Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 20.djvu/193

Rh to ourselves Poltava on the north, the camp of the King of Sweden on the south, stretching a little towards the east, his baggage about a mile behind him, and the river Poltava on the north of the town, running from east to west.

The czar had passed the river about a league from Poltava, towards the west, and was beginning to form his camp.

At break of day the Swedes appeared before the trenches with four iron cannons for their whole artillery; the rest were left in the camp, with about three thousand men, and four thousand remained with the baggage; so that the Swedish army which advanced against the enemy, consisted of about one and twenty thousand men, of which about sixteen thousand only were regular troops.

The generals Renschild, Roos, Löwenhaupt, Slipenbak, Horn, Sparre, Hamilton, the Prince of Würtemberg, the king's relative, and some others who had been present at the battle of Narva, put the subaltern officers in mind of that day, when eight thousand Swedes defeated an army of eighty thousand Muscovites in their intrenchments. The officers exhorted the soldiers by the same motive, and as they advanced they all encouraged one another.

Charles, carried in a litter at the head of his infantry, conducted the march. A party of horse advanced by his orders to attack that of the enemy; and the battle began with this engagement at half past four in the morning. The enemy's horse was posted towards the west, on the right side of the Russian camp. Prince Menzikoff and Count