Page:A French Volunteer of the War of Independence.djvu/315

Rh Gustavus IV was only 14 when he succeeded his father. An intense hatred of the French, or rather Napoleon, made him almost a monomaniac, and involved his country in wars with both France and Russia, with defeat and loss of territory in both cases. He was at last deposed and the throne given to his uncle the Duke of Sudermania. Gustavus wandered about Europe under the names of Comte Gottorp, or Duke of Holstein-Eutin, and after 1816 called himself simply "Gustafson," or the son of Gustavus. It is possible that he was a congenital lunatic, and his misfortunes aggravated the disease. An instance of his eccentricity is the curious advertisement which he inserted in all the leading journals of Europe previous to starting for the Holy Land. He advertised for ten travelling companions, viz., an Englishman, a Dane, a Spaniard, a Frenchman, a Hungarian, a Dutchman, an Italian, a Russian, a Swiss, and an inhabitant of Holstein-Eutin. They were all to have good certificates as to morals and character, and each was to bring 4000 florins, or at least 2000 florins, to be put into a common fund. They were all to dress in black robes,