heart.
“Sire,” he said quietly, “all these princes and potentates come here
with one object--to discover your Majesty’s future designs.”
“Yes,” answered Karl, “and you know better than any man that I have
disclosed these to no one.”
“I do not seek,” replied the minister, “to endeavor to force your
Majesty’s confidence.”
“But you want to know something,” remarked the King, with his sudden,
ugly smile.
“Yes.”
“Well?”
Count Piper gave the King a straight look.
“I want to know if your Majesty has any thought of returning to
Stockholm,” he said, and he could not keep a certain earnestness from
his tone.
“That thought is ever uppermost in your mind,” replied Karl, not
unpleasantly.
“It is seven years since you left your capital, sire.”
“Well?”
“Sweden needs her ruler.”
“Sweden is well governed.”
“Not by her monarch.”
“I do better things than govern Sweden,” replied the King haughtily.
“Ah, sire--these conquests cannot, will not, benefit Sweden. The scope
of the war was attained years ago.”
Karl was silent; he narrowed his cold blue eyes and stared at the grave
face and commonplace figure of his minister.
“And now you would risk all in a campaign against Russia.”
“Risk?” exclaimed Karl.
“There is a risk, sire.”
Karl smiled contemptuously.
“And if you lose, it will be disaster for Sweden,” added the Count.
“If I lose?” repeated the King, with rising wrath. “Do you not know that
it is impossible for me to lose?”
“Ah, sire!” murmured the minister sadly.
Karl suddenly laughed, throwing back his head and showing his fierce
white teeth.
“You think that the Czar of Muscovy can defeat _me_!” he said.
The minister answered:
“Marlborough thinks that you attempt the impossible, sire.”
The King was really angry now.
“What does Marlborough know of my designs?” he demanded.
“It is the common thought that you march on Russia.”
Karl rose with an impatient movement.
“Let be this matter,” he said sharply. “What I do, I do, and am
accountable to no one.”
This was what the Count had expected; he bowed gravely.
He felt a sad certainty that the next subject he had to broach would be
received with even more displeasure by the King; he resolved that it
should not be on his conscience that he had not made the attempt.
“I would presume to ask one other thing,” he said, with a certain
effort.
“Ask what you will,” replied the King, who had now regained his icy
composure, “but it is useless, Count, to touch on my future designs.”
“I would only speak on a small subject, sire--that of Patkul.”
The King flashed him an ugly glance.
“What of Patkul?” he asked, in a cruel voice.
“Will not your Majesty think again of your orders to the
court-martial--that he is to be tried and executed with the utmost
severity?”
Karl was silent.
“That means,” continued the Count, “that he will be broken on the wheel
and quartered alive.”
“You speak for a rebel?” demanded the King.
“Other rebels have received a death less cruel--might not your Majesty
show the same mercy to Patkul?”
“You know in what he has offended me, Count Piper.”
“Therefore I ask your Majesty to be lenient. The man is brave--he has
served his own country--he is not a Swede--he was to have been married
this autumn. Let him die without torture.”
The King’s face was ugly to look upon.
“It is such a chance for your Majesty,” urged the minister.
“A chance?”
“To show the world that you disdain a vengeance only worthy of the Czar
of Muscovy.”
“You are a sick man and I forgive you,” replied Karl, “but speak no more
of this affair if you wish ever to come into my presence again.”
CHAPTER IV
Karl, having sufficiently humiliated the Emperor and Augustus, and
having firmly established Stanislaus on the uneasy throne of Poland, had
no longer any need to prolong his stay in Saxony, and began that autumn
of 1707 to make preparations for his departure.
At this moment everything seemed possible to him; no one knew what
project he might have in mind or to what enterprise he might be
directing his genius.
He had already threatened the Pope, who had interfered with the
Emperor’s signing of the treaty in favor of the Silesians, which Karl
had wrung from him, and it was considered possible that he might
meditate a descent on Italy by way of Persia and Turkey.
All the nations regarded him with terror and admiration, and most
trembled as they noticed his preparations for departure from the country
where he had completely triumphed over all his enemies.
His spirits rose as the time came for him to leave Saxony where he had
been idle a year; even his own generals did not know what his
destination was.
“Give me,” he said to one of these, “the route from Leipzig to----”
Here he paused, not wishing to betray his secret, and added with a
laugh--“to all the capitals of Europe.”
This was brought him; at the top of the list was _route to Stockholm_ in
large letters.
Karl saw the meaning; he knew that the Swedes were longing to return
home.
“I see,” he said, “where you would lead me--but we do not return to
Sweden so soon.”
A few days after the army was in marching order, and proceeded through
Saxony towards Dresden.
The forces of Karl consisted of 43,000 men, 8,500 cavalry, 19,200 foot,
and 16,000 dragoons.
All the regiments were complete, and to many of them were attached
supernumeraries. These did not complete the resources of Karl; he had an
army of 20,000 men in Poland, under Lewenhaupt, 15,000 men in Finland,
and new recruits were on their way from Sweden.
Karl had the satisfaction of hearing that on the first rumor of his
approach the Muscovites in Lithuania, where the Czar was endeavoring to
regain some of the ground Augustus had abandoned, had fled to Grodno, a
hundred leagues from Lublin.
As the army approached the capital of Saxony, Karl, who always rode a
few paces in front of his guard, galloped off with a few of his
officers, giving no one a hint of his design, and throwing the whole
army into consternation by his sudden disappearance.
The whim had taken him to visit Augustus, and within an hour of his
leaving the army he had presented himself at the private apartments of
the Elector, leaving his officers below.
Augustus was then in his bed-chamber, in poor health and melancholy
humor, lounging in a white brocade dressing-gown by the wood fire, while
Aurora von Königsmarck, who had recovered something of her ancient
splendor, but who was also negligently gowned in pink taffetas, frothed
the chocolate over a silver lamp.
Count Fleming, the Elector’s minister, had seen the King enter the town,
and had rushed to advise his master; but Karl, who had entered the gates
under an assumed name, and passed as a member of the King’s guard, was
before him, and had entered the chamber of Augustus before that prince
knew that he was in the town.
Augustus vested himself in haste, being utterly bewildered and amazed.
“The King of Sweden in my ante-chamber!” he kept saying.
Aurora was deeply angry.
“He comes to exult over you,” she said. “Before he goes on fresh
conquests he wishes to satisfy himself with the sight of the King he has
discrowned.”
“It will give me an opportunity to speak for Patkul,” said Augustus.
“Surely he will not refuse me that favor.”
“He will,” replied the Countess, “but he is in your power.”
“Bah!” said the Elector, annoyed at this womanish point of view, “I am
in his.”
Aurora could hardly restrain her impatient scorn; every time, according
to her ideas, that Augustus was called upon to show strength, he showed
weakness; she had long ceased to feel either affection or respect for
the Elector, and in secret scorned herself for the love of comfort and
luxury that induced her to stay with him, and accept the tarnished
splendor Augustus had secured by the treaty of Altranstadt.
She had felt keenly the failure of her ruse to secure the release of
Patkul; day and night she was haunted by the last glimpse she had had of
Hélène D’Einsiedel, as, half-crazed by horror and fear, she had set out
on her wild journey to the Russian camp.
“You could keep him,” she persisted. “It was one of his madman’s whims
to come.”
“He has an army, an invincible army, at the gates,” replied Augustus.
“Ah, you have not the courage,” replied the Countess, who had become
sharp-tongued in adversity. “But why do I speak to you? If you had had
courage you never would have signed the peace.”
“God save me from your railing!” replied the harassed Elector. “Between
you and the King of Sweden I have had a merry life these last seven
years!”
Aurora shrugged the fair shoulders that rose out of her ruffled lace
gown, and flung herself into a chair.
“At least endeavor to save Patkul,” she said bitterly.
She suddenly turned and looked at him over her shoulder, her beautiful
eyes fierce.
“If Patkul dies--_that way_,” she flung out, “I shall never forgive
you.”
The Elector did not answer; hastily dressed and red in the face he flung
open the folding doors that led into the room where the King of Sweden
waited.
Strangely out of place in this chamber of gilt and satin, with the
rose-wreath cupids painted on panels and ceiling, the ormolu tables and
bric-a-brac of china and silver, looked the stern figure of the Swede.
His worn high boots were covered with road dust; his attire, plain as
that of the trooper he had represented himself to be at the gates, set
off his tall, robust figure; his hands, in the long elbow gloves, were
clasped about the handle of his heavy sword; his light peruke was held
back by a black ribbon, and his hat hung on the back of the chair.
He arose as Augustus entered, and gave him a brief salutation.
“I did not think that your Majesty would have thus far honored me,”
stammered the Elector, flushing deeper.
“I could not leave your Highness’s country without coming to bid you
farewell,” returned Karl calmly.
He showed no trace of triumph over, or sympathy with, the man he had
discrowned; his manner was that of one casual acquaintance with another.
“I would like to see your fortifications,” he added, and a flicker of
his unpleasant smile crossed his calm face.
Augustus had to make an effort to preserve his equanimity; the
humiliations forced on him by Karl were too recent and too bitter even
for one of his good nature to endure without fierce resentment.
But he knew that Karl, though seemingly in his power, had an army at the
gates that could reduce his capital to submission in a few hours.
Also, all that was best in him longed to redeem the shameful delivery of
Patkul into the hands of Karl, and he thought this was an opportunity to
ask this one favor that the King of Sweden could scarcely refuse.
The conversation became forced and general; the Elector invited Karl to
dine with him and the offer was accepted.
Augustus and Count Fleming sat down to table with Karl and his general,
and some sort of conversation, embarrassed on the part of the Saxons,
and indifferent on the part of the Swedes, took place.
The Conqueror ate bread and drank water, and Augustus drank heavily of
every wine that was offered to him, to give himself courage for the
coming interview with Karl, in which he would ask the life of Patkul.
The meal being over the Elector conducted the Swedes round the
fortifications, and while the King was a little ahead took occasion to
ask General Hord, one of the Swedish officers, if he thought his master
would grant him a favor.
“I think,” added Augustus, “that he will not refuse a small request to a
man from whom he has taken a crown.”
“What is this small request of your Highness?” asked General Hord dryly.
Augustus flushed; his whole position was one of cruel humiliation, and
he liked the Swedish officers little better than he liked their master.
“I want the life of General Patkul,” he replied, with an air as easy as
he could manage. “I hardly think,” he added, with a forced smile, “that
your master will refuse me.”
“You do not know him,” replied the Swede dryly. “He will certainly
refuse you.”
“Why?” demanded the unfortunate Elector, with some sharpness.
“First, because it is you want a boon that he will grant no one.”
The Elector could not refrain from a bitter retort to this brusque
statement.
“Is then the King of Sweden so cruel?”
“Sir,” said the Swede, “he is just. Patkul is a traitor.”
“Will not an easier death content your master?” asked Augustus.
“You will find that he will alter nothing,” smiled General Hord.
The Elector, however, could not believe that Karl could be so deaf to
all promptings of clemency, chivalry, and courtesy.
“He is my guest,” he urged.
“For that very reason he will refuse you more certainly. The fact that
he is nominally in your power will make him scornful of any concession
to you. He will also disdain to accord any favor to you that he would
not give to anyone else.”
But Augustus was not convinced, and if he had been, possessed sufficient
nobleness to persist in his endeavor to save Patkul.
When they returned to the palace he opened the subject, nervously, but
with a certain dignity.
“I regard myself as doubly fortunate in this visit, as I have something
on my mind and conscience to put before your Majesty.”
Karl gave him one darting glance, then seated himself, resting his
gloved hands on the plain hilt of his sword.
He had flung off his hat, and his eyes shone cold and clear beneath the
straight fair brows and smooth low forehead, shaded by the curls of his
light peruke.
Seen thus, in perfect composure and repose, the face was beautiful,
marred only by the slight overfullness of the lips and the little ugly
twist of them, half a smile, defects not noticeable in his extreme
youth, but now becoming permanent. His complexion, despite his outdoor
life, looked fair and clear as a woman’s above the black satin stock,
and there was no line or shade of thought or emotion to soften or
enlighten those cold and noble features.
Augustus, richly though carelessly dressed, his soft handsome features
disturbed and harassed in expression, and worn with anxiety and
sickness, his laced and brocade clothes hanging loosely on the powerful
figure that had lost so much of its strength, was in piteous contrast
to the man who had ruined him so completely and steeped him in such
utter humiliation.
“I think we have done with matters of business,” Karl reminded him. “I
came as one prince taking farewell of another; would it not be as well
for us to leave our meeting at this friendly point?”
This was clearly meant as a warning, but Augustus would not take it; he
turned pale, and took a rapid step across the room; his heart swelled
and his pleasant eyes darkened with the inner emotion he kept in check.
“It is against my conscience to remain silent on this matter,” he said.
“Your conscience, Highness?” repeated Karl, without changing a muscle of
his face or altering a tone of his voice, yet conveying, by the very
impassivity of his attitude, unspeakable contempt for the man who had
been beaten into signing the peace of Altranstadt.
Augustus flung up his head.
“I wish, I must,” he replied, “speak on a delicate matter--one that I
shame to mention, one in which I am at the mercy of your Majesty.”
“Ah!” exclaimed Karl, as if he suddenly saw what was coming.
“I mean to speak of General Patkul,” said the Elector, steadily but
hoarsely.
“You will speak in vain,” answered the King of Sweden, with the utmost
coldness.
“I cannot think so, sire. I appeal to your chivalry, your clemency, to
have mercy on this man--and mercy on me,” added the wretched Elector,
clutching his hands in his ruffles. “If Patkul dies I am ashamed before
the world.”
“Did you not think of that when you signed the peace?” demanded Karl
harshly.
“Sire, is there any need to thus humiliate me?”
“Humiliate _you_?” replied Karl, with the slightest possible stress on
the last word.
The blood flamed into the Elector’s thin cheeks. “Sire, we are cousins,”
he said passionately.
“Did you remember that our mothers were sisters when you plotted with
Patkul to seize my Baltic Provinces?” demanded the King.
He spoke with the utmost calm, and with an air of moderation, but he
contrived to emphasize the fact that the relationship to which the
Elector had referred was on the female side only.
“I belong to my father’s family,” he added, in a fashion that showed
contempt for all women.
Augustus did not know in what way to appeal to this icy character, this
stern, harsh demeanor.
“I am at your mercy,” he repeated in desperation, “a fallen and a ruined
man. Your vengeance should be satisfied. What would it mean to you to
save Patkul? But an added glory. He was to have been married--the lady
is of my court, young and delicate and good. To gain some hope for her
lover she has fled into the wilderness of Lithuania to appeal to the
Czar.”
“I have heard this before,” replied Karl.
“Think how she suffered before she was reduced to this wild journey.”
Karl rose.
“She has appealed to Peter,” he said. “Let Peter answer her.”
“But I,” said Augustus, “appeal to you, sire.”
The two splendid men, each drawn to the full of his great height, stood
facing each other in the toy room, amid the frivolous elegances of silk
and satin, china and gilt.
“At least,” added the Elector, “accord him a death less cruel.”
He spoke without fear and even with a certain authority, being
profoundly moved, and, like many weak, emotional people, being strong
enough in the actual face of what inflamed his passions.
Besides, he could not but feel that he was of equal birth with Karl,
considerably older, and of wider experience, and that the young
conqueror was doing a cruel wrong.
This tone, as of equal to equal, had never been heard by Karl since the
day he had forever silenced it in the Queen-Mother, and it inflamed him
to complete fury, which he did not betray, but which made his blood
tingle and his pulses bound.
“I have nothing to give you but silence,” he said, in a terrible voice.
“I will take my leave, Highness.”
Augustus, pallid to the lips with mortification, fell back before this
bitter rebuff, and, turning for a second, covered his face with his
hands. Karl picked up his hat and would have left without another word,
but the folding doors opened and Aurora von Königsmarck entered and
stepped straight up to him.
This beautiful woman was in full court dress, white and silver, and
adorned with diamonds; she carried a long fan of white feathers which
she pointed at Karl with a gesture of supreme disgust.
So full was she of vitality and passion that the King was stayed by her
entry and stared at her bright vivid face.
“Patkul may die,” she said, in a loud voice, “but he will be revenged.
No man like you can triumph long. In the day of your disaster, sire,
remember me--and that there was one person to scorn you and your glory,
and know you for the little man you are.”
She flung out this in a breath, then added, panting, “You vain, mad
boy!” in a tone of utter contempt.
Karl stared at her, and the color slowly mounted up under his eyes; he
gave a harsh, short laugh, turned on his heel, and left the room without
a salute.
Augustus caught the Countess by the arm.
“What have you done!” he cried frantically.
She flung him off with a passionate gesture of scorn.
“I have done with you,” she said. “Pray God your son will be a different
man.”
PART II
POLTAVA
“Nous n’avons de propre que l’honneur; y renoncer, c’est cesser
d’être monarque.”--_Peter the Great to Chofiroff._
CHAPTER I
Laden with the plunder of Poland and Saxony, the spoils of their
brilliant feats of arms, the Swedes, amid the January ice, marched on
Grodno, the several parties of Muscovites in the neighborhood flying at
the mere rumor of their approach.
Peter, surprised in Grodno, fled with 2000 men, while Karl with 600
entered the city.
When Peter learned that the bulk of the Swedish army was still five
leagues distant he returned and tried to retake the town.
He was, however, fiercely beaten back, and the Swedes pursued the
Russians through Lithuania and Minsk, towards the frontiers of Russia.
Karl, after clearing Lithuania of the forces of the Czar, intended to
march towards the North and on Moscow, by way of Pskof.
The difficulties in his way were terrible; huge stretches of virgin
forest, of desolate marsh, of barren deserts, lay between him and his
objective. The only food that could be found was the winter stores of
the peasants in the small tracks of cultivated land, which were buried
underground; many of these had already been ravaged by the Muscovites,
and in any case were insufficient for the Swedish army.
Karl, who was to be deterred neither by prudence, reason, nor fear of
any kind, had provided bread for his men which they carried with them,
and on this they had to support the ghastly hardships of the forced
marches.
The heavy rains kept back even the indefatigable Swede. A road had to be
made through the forest of Minsk, and it was early summer before Karl
found himself once more face to face with Peter at Borissov.
The Czar waited with the main body of his forces to defend the river
Bérézina; Karl, however, brought his troops across this river and
marched on the Russians, who once more retreated, falling back on the
Dneiper.
At Halowczin he defeated 20,000 Muscovites by traversing a marsh
believed to be impassable, the King himself leading, with the water at
times up to his shoulders.
After this decisive victory he pursued the Russians to Mohilew, on the
frontiers of Poland; by the autumn he was chasing the Czar from
Smolensk, on the Moscow road.
At Smolensk, narrowly escaping death in a hand-to-hand fight with the
Kalmucks, Karl inflicted another defeat on the Muscovites, and proceeded
another stage on the way to the capital, from which city he was now
distant only a hundred leagues.
At this moment Peter sent to Karl suggesting the opening of peace
negotiations.
But Karl replied as he had replied to Augustus: “Peace in Moscow.”
And even Count Piper wrote to the Duke of Marlborough, whom he was
keeping informed of the progress of the campaign, that the dethronement
of the Czar was inevitable.
But Peter, still unshaken after the defeats of eight years, again
gathered together his scattered and disheartened armies.
“The King of Sweden thinks to be a second Alexander,” he remarked, when
Karl’s haughty answer was brought to him, “but I have no mind to be
Darius.”
The second winter of the Russian campaign was now setting in; it
promised to be of unusual severity even for these bitter regions.
Even the Spartan endurance of the Swedes began to blench at the thought
of the almost unendurable hardships of the long Russian winter, with
neither sufficient food, firing, or clothing.
But there was no murmuring, for the King supported all privations
equally with the poorest foot soldier.
The scouts brought in news that Peter had torn up the roads, flooded
them from the marsh lands, cut down huge trees and flung them across the
way, and burnt the villages on the route to Moscow.
There was barely a fortnight’s provisions in the Swedish army and not
the least prospect of obtaining any more in the ravaged, frozen wastes.
Karl called a council of war in his rough tent amid the giant pines.
There was no fire, and, as the tent flap swayed on its cords in the icy
wind, a few flakes of snow drifted in and melted on the frozen earthen
floor.
Karl sat in a folding camp-chair, a mantle of rough blue cloth over his
usual uniform, his hands, covered by the long elbow gloves, employed in
turning over a few notes and maps on a plain pine table.
The arduous labors and unceasing fatigues of this last campaign had told
even on his superb physique.
He was thinner and pale, under the brown of exposure; his blue eyes
seemed slightly tired, but had lost nothing of their calm, courageous
stare.
Near him sat Count Piper, looking ill and old, wrapped in a heavy cloak
of marten skin, lined with scarlet and gold brocade, the spoil of war of
some flying Russian Prince.
Only a few of Karl’s generals, such as Rehnsköld, Gyllenburg, and
Wurtemberg, were present; it was his habit to confide his designs to as
few as possible. Piper, whose forebodings had been silenced by the
splendid success of the Swedish advance into Russia, had now begun to
feel uneasy and to rediscover all his objections to the campaign. He
thought that Karl should have accepted Peter’s offer to treat for peace;
the barbarous country and the arctic climate told severely on his
spirits; he was in poor health and homesick. Whatever sentiment he may
have had left for his master had vanished when the cruel sentence on
General Patkul was carried out, and he was broken on the wheel,
suffering a death of frightful torture.
Piper had heard that Hélène D’Einsiedel had not lived to hear this news.
She had died in a Russian camp soon after her arrival there, and the
messages Patkul had sent to her by the chaplain who attended him on the
scaffold had been sent to one beyond the reach of comfort.
Piper never spoke of these things, but he often thought of them now that
misfortune seemed at last to be overtaking his master.
He considered now that Karl was in the most dangerous position he had
yet found himself in, and he did not hesitate to say so, unpalatable and
unacceptable as he knew his advice must be.
“Your Majesty, in common prudence,” he remarked, shivering a little in
his furs, “can do nothing but await the arrival of Lewenhaupt.”
This general, who was coming to Karl’s assistance with 15,000 men and a
quantity of provisions, was believed to be within a few days’ march of
the present Swedish camp.
He had, indeed, been some time expected, and his retarded arrival had
been a matter of vexation to the stern King.
“I most strongly beseech your Majesty to consider this advice,” added
General Gyllenburg, with an earnest glance at the King.
Karl turned over the maps and papers without looking up.
His full mouth was set in an obstinate curve; to this arrogant
conqueror, now face to face with his first check, any council of
moderation was displeasing.
“We cannot, sire,” urged Gyllenburg, “advance on Moscow with barely
fifteen days’ food.” For he, in common with the entire army, believed
this mad project to be the one Karl had really at heart.
“There is nothing we cannot do,” replied Karl, who had indeed often
achieved what had seemed to others the impossible.
But Piper was vexed.
“If your Majesty advances on Moscow, you advance on disaster!” he
exclaimed.
The King gave him a cold stare.
“Are you not yet convinced that I never take advice?”
His bitter rebuke caused the minister’s worn cheeks to flush.
It was long since he had given Karl any cause to silence him, so utterly
had he refrained from counsels that were useless.
Karl took his face in his right gloved hand, with his elbow on the
table, and looked up and round his little council.
“I propose,”, he said, in a manner that left no loophole for argument or
suggestion, “to neither march on Moscow nor wait for Lewenhaupt.” What
third alternative there could be no one knew.
“I intend,” added the King dryly, “to advance into the Ukraine, to pass
the winter there, and continue the route to Moscow in the spring.”
The haughtiness with which he made this announcement covered an inner
mortification; he had thought to dethrone the Czar in a year; he had
never meant to turn back once on the road to Moscow.
But having reviewed his army and taken stock of his provisions, even his
daring could not advance to what was certain destruction. To his
listeners the present project seemed as mad as an advance on the Russian
capital, but they did not venture on any comment.
With the fewest and barest words Karl proceeded to explain that he had
made an alliance with Mazeppa, Prince of the Ukraine, the country of the
Cossacks, who was in revolt against the Czar, and hoped to profit by the
alliance of the Swede to defeat Peter.
This man, who dreamed to do for the Ukraine what Patkul had dreamed to
do for Livonia, was a Polish nobleman of considerable parts; cast out of
his own country by the vengeance of a compatriot, he had taken refuge
amid the Cossacks, grown to be their ruler, and now in his old age
essayed to play some important part in this momentous war.
“Is he to be trusted?” asked General Rehnsköld, who did not dislike the
project as it was unfolded to him.
“As for that I do not know,” replied the King coldly, “but his interests
lie with me, and not with the Czar, for if Peter discovered his secret
plans of revolt he would certainly impale him as he has threatened
before. Mazeppa knows what to expect from the mercy and justice of the
Czar.”
Piper, thinking of Patkul, was silent, but Gyllenburg, thinking of
nothing but the present crisis, ventured to remonstrate with the
imperious King.
“Whether or no the Cossacks can be relied upon, were it not well to wait
Lewenhaupt and his reinforcements--above all, his provisions?”
But Karl was, as always, obstinate; he had, he said, a rendezvous with
Mazeppa on the banks of the Desna, whither that prince had promised to
come with 30,000 men, treasure, and provisions.
Rehnsköld was prepared to credit that this was better either than
pressing on towards Moscow or waiting for Lewenhaupt.
Piper and Gyllenburg were for remaining at Smolensk in expectation of
reinforcements; Karl listened coldly to all arguments, and remained
fixed in his original plans.
The next day the army, to its intense surprise, received orders to march
into the Ukraine. Messengers were sent to Lewenhaupt to tell him to join
the main army on the banks of the Desna and the painful progress
commenced.
It was yet autumn, but the cold had set in early, and the troops had to
suffer the rigors of extreme cold.
Nature seemed bent on throwing obstacles in the way of the Swedes.
The forests, deserts, and marshes were nearly inpenetrable; Lägercrona,
in charge of the advance guard, went thirty leagues astray, and only
after four days of wandering was able to find the route.
Nearly all his artillery and heavy baggage he had been obliged to
abandon in the marshes or among the rocks.
When after unheard-of troubles and privation, Karl reached the banks of
the Desna that the Prince of the Cossacks had appointed for a
meeting-place, the ground was found to be occupied by a party of
Muscovites.
The Swedes, though fatigued by twelve days’ travel, gave battle,
vanquished the Russians, and continued to advance into this desolate and
unknown country.
Now even Karl himself began to be doubtful of the fidelity of Mazeppa,
and uncertain as to his route.
Perhaps feelings of doubt and apprehension were beginning to touch him
for the first time in his life, when Mazeppa finally joined the Swedish
army.
He had, however, the worst of news to tell; Peter had discovered the
plot in progress in the Ukraine, had fallen upon and scattered the
Cossacks, capturing all the gold and grain and thirty Cossack nobles
whom he had broken on the wheel.
Towns and villages had been burned, treasures carried off, and the old
Prince had with difficulty escaped with 6000 men and a small quantity of
gold and silver, of little use in a country where there was no one to
be bribed with gold and no commodity to buy.
Karl would have found a few wagon-loads of grain more to his liking.
However, the Cossacks were useful if only from their knowledge of this
wild country, though Karl despised them as soldiers and waited
impatiently for the arrival of Lewenhaupt. But when this general finally
made his way to the Swedish encampment, he had a tale to tell as
disastrous as that of Mazeppa, and far more mortifying to the pride of
the King of Sweden.
At Liesna he had been met by the Czar, and, after a fierce battle of
three days, severely defeated.
He had continued to effect a magnificent retreat, but he had lost 8000
men, seventeen cannon, and forty-four flags, together with the entire
convoy he was bringing to Karl, consisting of 8000 wagons of food, and
the silver raised in Lithuania by way of tribute.
He had the satisfaction of knowing that Peter had lost 10,000 men, and
that he had held him at bay for three days, but this could not balance
the fact that he arrived at Karl’s encampment with his army depleted and
without either provisions, ammunition, or treasure.
Karl received this reverse with his usual cold gravity; he neither
blamed Lewenhaupt nor took anyone into his confidence.
His situation, so lately that of an all-powerful conqueror, was now
indeed dangerous, if not desperate.
He was cut off from Poland, and an attempt on the part of Stanislaus to
reach him failed utterly.
No news came through from Sweden, and it seemed as if this army, lately
all-powerful, was isolated from the rest of the world; they could
neither communicate with, nor receive help nor advice from, any part of
the globe.
But the worst of their distresses was the weather; this winter of 1709,
long to be remembered, even in Western Europe, as one of the most
terrible on record, was almost insupportable in these arctic regions.
Karl, who ignored human needs and human weaknesses, forced his men to
march and work as if it had been midsummer and they well fed.
Two thousand of them dropped dead of cold in their tracks.
The rest were soon reduced to a state bordering on misery.
There was no replenishing their clothes, half were without coats, half
without boots or shoes; they had to clothe themselves in skins as best
they might, and suffer and die as best they might, for the mad King
tolerated no murmur, and such was his authority and the awe and respect
that his very name inspired that his troops endured what perhaps no
other general had induced men to endure before. Such food as kept them
alive was provided by Mazeppa, who alone prevented them from perishing
miserably.
The old Prince of the Cossacks had remained faithful to Karl despite the
offers Peter made to him to induce him to return to his allegiance. The
Czar, not wishing to appear inferior to his enemy in spirit or daring,
advanced into the Ukraine, regardless of the frozen country and tempests
of snow.
He did not, however, attack the King of Sweden, but merely harassed him
by small raids on his camp, thinking that hardships and cold would have
reduced them to extremity before succor could reach them.
News from Stockholm finally came to the isolated army.
Karl learnt that his sister, the Duchess of Holstein-Gottorp, was dead
of the small-pox. This gentlewoman was but a faint memory to the King;
it was eight years since this terrible and bloody war had been
undertaken to replace her husband on his throne.
Karl had almost forgotten Stockholm; almost forgotten the cause of the
war; the young Duke was dead, and had but a small place in the stern
King’s mind, compared to the vast designs that had grown out of his
quarrel.
Not till the first day of February did the snow permit the Swedes to
move, and then it was amid terrible weather that Karl advanced on
Poltava, a fort full of supplies that Peter held across the Moscow
route.
The taking of this place was a necessity to Karl pending the arrival of
his reinforcements, as his army was deprived of everything, and the
resources of Mazeppa almost at an end.
The Swedish army was now reduced to 18,000 men, but besides these Karl
commanded the Cossacks of Mazeppa, and several thousand Kalmucks and
Moldavians, free lances attached to his standard by the love of booty
and of glory.
With this force Karl advanced on Poltava; he had the mortification of
finding that Mentchikoff had outmaneuvered him, and flung 5000 men into
the town.
The King pressed the siege and had taken several of the outworks when he
learnt of the approach of the Czar with 70,000 men.
CHAPTER II
Karl, returning to his camp after having beaten one of the advanced
detachments of the Czar’s army, was noticed by General Rehnsköld to be
colorless as a man of stone, and when he came to dismount at the door of
his tent, those who accompanied him observed that his boot was dripping
blood, and the side of his horse soaked.
The Prince of Wurtemberg ordered his servant to run for a surgeon, and
General Lewenhaupt caught the King’s arm.
“Sire, you are wounded!” he exclaimed.
Karl, in his proud obstinacy and his desire to endure everything in
silence, would have denied the fact even now, but the pain was so
intense that he could not conceal it any longer, nor could he put his
foot to the ground.
“A ball struck my heel,” he said sternly.
“How long ago, sire?” asked General Rehnsköld anxiously.
“Soon after I left the camp,” replied Karl.
The officers glanced at each other; they knew that this meant that the
King had been over six hours on horseback since his wound, giving orders
as usual, and not in any way betraying his pain.
Leaning on General Lewenhaupt’s arm he entered the tent, his officers
crowding in after him. It was still only early summer, but the air was
dry and arid, and in the tent hot and close and full of a fine dust.
Karl seated himself on the plain folding-chair he always used, pulled
off his gloves, and asked for a glass of water.
“This is an ugly mischance,” he said coldly. “I should have liked to
have met the Czar on horseback.”
No groan or sigh passed his pallid lips, but his left hand gripped the
side of the chair, and beads of agony stood on his broad forehead.
The surgeon entered, a little man with an eager face, one Neumann, well
known for his great skill and learning in his profession; he was closely
followed by two others, and the King’s personal domestics.
“Gentlemen,” said the King, lifting his blue eyes now dark with pain,
“let us see how far I am unlucky.”
He held out his foot to the servant as if he wished him to draw the boot
off, but Neumann was instantly on his knees, and had taken the injured
limb delicately between his capable hands.
It was necessary to cut the boot from the leg; when this was done it was
found that the heel had been completely shattered, and that gangrene had
set in; the instant opinion of the surgeons was that there was nothing
but amputation to save the King’s life.
Karl sat silent, his foot covered with towels, and resting on a chair;
the pain was beginning to make him giddy, and, for the first time in his
life, he was realizing what it might be to be unfortunate.
Hitherto he had deemed himself immune from such a chance as this; he had
never conceived of his splendid body as in any way failing him, and now
perhaps he was a maimed man for life.
The officers looked dubiously at each other; to them this came as a
crowning misfortune; only the spirit, presence, and fame of the King had
kept the army together amid all its miseries, and now, at the climax of
their disasters, when their very existence depended on the taking of the
stores and ammunition of Poltava, the King was struck down.
Count Piper came hurrying to his master’s side; the minister felt that
his worst prognostications, that for a time had been silenced by the
steady successes of Karl, were now about to be realized, and he felt a
deep inner anger at the obstinacy that had landed them in this lost
country, cut off from help, without resources of any kind, threatened by
an enemy who was in his own country, and three times their number.
Karl perhaps read some of these thoughts; he looked at his minister with
his usual coldness.
“Piper,” he said, “they want to take my leg off.”
Neumann looked sharply at the King, who he knew must be suffering
torture.
This self-control will cost him something later on, thought the surgeon.
He lifted the towels and looked again at the wound from which the purple
blood was welling, and staining the piles of linen laid beneath.
“If one cut, and cut deep enough, the leg could be saved, sire,” he said
boldly.
Karl looked at him straightly; it was one brave man facing another; the
great King and the great surgeon met on the common ground of fortitude
and daring.
“Do your work then at once, M. Neumann,” said Karl. “Cut deeply and fear
nothing.”
M. Neumann bowed, and directed his assistant to bring him his case of
instruments.
Karl asked for another glass of water, and leaning back, drank it
slowly.
Several other officers had now entered the tent including Poniatowski,
the commander of King Stanislaus’ Swedish guards, who had followed Karl
into the Ukraine out of affection for his person.
Karl showed some pleasure at his arrival, and held out his hand.
“Any news?” he asked.
“Nay, sire, the last scouts sent out have not returned.”
“To-morrow we will attack again,” replied Karl. “We must,” he added,
with an unusual earnestness in his tone, “take Poltava.”
“If we do not,” thought Count Piper cynically, “we are dead and damned.”
He left the tent and passed to his own more luxurious quarters; he was
much too sick a man to be able to watch the operation to which the
heroic King was so calmly submitting, and too full of an increasing
agitation and consternation to be able to command his feelings.
“Yet why should I care?” he asked himself, “Patkul was shattered like
that sixteen times.”
The news of the King’s wound had now spread through the army, and there
was a growing uneasiness among these hitherto invincible veterans, now
ill-fed, ill-clothed, and ill-armed.
Returning presently to the King’s tent Count Piper met General Rehnsköld
with whom he was on bad terms, but who now stopped to tell him that the
incisions had been made in the King’s foot, which was now being dressed.
The minister, pale, restless, and dispirited, passed again into the
presence of the King.
Karl, who had held the limb steady with his own hands while the surgeon
used the knife, and had displayed not the least emotion, now sat on his
bed while Neumann bandaged the leg.
He had just given orders for an assault on the morrow; his voice had not
shaken or his hand trembled, but his face was pallid and damp, his lips
curved in a slightly distorted smile.
Count Piper advanced, but before he could speak the Prince of Wurtemberg
entered the tent with every sign of agitation.
“Sire,” he said briefly, “I have just been informed that the Czar is
advancing on us with his entire army.”
Karl, with unshaken calm, looked at Rehnsköld.
“How many will that be, General?”
“We think, sire, about 70,000 men.”
Karl had known this; he had merely spoken to gain time; the intolerable
pain was making it difficult for him to think clearly, and he realized
that never had he needed to think clearly as he needed now.
Even his haughty spirit was forced to face the fact that he was in a
desperate position, and one which most men would have judged as
hopeless.
Cut off from all reinforcements or supplies, lacking everything, half
his troops starving or sick, many bandits, untrained and unreliable,
shut in between two rivers with no shelter or cover in a country so
desolate and barren--and now helpless with a hideous wound--it might
well seem that he was about to lose the fruits of nine years’ victories,
and be deprived, in one sharp moment, of that glory for which he had
sacrificed himself and his country.
“Seventy thousand men,” he repeated; he had himself but 32,000, of which
only 16,000 were trained troops, but he remembered Narva, where the odds
had been greater, and forgot the genius of Peter that in nine years had
created a nation.
There was no council of war.
When Count Piper came to see the King that night he found him on his
camp-bed, fully clothed, even to the boot on his uninjured foot, with
sword and pistols, and a lamp on the table beside him.
The night was hot and breezeless; the sky cloudless, behind Poltava the
moon was rising.
Karl lifted his eyes to glance at it as the tent flap was lifted.
“Are you wondering when you will see Stockholm again, Count?” he asked
irrelevantly.
“I dream no more of Stockholm,” replied Piper. “I came to see how your
Majesty does.”
“Very well,” said Karl.
He moved the lamp so that the rays did not fall fully on his face; he
was shivering and burning with fever, and knew it; he did not wish Piper
to notice his condition.
“Have you seen Rehnsköld?” he asked.
“Yes, sire.”
“He told you nothing?”
“Nothing.”
Karl put his hand to his head, pushing back his short locks of fair hair
that were wet with sweat; his whole body ached with pain, and his
wounded foot was a fiery agony.
“Ah, well,” he said, “I will tell you myself. We give battle to-morrow.”
Count Piper lifted his head and looked sharply at his master; so
desperate a resolution was what he might have expected from the King,
yet it startled him, as a general may be startled by the trumpets
sounding the retreat he has himself ordered.
In silence the minister stared at the King, whose noble face was in the
shadow beyond the deep glow of the oil lamp.
“At last we are face to face!” cried Karl, with an excitement that he
would never have shown but for the fever in his blood. “Peter
Alexievitch and I, after nearly ten years! He has always fled from
me--ever since Narva.”
Sitting up in his bed, Karl reached out his hand for his sword, then let
it drop while he stared at Piper.
“I met a man crying because he could get no news from his wife,”
remarked the King, “and another who was sad for fear he should not see
Stockholm again; those who follow me must learn to forget family and
country--” pausing, he again put his hand to his forehead. “Aurora von
Königsmarck once foretold disaster for me,” he added. “Had I been a
greater prince if I had spared Patkul?”
Piper thought that the King must be delirious to talk like this; never
had he known him to so unbosom himself, or to refer to these personal
matters, or to speak in this tone of excitement; it frightened him to
see his stern monarch thus reduced to ordinary humanity, and he went up
to the bed and caught Karl’s hand, which was burning hot.
The King, however, had again perfect command of himself.
He gazed at Count Piper with the usual serenity in the blue eyes now hot
and blood-flushed with pain.
“I am still Karl XII,” he said grimly, “and my men are still Swedes. Go
to your prayers, Count, and leave me to my rest.”
With this he lay down, and put his head on the hard pillow.
A faint, half-stifled sigh escaped him, then he lay silent and still,
and either was or feigned to be asleep.
Count Piper did not leave the tent, but stood at the open door, looking
sometimes at the tall figure of the King stretched on his narrow bed,
and sometimes at Poltava, dark against the paling midnight sky up into
which the moon was rising.
A sadness was on Count Piper and yet a calm; at that moment his was the
clear vision of a man who has a premonition that his work is over, and
looks back quietly and steadily on his life.
How differently he had dreamed it all!
What had he not meant to do for Sweden. Karl XI, his beloved master, had
left his country greater than she had ever been before, and Count Piper
had resolved to continue his work, to carefully add stone to stone till
the fair edifice was complete--to do in his way and with his means what
Peter was doing for Russia.
Instead there had been this nine years’ war, empty of all but that glory
that a day’s mischance might eclipse forever.
Nothing had been done for Sweden--she had been drained of men, of money,
left unprotected, her King a mere name.
There was no direct heir; it seemed as if a grandson of Karl XI would
never rule in Stockholm, as if the fine line was at an end.
The King began to toss in the heat of the fever, and in his sleep a
groan of pain now and then escaped him.
“Ah, you, what have you done for all of us with your heroic deeds?”
muttered Count Piper; he came into the tent and looked at the tall
figure in the blue coat, with the flushed fair face and loosened
neck-cloth, sleeping the heavy slumber of an utter fatigue that was
stronger than the torture of his wound.
Count Piper was certain of complete disaster on the morrow; he did not
believe that there was the least chance of a success against the Czar.
He saw better perhaps than his master, how Peter had labored towards
this moment, how he had learnt bitterly and painfully the art of war
from many defeats; he knew that the Russians at Poltava would not be as
the Russians at Narva.
He was aware also in what a desperate condition were the forces of Karl,
how two winters in this terrible country had tamed their pride and
lowered their faith in their own good fortune.
And if this bubble of Karl’s invincibility was pricked, what then?
Nine years’ brilliant success would be, in a moment, valueless; Europe
but yesterday at Karl’s feet would soon forget him, and Sweden, depleted
of her men, penniless and abandoned by her King, would be a prey to the
vengeance of her enemies.
Peter, bitterly offended by Karl’s brief “peace in Moscow,” and with
many humiliations to avenge, would be no gentle foe.
In that moment Count Piper almost hated the King.
He was foolishly glad of the twinges of agony that caused Karl to moan
in his slumber, and when the King gave a half-unconscious murmur for
water the minister made no movement.
It had been his own wish that he should be left alone till the dawn when
he was to be roused for the battle.
“I will not interfere with his Spartan habits,” thought the minister
grimly.
He went to the door again and looked out on the fair night, opal pale,
and the long encampment, colorless light and dark shade under the moon.
Count Piper thought as he had never thought before on the eve of any of
the many battles at which he had been present, of the men sleeping now
for the last time, of the distant homes they would never see again, of
the Swedish blood that would water this arid soil to-morrow, and the
Swedish bones that would crumble into the dust of this lost country.
Already the camp was full of movement; the beautiful horses of the
Kalmucks and Cossacks could be seen moving among the tents, and here and
there the moonlight fell on the steel of cuirass or the bosses of
leather trappings, as the Swedish officers rode from one point to
another fulfilling General Rehnsköld’s orders.
Count Piper was preparing to go to his own tent for an hour’s rest, if
indeed his body could repose when his heart was so heavy, but a sudden
exclamation from the King startled him into turning.
Karl was sitting up, his right hand flung out and grasping his sword.
His face showed ghastly in the mingled lamp and moonlight, his wet hair
looked dark on his forehead, and his eyes were staring and congested
from fever.
“I thought I was being broken on the wheel,” he muttered in a low tone.
He tried to move, and the pulsing anguish the effort brought him made
him remember his crushed limb.
“Faugh!” he exclaimed, in a tone of angry disgust. The sword dropped
from his hand on to the earthen floor; he started, then peered at the
silent figure by the door.
“Is that the dawn, Piper?” he asked, in a quiet, natural voice.
“No, sire, the moon.”
“Send one to bid Neumann come and dress my wound. I would sooner be
abroad than abed to-night.”
“I, too, could not rest, sire.”
“There will be time enough to rest when we are in Poltava,” replied the
King; there was a note of wildness in his voice foreign to his
character; he seemed aware of this himself for he added fiercely: “Curse
this fever--I have Peter’s devils on me to-night. Fetch Neumann.”
Count Piper bowed and turned away.
Thus, without a word or handshake parted King and minister on the eve of
the Poltava fight.
CHAPTER III
For the second time the horses drawing the King’s litter were
killed--only three were left of the four-and-twenty guards who
accompanied him. Other soldiers hurried up, and began fastening fresh
horses to the litter.
“Make haste,” commanded Karl, “make haste.” It was the thick of the
battle; the beginning of the second attack which had begun at nine in
the morning.
The first battle had been successful for the Swedes with a fierce
onslaught of their famous cavalry; they had scattered the Muscovite
horsemen, and taken the outposts of the Russian camp; General Creutz,
however, who had been sent to reinforce the victors, lost his way, and
the Czar, having time to rally, drove back the Swedish cavalry and
captured Slippenbach, their general.
Karl was then about to send for his reserves that had been left with the
camp and baggage when, with a brilliant movement, Prince Mentchikoff
threw himself between the Swedes and Poltava, thus isolating the King’s
forces, and at the same time cutting to pieces a detachment that was
coming to his assistance.
Meanwhile the Muscovite infantry were advancing on the main body of the
Swedish army. When Karl heard of Mentchikoff’s exploit he could not
refrain from a bitter exclamation.
“Too well has he learnt from me the art of war!”
Quickly regaining his habitual composure he gave orders for a general
battle, arranging, as best he might, his diminished forces.
He had now only four pieces of cannon, and was beginning to lack
ammunition; Peter had at least 120 guns.
It was one of the first volleys from these that had killed the King’s
horses and guards.
Karl shivered with rage as his glance swept over the battle, and he
thought of the artillery that he had been obliged to abandon in the
marshes and forests of the Ukraine, either through the weather or
because the horses had perished, and he remembered with a pang the men
who had dropped from cold and hunger on those terrible marches.
It was burning hot as the sun rose higher into the pale cloudless sky;
the air was foul with dust and smoke, and full of curses, shouts, and
orders, and the irregular booming of the Russian guns.
Before the horses could be harnessed to the King’s litter, another
cannon-ball fell near; again several of the guards were killed and the
litter this time reversed, shattered to pieces, and flung on top of the
King who was cast on to the trampled ground.
Four of his officers dragged him from the ruins; he was covered with
dust and blood, and almost speechless.
The first line of the Swedes was beginning to fall back.
The swooning King perceived this, but he was almost past speech.
The Muscovite cannonade was so continuous and fierce that those about
the King thought of retreating also, to get their master to a place of
safety in the rear.
A stretcher was hastily constructed of pikes, and the King was raised
shoulder high.
He raised himself on his elbow and cried out for his sword which he had
dropped; they gave him this, and a pistol which he grasped in his left
hand.
His blue eyes, inflamed with rage and pain, shot a desperate glance over
the battle-field. On every side the Swedes were giving way; each line
falling back on the other, and the cavalry breaking at either wing.
“Swedes! Swedes!” cried the King.
Rallying his strength with a mighty effort he directed his bearers to
take him to the head of several regiments, mentioning these by name. But
it was too late; already everything was in irredeemable confusion;
General Poniatowski forced his way through the mêlée to the King, and
ordered the soldiers to take him to the rear.
Karl made a sign with his head that he would not go, but he could not
speak.
“Sire,” said Poniatowski, “the day is lost--Wurtemberg, Rehnsköld,
Hamilton, and Stackelberg are prisoners.”
It was doubtful if the King heard; he lay like one insensible, though
his blue eyes were open wide and staring through the battle-smoke.
They were now being hotly pursued by a charge with bayonets, pikes, and
swords; the intrepid Pole, though he held no rank in the Swedish army,
rallied some of the Swedish horse round the person of the King.
Some of those supporting him had fallen, and he lay on the ground.
Poniatowski dismounted and shouted to the King’s valet whom he saw
pressing close; the little band of horsemen, guards, officers, and
troopers, who did not number in all 500, but who were all that were left
to Karl of his hitherto invincible army, kept off the fierce attacks of
the Muscovites, while Poniatowski and the valet, with the help of a
horse soldier, got the King up and on to Poniatowski’s horse, a noble
dark Arab.
Karl did not speak a word; he had tried to mount a horse at the
beginning of the engagement, but had been unable to do so, and now the
agony of his wound, the shock of his fall, the passion of rage and grief
he was in, had so weakened him that he fainted twice while they were
getting him on to the charger.
At last it was accomplished, and the valet, mounting behind his master,
clasped him round his waist.
The anguish caused to his shattered foot by the movement of the horse
brought Karl to his senses; but he was incapable of anything; he had
dropped both his sword and pistol, and his head sank on to the breast of
the young man behind him.
In this manner did the Swedish cavaliers, fighting off the fierce
Muscovite attack every inch of the way, escort their unhappy master.
They had not reached their objective, the baggage camp (the other
Swedish camps being already in the hands of the Muscovites), when Karl’s
horse was killed under him; one of the officers with him, Colonel
Gierta, though sorely wounded himself, gave the King his mount, and
again with infinite difficulty Karl was helped into the saddle.
The little troop, fighting through ten Muscovite regiments, at length
brought the King to the baggage of the Swedish army.
The Russians were hotly pursuing them, and Poniatowski saw that a
moment’s delay might be fatal.
Among the baggage was the only carriage in the Swedish army, that of
Count Piper.
The King was helped into this and the Pole, who by tacit consent had
taken command of this band of fugitives, ordered a retreat with all
haste towards the Dnieper.
He and the valet, Frederic, entered the carriage with the King, and
supported him, as best they could, against the jolting on the rough
roads.
Karl had not spoken a word since Poniatowski had conducted him from the
field of battle; he now sat up, drew out his handkerchief, and wiped the
sweat and dirt from his face, at the same time glancing at the blood
that was soaking from his reopened wound on to the cushions and floor of
the carriage.
“Where is Count Piper?” he asked.
His voice and face were calm, but the ghastly hue of his usually fresh
and glowing face told of his intense suffering.
“Sire,” replied Poniatowski, “Count Piper is taken, with all the
ministers. He came out to look for your Majesty, and wandered into the
counterscarp of Poltava where they were taken prisoners by the
garrison.”
Karl gave not the least sign of emotion.
“And the Prince of Wurtemberg and General Rehnsköld?” he asked.
“They also are prisoners,” said Poniatowski mournfully.
The King shrugged his shoulders.
“Prisoners of the Russians!” he exclaimed. “Let us rather be prisoners
of the Turks!”
He said no more, and the flight towards the Dnieper was continued.
Another misfortune overtook the unhappy King; a wheel of the carriage
was wrenched off on the barbarous road, and there was no time to stop
and repair it; he was therefore obliged to continue his journey on
horseback.
The day was insufferably hot; they could find neither food nor water,
nor was there any prospect of obtaining any in this desolate country,
arid and uninhabited; several of the men were lost on the way or had
dropped with fatigue; only a small number remained with the King.
These, towards evening, lost themselves in a vast trackless wood that
was believed to stretch to the banks of the Dnieper.
Here, while they wandered about in the endeavor to find some road, the
King’s horse fell under him with fatigue, and no efforts could get Karl
any further.
Blood-stained and soiled with dust and powder, without food, drink, or
repose, maddened by the pain of his wound which increased with his
fatigue, his spirit tortured equally with his body by the agony of
defeat at the hands of the man he most hated, even the courage and
endurance of Karl could support him no longer, and though he was told
that the Muscovites were searching for him in this very wood, he made no
effort to move but crept under a great tree and lay there motionless.
Poniatowski put a horse-blanket under his head and sat beside him to
watch, together with the few horsemen who now comprised the royal
bodyguard.
As soon as the moon was up another body of fugitives, by rare good luck,
came up with them.
These were Cossacks, headed by their hetman, General Mazeppa.
From them the Swedes learnt some further particulars of the battle.
The Muscovites had taken everything; baggage, guns, stores, such as
there were, and the treasure consisting of 6,000,000 crowns in specie,
the remains of the spoils of Poland and Saxony, together with many
thousand men taken prisoners and many more slain.
Lewenhaupt, Mazeppa added, was flying towards the Dnieper with the
remainder of the army; and he himself, added the old Cossack chief, had
managed to bring away some mules laden with provisions, and a number of
carts loaded with silver and gold.
Karl did not hear this news, either good or bad; he lay in a swoon of
fatigue and pain, the moonbeams striking through the thick summer
foliage on to his low fair head and blood-stained uniform.
Mazeppa glanced at him; their mutual disaster was so complete that any
lamentation or even comment seemed grotesque.
The Prince said nothing, therefore, but with the fortitude that belonged
to his character and his mode of life, directed that the food and water
that he had brought with him should be distributed among the Swedes,
then lay down on the grass and slept.
The next day the painful march was continued, and a juncture effected
with Lewenhaupt on the banks of the Dnieper almost at the same moment as
news was received of the approach of the Muscovites.
Lewenhaupt’s men had not eaten for two days; they lacked powder,
provision--everything; they had no means of crossing the river.
But their spirit did not fail them; they had been the victors in a
hundred fights that even Poltava could not efface from their
remembrance, and there was not a man among them who did not believe
that, now their King had rejoined them, they would once more conquer, or
else completely perish, selling their lives dearly. But the man on whom
they relied was no longer the man who had led them to victory; Karl,
whose wound was become poisoned and who was in a violent fever,
unconscious of his actions, was hurried into a small boat that the army
had with it, and taken across the Dnieper with Mazeppa and his treasure,
which was afterwards obliged to be cast overboard to lighten the boat.
A few other craft having been found, a certain number of officers
managed to cross the river, but the desperate Cossacks who endeavored to
swim on horseback or on foot were all overwhelmed and drowned.
While the army was in this pass, Prince Mentchikoff, having found his
way by the broken bodies of the Swedes along the route, arrived and
called upon Lewenhaupt to surrender.
One colonel of this army that had been so long glorious hurled himself
with his troop at the ranks of the enemy, but Lewenhaupt bade him cease
his vain defiance.
It was all over now; everything was lost, even the chance of a glorious
and splendid death; several officers shot themselves, others leapt into
the waters of the Dnieper.
Lewenhaupt surrendered.
The remnant of that triumphant army that had so confidently marched out
of Saxony was now in the hands of the Russians; slaves henceforth who
might come to envy their compatriots who had perished of misery in the
forests of the Ukraine.
The news of the end of his nine years’ war was brought to Karl by the
last fugitives who were able to cross the Dnieper.
He seemed incapable of understanding what was taking place, but lay
silent in the poor carriage which was all that had been able to be
procured for him. Without food, save the scantiest, and almost entirely
without water, the little party traveled for five days across a desert
country until they arrived at Oczakow, the frontier town of the Ottoman
Empire.
The bureaucratic delays of the local officials hindered the progress of
the fugitives into Turkey.
All the able negotiations of Poniatowski were unavailing, and pending
the permission that was to come from the Pasha at Bender, the Swedes
were forced to take what boats they could lay their hands on and cross
the river Bug that lay between them and safety. The King and his
immediate suite reached the opposite shore, but 500 men, the bulk of his
little army, were captured by the pursuing Muscovites, whose cries of
triumph echoed in the ears of the flying King.
So, sick, penniless, without hope or resource, his glory shattered in a
day, his prestige gone forever, Karl XII entered Turkey, to throw
himself on the mercy of the infidel.
CHAPTER IV
Peter Alexievitch now found himself in the position hitherto occupied by
his rival.
The army that had foiled and humbled him ever since Narva was no longer
in existence; the terrible Karl was in exile, without allies and with
nothing to rely on but the exhausted resources of a distant and
dispirited country.
The astute minister, Piper, the dreaded generals, Rehnsköld, Lewenhaupt,
Wurtemberg, were all prisoners.
The Czar in one day had won the fruits of nine years of toil. More than
half the Swedes were slain or slaves and there was no one to prevent his
claiming the disputed Baltic Provinces.
Of the Poles he had no fear; he knew that Stanislaus could not stand
without Karl, and that, if he had a mind, he might set up Augustus
again.
In brief, he had made himself, in one battle, Arbiter of North Europe.
It was possible that Karl might endeavor to inflame Turkey into a
revival of her old quarrel with him; but he had the remembrance of Azov
to render him confident of mastering the Turks.
Not that it was in his nature to think and act other than prudently.
He had not begun this war for glory nor fought any battle for display,
but always with the idea of some solid advantage, of taking some step
towards the attainment of his final objective--the raising of Russia to
a great place among the nations of the world.
The building of St. Petersburg and Kronstadt had already shown his
intention of making his empire not Eastern but Western, and he had now
demonstrated that he had mastered the art of war sufficiently to defeat
utterly the greatest captain of the age.
He was not unduly elated at this success which was so much more than he
had dared to hope for.
At first he had thought the Poltava battle lost; he had been in the
thick of the fight and twice a ball had pierced his hat; perhaps Karl
himself was no more surprised than Peter at the final issue of the
combat.
The Czar’s manner of celebrating his victory was at once generous and
savage.
He treated the Swedish generals with courtesy and consideration,
drinking their health as “My masters in the art of war,” but the
Cossacks and Kalmucks were broken on the wheel and the Swedish soldiers
sent as slaves to Siberia.
He would have liked to have taken Karl, not from pride, but because he
wished to know personally so remarkable a man, and he wished to capture
the old hetman of the Cossacks that he might impale him alive.
“I wonder Sweden tolerates such a villain near him,” he exclaimed. “It
must have been by his advice he came into the Ukraine.”
He spoke to his two generals, Mentchikoff and Alexis Golowin, as he took
his ease after dinner in the fortress of Poltava.
“Sweden is insane,” said Mentchikoff calmly. “No man in his senses would
have come so far from his base.”
“Nor turned into the Ukraine without guides or provisions,” added
Golowin.
Peter made no reply; leaning against the frame of the open window he
stared out into the sunny, dusty courtyard.
He was now thirty-six years of age and had lost all the bloom of youth;
he was getting stout and his excesses had left their mark on his face,
which, though still soft and handsome, was lined and swollen and an
unhealthy color.
The thick locks were tinged with gray and his eyebrows and lips twitched
with incipient disease.
He was now unbuttoned because of the heat; his green coat was
grease-stained, his linen soiled.
In his right hand, coarsened by manual labor, he held a glass full of
some sweet liquid round which the flies buzzed.
A star of the purest brilliants hung by a common ribbon from one of his
buttonholes, which gleamed as his breast rose and fell with his heavy
breathing.
The two generals were magnificent in satin coats, perukes, stars, and
laces, but neither had clean hands or linen.
The air was heavy with the odors of the sour, greasy Russian cooking and
the smell of brandy.
The room was roughly and coarsely furnished, but a valuable ikon hung in
one corner adorned with pigeon blood rubies and still garlanded with the
wreaths of wax fruit from the Easter offerings.
Peter’s thoughts were far away.
He was not dwelling on the personal advantages likely to accrue to him
from this great victory, nor even on its military aspect; he was
thinking that now at last he could secure his Baltic ports and gain for
Russia that enormous trade once in the hands of, and so jealously
guarded by, the Hansa League. The Russians, long treated as barbarians
by the industrious and crafty Germans, had sold their goods to the great
Hansa station at Novgorod always at a great loss, despite their
persistent efforts to cheat, or bartered them for the English and
Flemish cloths which could have been made in Russia.
Peter, who admired as much as he disliked the Germans, intended now that
the Russian woods, metals, furs, wax, and honey should be traded direct
with Europe.
He meant also to get the trade with Asia, and by this
intercommunication with nations to teach arts and crafts to his own
people. While he drunk his kvas, regardless of the circling flies, and
stared absently into the sunny courtyard, Golowin and Mentchikoff were
discussing the present plight of Karl XII.
The fugitive King had gone to Bender in Bessarabia, and was being
treated with generous courtesy by the Porte.
He was, however, for all the pomp that surrounded him, nothing but a
prisoner, and it was doubtful if, even had he wished, he could have left
Turkey.
“He will give no further trouble,” remarked Prince Golowin.
But Mentchikoff was not of this opinion.
“A man of those lion-like qualities,” he said, “is not so easily
subdued.”
“He may not be,” replied the other shrewdly, “but without resources he
can do nothing.”
Peter turned his head and listened to this conversation.
“How many men has Sweden with him?” he asked, setting down his glass.
“They do not know, Peter Alexievitch,” replied Mentchikoff, “but it
cannot be many--only those fugitives who contrived to escape across the
frontier.”
“No one of importance?”
“Not beyond Poniatowski, Müllern, his chancellor, and a few
officers--and the old Mazeppa,” said Mentchikoff.
At the mention of the hetman of the Cossacks Peter’s face twitched with
fury.
“May the devil overtake that ancient traitor,” he cried, “and roast him
to all eternity!”
He did not care to dwell on the thought of the escape of this rebel, who
had indeed behaved with ingratitude and falsity to the monarch who had
so warmly befriended and protected him.
Without any more words he left the room and went to the apartments of
his wife, who accompanied him on all his campaigns.
He intended soon to marry her publicly and proclaim her as Czarina.
Not that Katherina had ever demanded this of him (indeed she had not
expected him to marry her at all), but to please his own passion for
this woman, who still continued to entirely please his curious fancy.
There were those who believed that if she had had a living child he
could have disinherited Prince Alexis in favor of the offspring of
Katherina, since the heir was not only the son of a disgraced and
imprisoned mother, but showed already strong reactionary tendencies
towards the barbaric customs Peter was so painfully eliminating from
Russia.
Katherina was now clothed in Western fashion; a tight bodice and full
skirt of blue silk, a pearl necklace, and her hair rolled into long
curls.
She was now very stout, and her teeth were ruined through eating
sweetmeats; her complexion was greasy, and her hands ill kept; she had
acquired no air of dignity, but an expression of complete good nature
showed still on her handsome features.
A Tartar maidservant with Asiatic features was seated on a scarlet
cushion, singing as she worked a piece of orange and gold embroidery on
a frame.
Peter spoke to neither but seated himself on the low covered chair
beside his wife who knew better than to speak to him when he was silent.
The little maid, with an unchanged countenance, continued singing, in a
low, melancholy, and monotonous voice, an old Tartar song:
The gentle baby died, mother, died when it was born.
He will never saddle horse, mother, nor eat the cakes of corn,
Or ride before his soldiers in the glory of the morn,
Nor chase the bitter tiger or the fleet and lovely fawn.
The gentle baby died, mother, died when he was born.
Peter stared at the singer, as if fascinated by her flat, brown face.
Katherina was not thinking of the song nor of him; it was very hot and
she was almost asleep in her comfortable chair.
They wrapped him in a silken swaith and in a golden shawl,
And laid him ’mid the tulips, him the fairest of them all.
I saw him as a chieftain, magnificent and tall,
Riding red from combat or playing of the ball.
They wrapped him in a silken swaith and in a golden shawl.
And I am left so lonely, all in the twilight clear,
A-holding of my bosom where lay my tender dear,
A-watching of the tent door when the first stars appear,
Crying for my baby in the great desert near.
And I am left so lonely, all in the twilight clear.
Katherina glanced rather uneasily at the Czar; she had hoped that now he
had achieved this great victory he would be less moody and melancholy.
Even her placid good-humor did not always find Peter easy to manage;
sometimes her ease-loving temperament was inclined to regret the days of
her comfortable prosperity with Prince Mentchikoff.
“The King of Sweden has not been captured?” she asked gently.
“Nay, he crossed the Bug and is safe in Turkey, flattered by the
Sultan.”
“Well, he will trouble you no more,” said Katherina pleasantly.
The little Tartar maid rose and crept away, with a furtive look at the
terrible Czar.
“I do not know,” replied Peter. “He is a very able man. But I think I
have secured the Baltic Provinces.”
Leaning forward with a sudden eagerness he began discoursing of this
Baltic Empire and what the acquisition of it would mean to Russia, what
she could do when she commanded the town and gulf of Riga and all the
islands, of the new naval base of Kronstadt, and the new arts and
sciences already beginning to flourish in St. Petersburg.
As he spoke, his rough voice, suffused face, and swollen eyes became
inspired; he forgot the ignorant woman to whom he spoke, and declaimed
as if he was before a nation of men.
All that he said Katherina had heard before; she, who was not able to
read or write, was not interested as to whether Esthonia, Livonia and
Lithuania were in the hands of the Czar or not. As for his new city, she
preferred Moscow to the new buildings that had risen on the marshes of
the Neva.
It seemed to her a thing sufficiently tremendous to be Czar of Russia,
and in her heart she wished that Peter would leave his ambitions and be
content with the greatness he already had.
She was slightly disappointed that he was not satisfied with the great
success he had just gained; she had hoped that when Karl was defeated
Peter would enjoy the greatness and power he possessed in that peace and
quiet and comfortable pomp that were her ideals of happiness.
Therefore a certain weariness came over her at hearing him once more
expound the schemes she had never understood and now was tired of; even
his project of making himself Emperor of All the Russias and her his
Empress did not excite her; ease and tranquillity were what this lazy
woman wanted, and she would sooner have been left in a secure obscurity
than be dragged forward to a dubious and perhaps dangerous greatness.
Peter, talking vehemently and absorbed in these matters so near his
heart, rose and began to walk up and down the room without noticing
Katherina.
And she, half dozing, did not trouble to reply, but began to nod in her
chair.
The Czar, suddenly turning to enforce some point, saw her heavy attitude
and half-closed eyes; as he stared at her she yawned.
Peter instantly flamed into terrible wrath.
“Ah!” he cried. “You sleep while I talk, eh?”
She sat up at once, wide-awake and pale.
“I heard every word you said, Peter Alexievitch,” she stammered.
“You lie,” returned the Czar fiercely, “but what does it matter if you
heard or no? It was all beyond your pitiful understanding.”
Katherina began to whimper.
“I have always been faithful,” she murmured, twisting her plump hands
together.
Peter looked at her with contempt.
Anger would sometimes give him a clear-sighted vision of the creature
who had so long infatuated him; he saw her now as a stupid peasant
woman, and despised himself for the dominion she had over him.
His anger dropped to gloom.
“It is not your fault, but mine,” he said, “for putting you where you
are.”
Katherina, grateful that his wrath had passed, dared not risk inflaming
him by another word, but sat meekly pulling at the folds of her blue
silk skirt.
Peter shrugged his shoulders and left her abruptly; his mood had been
crossed and he had no wish for the company even of Mentchikoff, who was,
like Katherina, a creature of his own creating, and accordingly
sometimes despised by the Czar, who, despite his Western reforms,
remained Eastern in his ideas of autocracy and his own almost divine
power and privileges.
He went heavily downstairs, called for his horse and rode, alone, round
the counterscarp of Poltava.
Karl would molest him no more--North Europe lay open to his armies; he
could pull Stanislaus down as quickly as he had been set up, and put
whatever puppet he chose on the throne of Poland.
He had accomplished his army, his navy, his port, his capital--and yet
in his half-savage heart was still this brooding melancholy, this
lingering dissatisfaction.
His own cruelties, his own excesses, seemed even to himself to mar his
triumph.
The wife and the friend he had chosen dragged him down and he knew it,
yet he could have no more avoided them than the diseases that hampered
his body and clouded his brain.
He reined up his beautiful black Arab on the ramparts and gazed across
the plain where he had broken Karl XII.
And even at that moment he felt a half-wistful envy of the man whom he
had vanquished--the man who could conquer himself.
PART III
EXILE
“Que craignez-vous encore? Dieu e moi nous sommes toujours
vivants.”--_Medal of Karl XII._
CHAPTER I
Nearly four years after the battle of Poltava on a cold clear day of
early spring the Pasha, who was governor of the Turkish province of
Bender, turned sadly away, followed by his suite, from three stone
houses, strange in structure and design, that stood near the village of
Varnitza, near the banks of the Dniester.
These houses had been recently built by the King of Sweden, whose camp
in Bender had been threatened by floods.
One was occupied by the King himself, one by his friend Grothusen, and
the third by his ministers, and these plain buildings looking so
incongruous in the eastern landscape, had become an eyesore and a terror
to the Porte.
Ever since Karl had flung himself on the mercy of the Turks, sooner than
fall into the hands of Peter, intrigue and counter-intrigue had
distracted the Ottoman government.
Count Poniatowski, able, subtle, and tireless, had used every art to
persuade the Sultan to take up arms for the defeated King, and the
Muscovites had done their best to check him at every turn.
Viziers had risen and fallen, plots had become complicated and bitter,
war had been declared on Russia, peace made, war declared again, then
peace once more, and finally the Sultan had wearied of his guest, and
every effort was made to induce Karl to return to his own country.
After long and involved negotiations Karl had consented to go if his
expenses were paid; more than the sum asked for had been sent him
thankfully by Ahmed II, but Karl, after receiving the money, had again
refused to depart, alleging that he suspected a plot to deliver him into
the hands of his enemies.
Even Eastern hospitality was now exhausted, and on Karl’s cool demand
for more money an order came from the Sultan that if he would not go
willingly he was to be moved from Turkish territory by force.
It was this order that the Governor of Bender, grieved to his courteous
soul by the turn of events, had just delivered to Karl, without making
the least impression.
Four years of what was in truth but an honorable captivity, of idleness
and exile, had by no means lowered the lofty spirit or softened the hard
obstinacy of the King of Sweden. Through all the ramifications of the
intrigues of which the Porte was the center, his one purpose had
remained clear and unshaken.
He wanted an army to lead against Peter, and latterly he wanted the
punishment of Mahomet Baltadgi, the vizier who had let the Czar escape
with the easy terms of the Peace of Pruth.
While Ismail Pasha was galloping, a thing unusual in a Turk, away from
Varnitza with the news of the King’s obstinacy to the Khan of the
Tartars who, conjointly with him, had received the Sultan’s orders, he
met M. Fabrice, the envoy of the Duke of Holstein, who had his residence
with Karl, and reined up his sweating steed.
“What news, Ismail Pasha?” asked M. Fabrice anxiously.
The Turk’s expression was mingled grief and indignation; he knew that
this affair might cost him his place and perhaps his life, since he had
given the twelve hundred pieces to the Swedes trusting to their honor to
depart.
“Your King will not listen to reason,” he replied, “and we shall see
strange things.”
M. Fabrice rode on through the sunny afternoon and, by the time he
reached the camp at Varnitza, found that the Governor was carrying out
already the instructions brought him that day by the Sultan’s grand
equerry. The guard of janissaries that had attended Karl during his
exile had been removed, the supply of provisions stopped, and all the
followers of the King told that if they wished for food they must leave
the Swedes and go to the town of Bender.
Consequently, M. Fabrice met a stream of Poles and Cossacks, hastening
from the village of Varnitza, and the huts and tents they had raised
round the King’s house, to put themselves under the protection of the
Porte.
The heart of M. Fabrice sank; long and weary had been the exile, bitter
the hope deferred, the suspense, the waiting, fatiguing, the long
idleness to those used to an active life, deadening this suspension of
all part in the affairs of Europe, and he for one could not understand
why Karl should have preferred to prolong such a life sooner than take
his part in the politics of the world, nor how he could have so long
permitted himself to be misled by the chimera of Turkish assistance.
Sadly he went to the King’s house; the domestics were depressed, the
Swedish soldiers eyed with gloomy contempt the departing crowd of
Russians and Poles, as if they regretted the good food that these
people, so worthless in the hour of need, had for so long consumed.
The King had just risen from the table, and it was in his ante-chamber
that M. Fabrice found him.
Poniatowski was still at Constantinople, endeavoring to serve Karl by
his endless intrigues among the ministers and favorites of the Sultan,
but the rest of Karl’s few faithful friends were with him, as if they
all took counsel together.
There was M. Grothusen and the Baron Görtz who between them had taken
the place of Count Piper, now miserably dead in Russia, General Hord,
and General Dahldorf, and Colonel Gierta, who had saved Karl’s life at
Poltava, and several other officers and ministers together with the
King’s chaplain, and another Lutheran priest.
The house, contrary to the King’s tastes, was furnished magnificently,
to impress the Turks who were not apt to respect a monarch entirely
without pomp, and this room was richly hung with silken tapestry,
covered with Persian carpets, and filled with Eastern and European
furniture of costly material and pattern.
All of this had been bought out of the Turkish bounty, which had been
generously lavished on Karl until these disputes about his departure
arose, and only lately withdrawn; Karl was now subsisting on borrowing
the money his reckless munificence had enriched his friends with, and
raising loans at 50 per cent from Jew and English bankers in
Constantinople.
Karl was seated in an ebony chair with sapphire-blue velvet cushions;
his own dress was unchanged; he was booted, spurred, wore a black
taffeta cravat, and no peruke but his own hair, now close-cropped and
scanty on the forehead.
He had never altered the stern austerity of his life, nor his rigorous
exercises, and was in perfect health and superb strength.
He was now thirty-two years of age, and his noble face, unlined, and
fresh and clear in color, still had the look of extreme youth; his
figure was heavier but yet active and graceful, he had hardly reached
the flower of his strength, and began to show the magnificent
proportions of a Viking, deep-chested, long-limbed, strong, without
being coarse, and powerful, without being clumsy.
Adversity had given him neither a sense of humor, gentleness, nor
gaiety, yet in some way he was more attractive than he had been, and the
uncomplaining fortitude with which he had endured his cruel fortune
inspired a noble pity in the hearts of brave men.
Not by a hair-breadth had he deviated from the code of pride, of honor,
and endurance that he had followed when North Europe trembled at his
feet, nor in any way faltered from the serenity that had been his when
his conquests had dazzled mankind.
Nor was his obstinacy, a less admirable virtue, in any way abated, as
his present attitude showed.
M. Fabrice found that the generals and ministers were engaged in
persuading the King to abandon the design of opposing to the utmost the
wishes of the Sultan.
Karl’s blue eyes, that had more fire than formerly, glanced at once at
the new-comer.
“Ah, M. Fabrice,” he said, “have you come to join your prayers to those
of these gentlemen who want me to run away?”
The envoy from Holstein did not know what to say; despite what he had
heard from Ismail Pasha, and his knowledge of the character of Karl, he
could hardly believe that the King meant to make an armed resistance
with 300 men against 26,000, which was the number of the Tartars and
Turks in Bender.
“God knows,” broke out Councilor Müllern, with tears in his eyes. “Your
Majesty does not need to prove your courage to the world, and it would
be a nobler part to submit.”
“Submit! submit!” repeated the King angrily. “You tire me with words!”
General Hord, who had fought by Karl’s side at Poltava, and who was
still maimed as a result of his wounds, now addressed the King.
“Sire,” he asked, “will you condemn to a miserable death, at the hands
of the infidel, these poor Swedes, the remnant of your victories?”
“I know, by those victories, that you know how to obey,” replied the
King sternly. “Till now you have done your duty, General Hord--continue
to do it to-day.”
M. Fabrice now found his voice.
“Sire,” he said, “I was with the Khan, and on leaving him met Ismail
Pasha; from what I learnt it is but too true that they have received
orders from the Porte that every Swede who resists is to be slain, even
to your Majesty!”
“Have you seen this order?” demanded the King quietly.
“Yes,” replied M. Fabrice, “the Khan showed it to me.”
“Well,” said Karl, “tell them from me that I give another order--and
that is that no Swede leaves Bender.”
M. Fabrice was in despair; he glanced at the sad faces of Karl’s
faithful friends who had suffered such pains and hardships for him, and
he felt it was unendurable that all should end in a useless death.
He fell on his knees, grasping the skirts of the King’s coat.
“For the sake of these others, sire, who are all that are left to you,
out of so many who have perished for your sake----”
“Get up, M. Fabrice,” said Karl kindly, “and return to your lodging.
There is no need for you to remain to share my fortune.”
M. Fabrice sprang to his feet, angry and agitated.
“This obstinacy is not worthy, sire. You have no right to fling away so
many lives for a whim!”
Karl only smiled; he was not easily angry with M. Fabrice.
Holstein-Gottorp had always been specially under his protection, nor had
he ever forgotten the young Duke for whose sake he had first gone to war
and who had been killed at his side.
It was his nature to be most tenaciously faithful to any cause or
friendship he had once undertaken, and he had never faltered in his
resolve to uphold the rights of his brother-in-law; he intended to make
the little orphan Duke, his elder sister’s son, his heir, and to that
end kept M. Fabrice near him, and gave him as much of his confidence as
he accorded to any man.
Therefore he endured calmly the reproaches, the anger, and the pleadings
of the excited envoy who was listened to with approval by the others,
yet they, who had tried the like arguments in vain, had little hope from
the eloquence of M. Fabrice.
All, as the listeners had foreseen, was useless.
“Return to your Turks,” smiled the King. “If they attack me, I shall
know how to defend myself.”
M. Fabrice had not the heart to reply, and in the little silence that
followed the King’s speech, Jeffreys, the English minister, entered the
chamber.
He advanced and kissed the King’s hand with the air of one bringing good
news; he also had been trying his good offices with the Khan, and had
obtained this favor--that an express should be sent to Adrianople, where
the Sultan then was, to demand if in reality extreme measures were to be
taken against the King of Sweden, and in the meanwhile permission to
allow provisions to be sent to the King.
Karl received this very coldly.
“You are a voluntary mediator, sir,” he said. “I ask for no favor at the
hands of the Sultan.”
“Nor did I, sire,” replied the Englishman. “But it is possible that the
Porte may repent of the delayed severity of these orders, and in any
case this gives your Majesty time to leave with dignity.”
“M. Jeffreys,” remarked the King, with freezing coldness, “as you leave
my house you will see my entrenchments.”
“Can it be possible----” began the minister.
“Sir,” interrupted the King, “more things are possible than you may
dream of. I do not want your mediation. Nor do I want the provisions of
the Turks. What I need I can pay for.”
The Englishman, who, in common with every man present, had lent the King
money and knew the difficulty Poniatowski had in raising forced loans in
Constantinople, thought this pride as ill-timed as the King’s obstinacy,
but he knew that it was in keeping with Karl’s character, and that he
did not speak out of flaunting vanity but from that superb disregard of
money that he had always possessed; gold and human life, worldly
dignities, and common prudence had alike been always too utterly
disregarded by the King of Sweden.
“I will mingle no more in the affairs of a monarch so inflexible,” said
the Englishman, with a slight smile, as he prepared to retire.
“A wise resolution, M. Jeffreys,” replied the King gravely.
The clergy now essayed to attempt what ministers and soldiers had alike
failed to effect.
Karl’s chaplain, coming forward, addressed him in stern tones.
“Has your Majesty considered how long and generously these Turks have
succored you? What Christianity is it that so rudely returns such
generosity? Have you considered your poor subjects who yet hope, after
these weary years of wandering and of exile, to see their homes?”
In this the chaplain was seconded by some other pastors who threw
themselves on their knees before the King.
Karl started to his feet; though the discipline of the Lutheran religion
was peculiarly suited to his temperament, and the observance of its
rules had always been a factor in his success, still there was little of
the fanatic in him, and his long sojourn in Turkey had induced a
considerable indifference towards Christianity in the heart of one who
had always admired pagan virtues and pagan heroes.
He therefore viewed with real anger the interference of these pastors
whose appearance at the conference he had hitherto hardly noticed.
His face flushed, and his blue eyes darkened ominously.
On the heads of the clergy broke all the anger the other remonstrants
had failed to provoke.
“I keep you,” he said, with cutting anger, “to say prayers, and not to
give me advice.”
With that and a general glance of contempt for the entire company he
left the chamber, and the only man who dared follow him was Baron Görtz,
a man of a spirit akin to his own.
“I wish Poniatowski was here--he might do something,” remarked Grothusen
despondently.
“Not an angel of God could do anything,” said the chaplain, who, in
common with the other clergy, found himself in the ridiculous position
of rising from his knees in front of an empty chair.
“He will be massacred!” cried General Hord in despair.
“We shall all be massacred,” said Müllern. “How long do you think 300
men will resist 26,000?”
“I know,” put in Colonel Gierta, “that the King will suffer the roof to
be pulled over his head sooner than surrender.”
“The Sultan may grant a respite,” suggested M. Fabrice.
But Grothusen shook his head.
“His patience has been too greatly tried--and the vizier dare not risk
our presence here long.”
“But Poniatowski may do something,” urged Müllern, who had much
confidence in the tireless and resourceful Pole.
The words had hardly left his lips before several shots rang out, and
all started to their feet, thinking this the signal for an attack on the
house.
But immediately after, Neumann, the King’s surgeon, entered.
“The King is having all the Arab chargers given him by the Sultan shot,”
he announced, “and the carcases flung to the Tartar troops.”
The Swedes were silent.
In their hearts they knew there was no excuse for Karl’s behavior, and
that reason, right, and justice were all on the side of the Sultan, who
had from the first been forbearing, chivalrous, and generous to a
stranger whom he neither liked nor understood, and who had been the
cause of much annoyance to him and of many distractions in his court.
Yet they all loved Karl, who till the days of his exile had awakened
little affection in any heart, and who now exhibited few lovable
qualities.
But his unyielding determination, his iron inflexibility, his austere
life, his high ideals of heroic virtues had inspired a feeling that was
almost reverence in the hearts of those who had shared his dreary exile.
And in this bitter pass to which his obstinacy had brought them it was
not of themselves they thought, but of the King--it was his peril, not
their own, that forced the tears to their eyes.