Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 20.djvu/180

160 into a secret league with the King of Sweden, to hasten the downfall of the czar, and to convert it to his own advantage.

The king appointed the rendezvous near the river Desna. Mazeppa promised to meet him there at the head of thirty thousand men, with ammunition and provisions, and all his treasures which were immense. The Swedish army therefore continued its march on that side, to the great grief of all the officers who knew nothing of the king's treaty with the Cossacks. Charles sent orders to Löwenhaupt to bring his troops and provisions with all possible despatch into Ukraine where he proposed to pass the winter, so that, having once secured that country, he might the more easily conquer Muscovy in the ensuing spring; and, in the meantime, he advanced towards the river Desna, which falls into the Boristhenes at Kiovia.

The obstructions they had hitherto found in their march were but trifling, in comparison with those found in this new road. They were obliged to cross a marshy forest fifty leagues in length. General Lagercron, who marched before with five thousand soldiers and pioneers, led the army astray to the eastward, thirty leagues from the right road. It was not till after a march of four days that the king discovered the mistake. With great difficulty they regained the main road; but almost all their artillery and wagons were lost, being either stuck fast, or quite sunk in the mud.

At last, after a march of twelve days, attended with so many vexatious and untoward circumstances, during which they had consumed the small