At last Charles arrives on the borders of the Boristhenes, at a small town called Mohilow. This was the important spot where it was to be determined, whether he should direct his march eastward, towards Moscow; or southwards, towards the Ukraine. His own army, his friends, his enemies, all expected that he would direct his course immediately for the capital of Russia. Which ever way he took, Peter was following him from Smolensko with a strong army; no one expected that he would turn towards the Ukraine. He was induced to take this strange resolution by Mazeppa, hetman of the Cossacks, who, being an old man of seventy and without children, ought to have thought only of ending his days in peace: gratitude should have bound him to the czar, to whom he was indebted for his present dignity; but whether he had any real cause of complaint against that prince, or that he was dazzled with the lustre of Charles's exploits, or whether, in time, he thought to make himself independent, he betrayed his benefactor, and privately espoused the interests of the king of Sweden, flattering himself with the hopes of engaging his whole nation in a rebellion with himself.
Charles made not the least doubt of subduing the Russian empire, as soon as his troops should be joined by so warlike a people as the Cossacks. Mazeppa was to furnish him with what provisions, ammunition, and artillery, he should want; besides these powerful succours, he was to be joined by an army of sixteen or seventeen thousand men, out of Livonia, under the command of general Levenhaupt, who was to bring with him a prodigious quantity of warlike stores and provisions. Charles was not at the trouble of reflecting, whether the czar was within reach of attacking the army, and depriving him of these necessary supplies. He never informed himself whether Mazeppa was in a condition to observe his promises; if that Cossack had credit enough to change the disposition of a whole nation, who are generally guided only by their own opinion; or whether his army was provided with sufficient resources in case of an accident; but imagined, if Mazeppa should prove deficient in abilities or fidelity, he could trust in his own valour and good fortune. The Swedish army then advanced beyond the Boristhenes towards the Desna; it was between these two rivers, that he expected to meet with Mazeppa. His march was attended with many difficulties and dangers, on account of the badness of the road, and the many parties of Russians that were hovering about these regions.
Sept. 11.] Menzikoff, at the head of some horse and foot, attacked the king's advanced guard, threw them into disorder, and killed a number of his men. He lost a great number of his own, indeed, but that did not discourage him. Charles immediately hastened to the field of battle, and with some difficulty repulsed the Russians, at the hazard of his own life, by engaging a party of dragoons, by whom he was surrounded. All this while Mazeppa did not appear, and provisions began to grow scarce. The Swedish soldiers, seeing their king share in all their dangers, fatigues, and wants, were not dispirited; but though they admired his courage, they could not refrain from murmuring at his conduct.
The orders which the king had sent to Levenhaupt to march forward with all haste, to join him with the necessary supplies, were not delivered by twelve days so soon as they should have been. This was a long delay as circumstances then stood. However, Levenhaupt at length began his march; Peter suffered him to pass the Boristhenes, but as soon as his army was got between that river and the lesser ones, which empty themselves into it, he crossed over after him, and attacked him with his united forces, which had followed in different corps at equal distances from one another. This battle was fought between the Boristhenes and the Sossa.[75]
Prince Menzikoff was upon his return with the same body of horse, with which he had lately engaged Charles XII. General Baur followed him, and the czar himself headed the flower of his army. The Swedes imagined they had to deal with an army of forty thousand men, and the same was believed for a long time on the faith of their relation; but my late memoirs inform me, that Peter had only twenty thousand men in this day's engagement, a number not much superior to that of the enemy: but his vigour, his patience, his unwearied perseverance, together with that of his troops, animated by his presence, decided the fate, not of that day only, but of three successive days, during which the fight was renewed at different times.
They made their first attack upon the rear of the Swedish army, near the village of Lesnau, from whence this battle borrows its name. This first shock was bloody, without proving decisive. Levenhaupt retreated into a wood, and thereby saved his baggage. (Oct. 7.) The next morning, when the Swedes were to be driven from this wood, the fight was still more bloody, and more to the advantage of the Russians. Here it was that the czar, seeing his troops in disorder, cried out to fire upon the runaways, and even upon himself, if they saw him turn back. The Swedes were repulsed, but not thrown into confusion.
At length a reinforcement of four thousand dragoons arriving, he fell upon the Swedes a third time; who retreated to a small town called Prospock, where they were again attacked; they then marched towards the Desna, the Russians still pursuing them: yet they were never broken, but lost upwards of eight thousand men, seventeen pieces of cannon, and forty-four colours: the czar took fifty-six officers and near nine hundred private men prisoners; and the great convoy of provisions and ammunition that were going to Charles's army, fell into the hands of the conqueror.
This was the first time that the czar in person gained a pitched battle, against an enemy who had distinguished himself by so many victories over his troops: he was employed in a general thanksgiving for his success, when he received advice that general Apraxin had lately gained an advantage over the enemy in Ingria, (Sept. 17,) some leagues from Narva, an advantage less considerable indeed than that of Lesnau; but this concurrence of fortunate events greatly raised the hopes and courage of his troops.
Charles XII. heard of these unfortunate tidings just as he was ready to pass the Desna, in the Ukraine. Mazeppa at length joined him; but instead of twenty thousand men, and an immense quantity of provisions, which he was to have brought with him, he came with only two regiments, and appeared rather like a fugitive applying for assistance, than a prince, who was bringing powerful succours to his ally. This Cossack had indeed begun his march with near fifteen or sixteen thousand of his people, whom he had told, at their first setting out, that they were going against the king of Sweden; that they would have the glory of stopping that hero on his march, and that he would hold himself eternally obliged to them for so great a service.
But when they came within a few leagues of the Desna, he made them acquainted with his real design. These brave people received his declaration with disdain: they refused to betray a monarch, against whom they had no cause of complaint, for the sake of a Swede, who had invaded their country with an armed force, and who, after leaving it, would be no longer able to defend them, but must abandon them to the mercy of the incensed Russians, and of the Poles, once their masters, and always their enemies: they accordingly returned home, and gave advice to the czar of the defection of their chief: Mazeppa found himself left with only two regiments, the officers of which were in his own pay.