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Rh therefore elected king by the partisans of Sweden and Poland; and, although Rehnsköld was at first held in check by the manœuvring of Von Schulenburg, whose retreat across the Oder is famous in the annals of war, yet on his advancing to aid the czar, whom Charles was driving out of Lithuania, he was completely routed at Fraustadt (February, 1706) by his former opponent; in consequence of which defeat Augustus fell back upon Russia, and Charles, dashing rapidly across Silesia into Saxony, was there received with enthusiasm. This bold step so terrified Augustus that he sent his two principal councillors from Poland, with full powers to treat with Charles; but when the treaty had actually been signed, having been compelled during the progress of secret negotiations to assist his Russian ally at Kalisz, where Peter was victorious, he was so much elated that he declared the report that peace had been concluded between himself and Charles false in every particular. The declaration did nothing, however, to eject Charles from Saxony, of which he kept absolute possession, and in which Augustus was held in contempt and detestation. The Saxon was soon compelled to lower his pretensions, and to meet Charles in conference at Altranstädt, where peace was definitely concluded (Sept. 24, 1706). By it Augustus resigned all claims to the throne of Poland, and surrendered to the conqueror young Sobieski and the unhappy Patkul, against whom the vengeance of Charles was particularly excited, and whom he caused to be broken on the wheel. Charles now took up his residence in Saxony, and acted as though he was its sovereign, recruiting his armies from its subjects, and compelling the emperor Joseph I. of Germany, who had dispossessed his Protestant subjects of 125 churches, which had been given up to the Jesuits, to restore those which had been confiscated, and to permit the erection of six new ones. The emperor was at this time hard beset by his enemies in the war of Spanish succession, and the empire, if Sweden had joined the coalition against it, would have been in peril of total ruin. In order to avert this calamity, Marlborough was sent to visit the Swedish conqueror. The courtly talents of the handsome and polished Englishman were not exerted in vain. Charles was persuaded to withhold his aid from the coalition, and to turn the weight of his arms and military genius against Russia. In September, 1707, he invaded that country at the head of 43,000 men, marching almost by the very route which Napoleon followed with ten times the number of troops a little more than a century later, and shared almost identically the same fate. Charles crossed the Beresina at Borisov, and stormed the Russian lines at Golovtchin, wading the river Vabis, in which he sunk up to the neck, at the head of his forlorn hope. Thence he pursued the enemy with such inconsiderate haste and rashness that he involved himself and his army in forests and morasses.

His artillery was lost in the swamps, and his men died of hunger, while he was yet advancing. But he pressed resolutely onward, the enemy wasting the country before him. Gen. Löwenhaupt, who was attempting to join him with reënforcements from Sweden, was waylaid and defeated, after a desperate conflict which lasted during three days, by the czar in person, at Liesna; notwithstanding which, he succeeded in joining his master at the head of 6,000 men. Up to this time it had been the plan of Charles to strike direct at Moscow; but when he reached Smolensk he was persuaded by Mazeppa, the hetman of the Cossacks, to turn his line of march toward the Ukraine, where the hordes were not as yet reconciled to the Russian yoke, and where they had promised to aid him. But Peter laid waste the country, constantly retreating before him and refusing to deliver battle; and Mazeppa, who was proscribed, failed to aid him until he forced his way, with fearful loss of life from cold, hunger, and fatigue, in the depth of the winter 1708-'9, as far as Gadatch upon the Dnieper in lat. 52°, where he retired into winter quarters with the intention of attacking Poltava, a strong town on the river Vorskla, with an abundance of all provisions and supplies of which his army was in want, in the commencement of spring. Before that time arrived, however, his forces were so fearfully reduced that Peter, who since his defeat at Narva had completely reorganized his army, resolved to fight, and appeared at the head of 70,000 men, at the moment when Charles was about to invest the city. It so happened that while reconnoitring the advance of the enemy Charles was dangerously wounded in the thigh, and was obliged to limit his exertions on the day of battle, July 8, 1709, to issuing his commands from a litter instead of directing their manœuvres himself, and charging in person at their head. All advantages, however, without counting this, were in favor of the enemy: vast superiority of numbers, better equipment, perfect condition of men and animals, and a superb artillery. There was reason enough why the Russian should win the day, and he did so completely. Charles escaped with extreme difficulty, with a handful of followers, into Turkish territory, old Mazeppa adhering faithfully to his fallen fortunes. The last salvo was fired by Prince Maximilian Emanuel of Würtemberg, who commanded a Swedish regiment. He was taken prisoner and treated with extreme distinction by the czar. The Swedish division of Löwenhaupt was overtaken and compelled to surrender on the Dnieper, and Charles, escaping to Bender on the Dniester, a strong fortress which was then in Turkish territory, where he was hospitably received and allowed to fix his residence by the Ottoman Porte, employed the whole power and energy of his mind to bring about a war between Turkey and Russia. This he succeeded in doing, and the grand vizier, taking the field in 1711