Imperial character while in camp, for in this instance, while the men

were formed in array, and before the battle commenced, he rode to and

fro along their lines, encouraging the men, and promising, as their

sovereign, to bestow rewards upon them in proportion to the valor which

they should severally display in the coming combat.

The King of Sweden, too, was raised from his couch, placed upon a

litter, and in this manner carried along the lines of his own army just

before the battle was to begin. He told the men that they were about

to attack an enemy more numerous than themselves, but that they must

remember that at Narva eight thousand Swedes had overcome a hundred

thousand Russians in their own intrenchments, and what they had done

once, he said, they could do again.

The battle was commenced very early in the morning. It was complicated

at the beginning with many marches, countermarches, and manoeuvres, in

which the several divisions of both the Russian and Swedish armies, and

the garrison of Pultowa, all took part. In some places and at some

times the victory was on one side, and at others on the other. King

Charles was carried in his litter into the thickest of the battle,

where, after a time, he became so excited by the contest that he

Insisted on being put upon a horse. The attendants accordingly brought

a horse and placed him carefully upon it; but the pain of his wound

brought on faintness, and he was obliged to be put back in his litter

again. Soon after this a cannon ball struck the litter and dashed it

to pieces. The king was thrown out upon the ground. Those who saw him

fall supposed that he was killed, and they were struck with

consternation. They had been almost overpowered by their enemies

before, but they were now wholly disheartened and discouraged, and they

began to give way and fly in all directions.

The king had, however, not been touched by the ball which struck the

litter. He was at once raised from the ground by the officers around

him, and borne away out of the immediate danger. He remonstrated

earnestly against being taken away, and insisted upon making an effort

to rally his men; but the officers soon persuaded him that for the

present, at least, all was lost, and that the only hope for him was to

make his escape as soon as possible across the river, and thence over

the frontier into Turkey, where he would be safe from pursuit, and

could then consider what it would be best to do.

The king at length reluctantly yielded to these persuasions, and was

borne away.

In the mean time, the Czar himself had been exposed to great danger in

the battle, and, like the King of Sweden, had met with some very narrow

escapes. His hat was shot through with a bullet which half an inch

lower would have gone through the emperor's head. General Menzikoff

had three horses shot under him. But, notwithstanding these dangers,

the Czar pressed on into the thickest of the fight, and was present at

the head of his men when the Swedes were finally overwhelmed and driven

from the field. Indeed, he was among the foremost who pursued them;

and when he came to the place where the royal litter was lying, broken

to pieces, on the ground, he expressed great concern for the fate of

his enemy, and seemed to regret the calamity which had befallen him as

if Charles had been his friend. He had always greatly admired the

courage and the military skill which the King of Sweden had manifested

in his campaigns, and was disposed to respect his misfortunes now that

he had fallen. He supposed that he was unquestionably killed, and he

gave orders to his men to search every where over the field for the

body, and to guard it, when found, from any farther violence or injury,

and take charge of it, that it might receive an honorable burial.

The body was, of course, not found, for the king was alive, and, with

the exception of the wound in his heel, uninjured. He was borne off

from the field by a few faithful adherents, who took him in their arms

when the litter was broken up. As soon as they had conveyed him in

this manner out of immediate danger, they hastily constructed another

litter in order to bear him farther away. He was himself extremely

unwilling to go. He was very earnest to make an effort to rally his

men, and, if possible, save his army from total ruin. But he soon

found that it was in vain to attempt this. His whole force had been

thrown into utter confusion; and the broken battalions, flying in every

direction, were pursued so hotly by the Russians, who, in their

exultant fury, slaughtered all whom they could overtake, and drove the

rest headlong on in a state of panic and dismay which was wholly

uncontrollable.

Of course some escaped, but great numbers were taken prisoners. Many

of the officers, separated from their men, wandered about in search of

the king, being without any rallying point until they could find him.

After suffering many cruel hardships and much exposure in the

lurking-places where they attempted to conceal themselves, great

numbers of them were hunted out by their enemies and made prisoners.

In the mean time, those who had the king under their charge urged his

majesty to allow them to convey him with all speed out of the country.

The nearest way of escape was to go westward to the Turkish frontier,

which, as has already been said, was not far distant, though there were

three rivers to cross on the way--the Dnieper, the Bog, and the

Dniester. The king was very unwilling to listen to this advice. Peter

had several times sent a flag of truce to him since he had entered into

the Russian dominions, expressing a desire to make peace, and proposing

very reasonable terms for Charles to accede to. To all these proposals

Charles had returned the same answer as at first, which was, that he

should not be ready to treat with the Czar until he arrived at Moscow.

Charles now said that, before abandoning the country altogether, he

would send a herald to the Russian camp to say that he was now willing

to make peace on the terms which Peter had before proposed to him, if

Peter was still willing to adhere to them.

Charles was led to hope that this proposal might perhaps be successful,

from the fact that there was a portion of his army who had not been

engaged at Pultowa that was still safe; and he had no doubt that a very

considerable number of men would succeed in escaping from Pultowa and

joining them. Indeed, the number was not small of those whom the king

had now immediately around him, for all that escaped from the battle

made every possible exertion to discover and rejoin the king, and so

many straggling parties came that he soon had under his command a force

of one or two thousand men. This was, of course, but a small remnant

of his army. Still, he felt that he was not wholly destitute of means

and resources for carrying on the struggle in case Peter should refuse

to make peace.

So he sent a trumpeter to Peter's camp with the message; but Peter sent

word back that his majesty's assent to the terms of peace which he had

proposed to him came too late. The state of things had now, he said,

entirely changed; and as Charles had ventured to penetrate into the

Russian country without properly considering the consequences of his

rashness, he must now think for himself how he was to get out of it.

For his part, he added, he had got the birds in the net, and he should

do all in his power to secure them.

After due consultation among the officers who were with the king, it

was finally determined that it was useless to think for the present of

any farther resistance, and the king, at last, reluctantly consented to

be conveyed to the Turkish frontier. He was too ill from the effects

of his wound to ride on horseback, and the distance was too great for

him to be conveyed in a litter. So they prepared a carriage for him.