The old boyards listened to this speech with greater regret for the abolition of their ancient customs, than admiration of their master's glory; but the young ones could not hear him without tears of joy.
The splendour of these times were further heightened by the return of the Russian ambassadors from Constantinople, (Sept. 15, 1714.) with a confirmation of the peace with the Turks: an ambassador sent by Sha Hussein from Persia, had arrived some time before with a present to the czar of an elephant and five lions. He received, at the same time, an ambassador from Mahomet Babadir, khan of the Usbeck Tartars, requesting his protection against another tribe of Tartars; so that both extremities of Asia and Europe seemed to join to offer him homage, and add to his glory.
The regency of Stockholm, driven to despair by the desperate situation of their affairs, and the absence of their sovereign, who seemed to have abandoned his dominions, had come to a resolution no more to consult him in relation to their proceedings; and, immediately after the victory the czar gained over their navy, they sent to the conqueror to demand a passport, for an officer charged with proposals of peace. The passport was sent; but, just as the person appointed to carry on the negotiation was on the point of setting out, the princess Ulrica Eleonora, sister to Charles XII. received advice from the king her brother, that he was preparing, at length, to quit Turkey, and return home to fight his own battles. Upon this news the regency did not dare to send the negotiator (whom they had already privately named) to the czar; and, therefore, resolved to support their ill-fortune till the arrival of Charles to retrieve it.
In effect, Charles, after a stay of five years and some months in Turkey, set out from that kingdom in the latter end of October, 1714. Every one knows that he observed the same singularity in his journey, which characterized all the actions of his life. He arrived at Stralsund the 22d of November following. As soon as he got there, baron de Gortz came to pay his court to him; and, though he had been the instrument of one part of his misfortunes, yet he justified his conduct with so much art, and filled the imagination of Charles with such flattering hopes, that he gained his confidence, as he had already done that of every other minister and prince with whom he had entered into any negotiations. In short, he made him believe, that means might be found to draw off the czar's allies, and thereby procure an honourable peace, or at least to carry on the war upon an equal footing; and from this time Gortz gained a greater ascendancy over the mind of the king of Sweden than ever count Piper had.
The first thing which Charles did after his arrival at Stralsund was to demand a supply of money from the citizens of Stockholm, who readily parted with what little they had left, as not being able to refuse any thing to a king, who asked only to bestow, who lived as hard as the meanest soldier, and exposed his life equally in defence of his country. His misfortunes, his captivity, his return to his dominions, so long deprived of his presence, were arguments which prepossessed alike his own subjects and foreigners in his favour, who could not forbear at once to blame and admire, to compassionate and to assist him. His reputation was of a kind totally differing from that of Peter the Great: it consisted not in cherishing the arts and sciences, in enacting laws, in establishing a form of government, nor in introducing commerce among his subjects; it was confined entirely to his own person. He placed his chief merit in a valour superior to what is commonly called courage. He defended his dominions with a greatness of soul equal to that valour, and aimed only to inspire other nations with awe and respect for him: hence he had more partizans than allies.
[CHAP. XXV.]
State of Europe at the return of Charles XII. Siege of Stralsund.
When Charles XII. returned to his dominions in the year 1714, he found the state of affairs in Europe very different from that in which he had left them. Queen Anne of England was dead, after having made peace with France. Lewis XIV. had secured the monarchy of Spain for his grandson the duke of Anjou, and had obliged the emperor Charles VI. and the Dutch to agree to a peace, which their situation rendered necessary to them; so that the affairs of Europe had put on altogether a new face.
Those of the north had undergone a still greater change. Peter was become sole arbiter in that part of the world: the elector of Hanover, who had been called to fill the British throne, had views of extending his territories in Germany, at the expense of Sweden, who had never had any possessions in that country, but since the reign of the great Gustavus. The king of Denmark aimed at recovering Scania, the best province of Sweden, which had formerly belonged to the Danes. The king of Prussia, as heir to the dukes of Pomerania, laid claim to a part of that province. On the other hand, the Holstein family, oppressed by the king of Denmark, and the duke of Mecklenburg, almost at open war with his subjects, were suing to Peter the Great to take them under his protection. The king of Poland, elector of Saxony, was desirous to have the duchy of Courland annexed to Poland; so that, from the Elbe to the Baltic Sea, Peter the First was considered as the support of the several crowned heads, as Charles XII. had been their greatest terror.