tween the Bug and the Dnieper, and some islands
in the Archipelago, and Austria would annex the Turkish province
adjoining its territory. If the Turk should be expelled from Europe,
the old Byzantine Empire was to be reestablished, and the throne
occupied by Catherine's grandson Constantine, "who would renounce all
his claims to Russia, so that the two empires might never be united
under the same scepter." Austria agreed on condition that she should
also receive the Venetian possessions in Moldavia, when Venice would
be indemnified by part of Greece.

Soon after this the sultan declared war against Russia. This took
Catherine by surprise. Other enemies sprang up: the King of Prussia
wanted Dantzig, the King of Sweden, South Finland. The latter invaded
Russia and might have marched upon St. Petersburg, for all Catherine
could collect was an army of 12,000 men. A mutiny in the camp of (p. 191)
Gustavus III, compelled him to return to Stockholm, and the opportunity
was lost. He defeated the Russians in the naval battle of Svenska
Sund, but a second engagement was to the advantage of Russia. The
French Revolution caused him to make peace, and to enter into an
alliance with Russia against the French.

In the south Russian arms were more fortunate. The Turks were defeated
in 1789, and 1790, on which occasions a young general named Souvorof
distinguished himself. Upon the death of Joseph II of Austria, his
successor Leopold made peace with Turkey at Sistova. (1791.) It was
the French revolution, which seriously alarmed every crowned head in
Europe, and which induced Catherine to follow Leopold's example at
Jassy, in January, 1792, Russia kept only Otchakof and the shore
between the Bug and the Dniester.

Poland, meanwhile, had made an earnest effort at reform. Thaddeus
Kosciusko had returned from the United States, where he had fought for
liberty and was trying to save his own country. Born in 1752, he
entered a military school founded by the Czartoryskis at the age of
twelve, and distinguished himself by attention to his studies and
duties. His father was assassinated by exasperated peasants, and he
himself was scornfully ejected by a powerful noble whose daughter he
was courting. Attracted by the struggle of a handful of colonists
against powerful England, he went to America and served with
distinction in the War of the Revolution. After seeing Great Britain
humbled and a new republic established in the New World, he ca