This procession was accompanied by the ringing of all the bells in Moscow, by the sound of drums, kettle-drums and trumpets, and an infinite number of musical instruments, echoing each other. Volleys were discharged from 200 cannon, to the acclamations of 5,000,000 men, who at every halt of the Czar in his entry cried, “God save the Emperor our father!”
This imposing procession increased the people’s veneration for his person, and gave him greater prestige in their eyes than all the good he had really done them. In the meantime he continued the blockade of Riga, and the generals subdued the rest of Livonia and part of Finland. At the same time the King of Denmark came with his entire fleet to attack Sweden, where he landed with 1,700 men, whom he left under the command of Count Reventlau.
At that time Sweden was governed by a regency, composed of some Senators appointed by the King at his departure from Sweden. The Senatorial body, which regarded the right of governing as their prerogative, were jealous of the regency. The State suffered from these divisions, but directly they received news at Stockholm after Pultawa, that the King was at Bender in the hands of the Turks and Tartars, and that the Danes had made an attack on Schoner and had taken the town of Elsingburg, all jealousy disappeared, and they concentrated on saving Sweden. There were now very few regulars left, for though Charles had always made his great expeditions with small armies, yet his innumerable battles for nine years, the continual necessity for recruits, the maintenance of his garrisons, and the standing army he was obliged to maintain in Finland, Livonia, Pomerania, Bremen, and Verden, had cost Sweden, during the course of the war, more than 250,000 men; there were not as many as 8,000 of the veterans who, with raw forces, were now Sweden’s only resource.
The nation is born with a passion for war, and every people unconsciously imitate their King. Nothing was discussed from one end of the country to the other but the great exploits of Charles and his generals, and of the old regiment which fought under them at Narva, Duna, Crassau, Pultask, and Hollosin. Thus the humblest of the Swedes were filled with a spirit of emulation and thirst for glory. Besides this, they loved their King, were sorry for him, and hated the Danes thoroughly. In many other countries the peasants are slaves or are treated as such; here they form part of the body politic, consider themselves citizens, and think worthy thoughts. So that in a short time these forces became the best in the North.
By order of the regency, General Steinbock put himself at the head of 8,000 veteran troops and 12,000 recruits, to pursue the Danes, who were ravaging all the country round Elsingburg, and had already put some places far inland under contribution.
There was neither time nor money to get uniforms for the soldiers; most of the country labourers came dressed in their linen smocks, with pistols tied to their girdles by cords. Steinbock, at the head of this extraordinary army, came up with the Danes three leagues from Elsingburg, on the 10th March, 1710. He intended to rest his troops some days, to entrench, and to give his raw recruits time to get accustomed to the enemy; but the peasants clamoured to fight directly they arrived.
Some officers who were there told me that they saw them almost all foaming with rage, so great is the Swede’s hatred of the Dane. Steinbock took advantage of this disposition, which is almost as effective in war as military discipline. The Danes were attacked, and the strange sight was seen—of which there are, perhaps, no two other instances—of raw forces equalling in bravery a veteran corps at the first attack. Two regiments of these undisciplined peasants cut the Danish army to pieces, and left only ten survivors.
The Danes, entirely routed, retreated under the cannon of Elsingburg. The passage from Sweden to Zeeland is so short that the King of Denmark heard of the defeat of his army in Sweden the same day at Copenhagen, and sent his fleet to bring off the remnant of his army. The Danes hastily left Sweden five days after the battle, but, being unable to bring away their horses, and not wishing to leave them to the enemy, they killed them all and fired their provisions, burning their corn and baggage, and leaving 4,000 wounded in Elsingburg. The majority of these died from the infection from the large number of dead horses, and from lack of food, which even their own countrymen deprived them of, lest they should fall into Swedish hands.
At the same time the peasants of Delecarlia, having heard in the depths of their forests that the King was prisoner in Turkey, sent a deputation to the Regency at Stockholm, offering to go, at their own expense, to rescue their master from the enemy’s hands with a force of 20,000 men. This proposal, useless as it was, was heard with pleasure, because it proved the courage and loyalty of the proposers, though it was rejected; and they gave the King an account of it, when they sent him word about Elsingburg. King Charles received this cheering news in his camp near Bender, in July 1710, just after another event which confirmed him in his hopes.
The Grand Vizir Couprougli, who was opposed to his plans, was turned out of office after he had been in the ministry two months. Charles XII’s little Court, and his adherents in Poland, boasted that he made and removed vizirs, and was governing Turkey from his retreat at Bender. But he had no hand in the ruin of this favourite.